A simple recipe for Arugula Almond Pesto designed to enliven soups, stews, cassoulets, sandwiches, and pasta dishes. It’s vegan and made without pine nuts– adding a delicious peppery brightness to dishes you are already making!
This is one of the oldest recipes on the blog and I’m bringing it all the way to the front because of how useful I think you’ll find it. I first shared on this Heirloom Tomato Sandwich almost 10 years ago but I feel it deserves a little emphasis. Plus, I pull it out all the time at home so I thought you might want to too. 😉
Arugula Almond Pesto is bright, peppery, and complex and brings dishes you are already making, to their happy place. It really elevates!
It loves to be paired with lasagna, beans, lentils, and casserole-y things, or lathered into sandwiches, tossed with pasta, sauteed veggies or roasted veggies, or spooned over your morning eggs.
In our catering business, we found so many people had pinenut allergies, we began making our pesto without pinenuts. Almonds were the perfect substitution!
So here we are using almonds instead of pinenuts (although pine nuts are fine too), arugula, a little basil, garlic, lemon zest and olive oil.
I intentionally leave the cheese out here to keep it vegan, but feel free to add.
This arugula pesto recipe only takes about 5 minutes. Just place everything in a food processor and pulse.
It makes one cup – a small manageable batch that can easily be repurposed during the week.
One tip: Make sure your olive oil is light and not overly bitter. The arugula adds its own bit of bitterness, but you’ll find it will mellow out after an hour or so, and when combined with food is quite pleasant.
To freeze the arugula pesto, place it in a small jar, cover the pesto with a thin layer of lemon juice to preserve its vibrant color. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Hope you enjoy this simple recipe for Arugula Almond Pesto! Let us know how you use it!
xoxo
Sylvia
Use Arugula Pesto on:
- Heirloom Tomato Basil Sandwich
- Simple Tomato Soup
- Tomato Zucchini Gratin
- Lentils with Blistered Tomatoes and Kale
- Simple Roasted Vegetables
- Bucatini Pasta with Arugula Pesto & Heirloom Tomatoes
- Brothy Tortellini Soup w/ Spinach, White Beans & Basil
- Farmers Market Vegetable Soup
Arugula Almond Pesto
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup
- Category: sauces, condiments,
- Method: blended
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A delicious easy recipe for Arugula Almond Pesto designed to enliven soups, stews, cassoulets, sandwiches and pasta dishes. It’s vegan and made with almonds, basil and lemon zest adding a peppery brightness to dishes you are already making!
Ingredients
- 1 large garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup toasted almonds, pinenuts or smoked almonds
- 1/2 cup packed basil leaves
- 1 cups packed arugula
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/3–1/2 cup light flavored olive oil(make sure oil is not bitter)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (if your almonds are heavily salted, use salt to taste.)
- 1/4 cracked pepper
Keywords: arugula pesto, almond pesto, vegan pesto, dairy free pesto, how to freeze pesto, pesto without pine nuts, pesto with almonds
I am wondering if I can substitute cilantro for angular and use chopped walnuts instead of pine nuts. I”ll try this and let you know how this turns out. Thank you Sylvia! Your’s is my “go to” cooking website!
★★★★★
I think cilantro and walnuts would taste good- different form this, but tasty!
What can I substitute for fresh basil? It’s February – no fresh basil in sight. Can I substitute dried basil and increase the volume of fresh arugula leaves?
You could try but the fresh basil really makes it.
Hi, as a home gardener, I make a similar recipe using lettuce leaves (we often have a glut of one thing or another that I try to use up as best I can). A combo of lettuce, arugular, and celery leaves works great too.
By the way, arugular is called rocket in Australia!
Thanks for all your great recipes
This was fantastic. Great flavor and I didn’t miss the cheese at all. I chose to add a little more garlic, but it really didn’t need it. Thanks for the recipe!
Hello! Love your blog and recipes! Does the oil have to be light or would avocado oil work?
★★★★★
Avocado is fine as long is it not bitter.
I enjoy every recipe that I’ve tried from your blog!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Shelley!
Good morning Sylvia, I just want you to know that I am loving your blog and recipes! Several have become regulars but the problem is I have been putting on weight!!! I made your Indian Vegetarian Sheperd’s Pie 2 days ago and it was delicious. I never was a lentils fan, but I have found the path….thanks also for your inspirational quotes, Kathy
Thanks Kathleen!