Vegan Kale-Pesto Pasta Recipe (2024)

Nutritional yeast + miso

Violife's vegan parm is really good in pesto, so I added that. This recipe desperately needs some more savory/umami, so if vegan alt cheeses aren't your thing, I'd at least add some nutritional yeast.

Made this with almonds because of a family members allergy to cashews. Increased the crushed red pepper to 1tsp. It was very good, with a nice amount of heat and flavor.

Followed the recipe and the amount of pesto it made was substantial and good. Def used the food processor and was pretty liberal with chile-infused olive oil. Instead of using raw garlic and one clove I increased it to 6-7 garlic cloves and roasted them. The roasted garlic quantity made a big difference. I would make it again.

I (an omnivore) made this rich yet light sauce in my blender at highest speed with 1 slight bunch of kale, 1 robust bunch of basil (~thrice what’s called for), 6 cloves of garlic slow-simmered in EVOO on lowest heat until golden, 3/4t cayenne flakes, 1/2C raw cashews, ~1T white miso, ~2T fresh mozzarella, ~1/2t Trader Joe’s Mushroom Umami seasoning, and drizzled in about 1/2C pasta water to yield a velouté from heaven. Perfect on linguini with crisped shards of oyster mushrooms. ~4C yield.

Why keep only 3 days? I always have leftover and find generally food lasts longer and don't care for these guidelines.Can remaining amount be frozen if needed and still some out OK?

Given the simplicity of creating this dish I think it's pretty good, just really requires some adjusting to suit an individual's tastes. I doubled the basil and added it directly to the blender, used 4 garlic cloves and used EVOO to replace the half cup of water. I also toasted a 1/4 cup of pine nuts amd added those to the blender. Without the pine nuts the pesto would have been too bland. I served with plenty of freshly grated parmesan - it definitely needed that finishing touch.

Good but needs some tweaking. I used 1/2 hazelnuts and 1/2 sunflower seeds since I had no cashews. I added the zest of the lemon and more lemon juice and some mushroom salt. Could definitely do with some nutritional yeast and/or miso next time. That said, I will definitely be making it again and playing with it.

No pine nuts?

I added parsley and boiled the cashews and stems about twice as long as called for (until the stems were smushy). I basically just blanched the kale and parsley leaves but added the basil leaves straight to the food processor (not blender). I also added nutritional yeast and a scant tablespoon miso paste to the food processor, as well as several cloves minced, sauteed garlic. Used olive oil instead of water and added some shredded parmesan. Delicious with chopped fresh tomatoes and feta.

Given the simplicity of creating this dish I think it's pretty good, just really requires some adjusting to suit an individual's tastes. I doubled the basil and added it directly to the blender, used 4 garlic cloves and used EVOO to replace the half cup of water. I also toasted a 1/4 cup of pine nuts amd added those to the blender. Without the pine nuts the pesto would have been too bland. I served with plenty of freshly grated parmesan - it definitely needed that finishing touch.

Roast the cashews first. Agree with comments that suggest olive oil in place of the water. Added a bit of the pasta water to thin it out. Delicious.

I followed other reviewers' advice to add 2 tsp of miso. The resulting pesto/sauce was quite tasty!

I (an omnivore) made this rich yet light sauce in my blender at highest speed with 1 slight bunch of kale, 1 robust bunch of basil (~thrice what’s called for), 6 cloves of garlic slow-simmered in EVOO on lowest heat until golden, 3/4t cayenne flakes, 1/2C raw cashews, ~1T white miso, ~2T fresh mozzarella, ~1/2t Trader Joe’s Mushroom Umami seasoning, and drizzled in about 1/2C pasta water to yield a velouté from heaven. Perfect on linguini with crisped shards of oyster mushrooms. ~4C yield.

My sauce didn’t turn out like the sauce in the picture. It was granular like regular pesto.

This was really good- would suggest adding miso and nutritional yeast to give it some umami.

Added extra lemon juice. Delicious!

#uglydelicious. Great flavor but my sauce doesn't look anything like the one in the photo. Mine is more of a really tasty but gritty & watery concoction.

This recipe is dead to me. It’s boiled Kale and I’m English where boiled Brussels sprouts are tastier. I tried adding cheese and oil but it had the overwhelming taste of disappointment.

I didn’t have kale, so i boiled the basil stems and used a whole large bunch of basil instead of half cup. Pretty decent when you are craving pesto.

Instead of 1 garlic clove I used 3 plus 2 black garlics. I also doubled the pepper. Delicious!

Wonderful! Borrowed from Genevieve Ko’s fantastic broccoli pesto recipe and added 1/3 cup of olive oil. Kids and wife ate it all up!