The best gluten-free vegan pesto pasta

I’m going to call it, this is the best vegan pesto around. It is also extremely simple and can be pulled together in the shortest amount of time. You know how that saying goes, hey presto, it’s pesto – well, it’s true.

When I first changed my diet, one of my first thoughts were that I hadn’t had enough time with real pesto in my life. That’s right, it was up there with the fact that I would never eat meat again. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me. I was determined to still enjoy it and set out to conquer a recipe for vegan pesto.

Remember when you bought nutritional yeast to make my scrambled tofu? Well, it’s time to pull it out of the pantry again (although I really hope you have used it since) because it’s the hero of vegan pesto. Seriously, you can’t have good pesto without it.

You’ll find it hard to turn back to regular pesto after tasting this one.

Gluten-free vegan pesto pasta
Serves 4-6

1 cup fresh basil
1 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup cashews
1 tbsp garlic granules
1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
500g gluten-free vegan pasta
12 cherry tomatoes, halved

Cook pasta as per packet directions. Gluten-free pasta usually cooks in around eight minutes (for al dente).

Add basil, nutritional yeast, spinach, pine nuts, cashews, garlic granules, olive oil and salt to a food processor and blend until combined. Adjust seasonings to taste then mix the pesto through the cooked pasta, spoonfuls at a time.

Once you have reached your desired pesto to pasta ratio, add the cherry tomatoes then serve.

Any leftover pesto can be stored in the fridge, but let it sit at room temperature before eating as the oil may solidify from being refrigerated.