Vegan lemon balm pesto recipe

After hosting a weekend of supper clubs, I often have a few bunches of herbs left over. This is expecially true after my Thai noodle night event. The majority of remaining herbs this time were Thai basil and lemon balm, which I've opted to make into a walnut based vegan lemon balm pesto.

I often turn to pesto when I have a glut of herbs I know I won't get around to using in time. This is also leads me to making a lot of dill pesto (my partner doesn't like dill, so I struggle to use the massive bundles I buy here).

Another reason I wanted to make this lemon balm pesto is to pair it with the tomatoes finally ripening in the garden and a slab of Julienne Bruno burrella (vegan burrata) cheese.

Ingredients

The ingredients are easy and this pesto comes together in a flash.

• Lemon balm
• Thai basil
• lemon juice
• walnuts
• nutritional yeast
• garlic
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• black pepper

Substitutions

As mentioned, I used a blend of lemon balm and Thai basil in this pesto recipe at an approximate 50/50 ratio. If you have only one or the other, that's fine; pesto is pretty forgiving to make.

Likewise, I opted for walnuts but you can use pine nuts or almonds if that's what you've got in your cupboards.

Equipment

You can make pesto with nothing more than a pestle and mortar, but it's much easier to use a food processor. For this recipe I used a 3 in one Magimix blender, which I don't recommend purchasing unless you like to clean large messes.

The reason I used a food processor instead of my Vitamix is because I wanted to ensure a more course texture.

Storage

Store the lemon balm pesto in a sealed jar or container in the fridge. It will keep for at least a week but probably longer.

Print Recipe

Vegan lemon balm pesto

You can use this pesto on pasta, with beans, in stews, on bread, in salads, and anywhere else you can think (within reason). This recipe makes a rounded ½ cup.

Equipment

• Food processor or blender

Ingredients

• 15 grams lemon balm
• 15 grams Thai basil
• 15 millilitres lemon juice 1 tablespoon
• 1 clove garlic
• 40 grams walnuts, toasted shake them around for a few minutes in a saucepan on medium heat to toast
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 30 millilitres extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Add the herbs, lemon juice, and garlic to your food processor and pulse to break down the herbs and garlic.
• Add the toasted walnuts and nutritional yeast. Continue to pulse until you achieve your desired pesto consistency.
• Add the olive oil, salt, and black pepper and pulse to combine. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if you'd like.