Olive Pesto

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Olive Pesto is a chunky sauce made with green olives, herbs, and olive oil! It's great on pasta and on bread, and is perfect for a dip. All you need is a food processor and you too can have a fresh yet rich and luscious meal with this great pesto recipe.

Hey Internet, we've got a fun recipe for your today. We had recently finished making our Vegan Fish Cakes recipe and we had used olive brine to help get a fish flavor to the meat replacement. While you can buy olive brine on its own, we had picked up a big jar of green olives to get the olive juice. 

They turned out great, but now we had a big jar of olives with no brine left and we were worried they were not going to last long without it.

Thinking quickly, we whipped out our food processor and poured the olives in there. We had some basil on hand so we started testing a green olive pesto. 

A traditional pesto uses pine nuts (though we have a great cashew pesto or avocado pesto too!), but we used some of our walnuts and almonds on hand that turned into a great blend that provided the chunky bits of this olive pesto sauce. With a little lemon juice, fresh parsley, and olive oil, it made for some wonderful pasta dishes for us that night.

There's a lot of room for toppings too with this recipe. Sun-dried tomatoes and a little vegan Parmesan cheese (our favorite brand is Violife) are great additions. With these flavors, this olive pesto is something any olive lover must try!

It's sort of like an olive tapenade but more herby and definitely very pesto-like.

Oh, and if you love a good pasta recipe or want more vegan Italian recipes, try some of our best pasta recipes: vegan aglio e olio (surprise, more olives!), vegan cacio e pepe, vegan sun dried tomato pasta, vegan creamy pasta, vegan vodka sauce with pasta, vegan pasta primavera, and vegan ragu served atop your favorite pasta!

Why You Love This Olive Pesto

• 5 Minutes to Make: Add all your ingredients to a food processor and then pulse them until they are the right consistency. It will take longer to make your pasta than to make this pesto!
• Flavor Packed: With lush olives, a ton of fresh basil, and bright lemon juice, this amazing vegan pesto will have you saying yum!
• Put it on Everything: Olive pesto pasta isn't the only thing you can with this recipe! You can use pesto recipes as flavorful condiment on a sandwich (maybe a ciabatta or vegan focaccia... mmm), as a way to spice up soups and salads, as a topping on pizza, and so much more!

Ingredients

Pick up these simple ingredients the next time you're at a grocery store. See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full ingredients, instructions, and accurate nutritional information (to the best of my ability; please consult your physician or healthcare professional if you have specific dietary needs). I give substitutions for the ingredients in the section below this one, so most people can still make this recipe!

• 1-2 Cups Manzanilla Olives, Pitted: The star if the show! These guys will give our pesto the fresh, rich, slightly umami flavors that salty olives have.
• 2 Cloves Garlic: Adding that unique spiciness that fresh pressed garlic has to further punch up the flavors.
• ¼ Cups Unsalted Walnuts
• ¼ Cups Unsalted Slivered Almonds: Now, pesto is traditionally used with pine nuts, which we'll discuss using in the substitutions section. But pine nuts can be so expensive! ZardyPlants is about making veganism easy, so we decided to go with cheaper and easier-to-find walnuts and slivered almonds. They make for a great blend together that is rich and lightly crunchy.
• ½ Cup Packed Fresh Basil (1.25 oz): Basil is almost always in pesto. It adds an element that is very fresh and delicious.
• 1 Cup Loosely Packed Fresh Parsley
• ¼ Cup Lemon Juice: Another common staple of pesto, a hint of lemon adds a necessary brightness and acid to help balance out the richness of the recipe.
• ½ Cup Good Quality Olive Oil: You'll want to use an extra virgin olive oil you love for the best taste.
• 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast: Adds a cheesy flavor and can be used to thicken the pesto if it's a little loose.

Substitutions

• Olives: You could use almost any olives to make this recipe, so long as they are pitted! We don't want chunks of olive pit in our food. That said, the color of the olives will effect the color of the pesto. Your pesto will not be so green if you use black olives or Kalamata olives, but a black olive pesto or kalamata olive pesto will still be delicious! Another great green olive is buttery castelvetrano olives. They have a more mild and luscious flavor. 
• Walnuts and Almonds: Pine nuts are traditionally used but are expensive. If you still want to use them, go with ½ of them to replace both nuts. Raw cashews also work well! For a nut-free option, try some hulled raw sunflower seeds instead!
• Olive Oil: If you don't have olive oil, other. neutral flavored oils should work with this recipe. Alternatively, you could add some raw cashew butter to the pesto!

How to Make Olive Pesto

1. Add to Food Processor: Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor.
2. Pulse: Using the pulse function, gently blend up the ingredients. You want to maintain some of the chunkiness, however, use your judgment to get the consistency you want. 
3. Serve: Mix the pesto with hot pasta (cooked to al dente or however you prefer) or bread (like my homemade vegan focaccia. Add black pepper or a little salt to taste if needed.

Storage Instructions

If possible, store separately from your pasta or other food. Store it in an airtight container and refrigerate. This basil pesto should last up to five days if stored properly.

Frequently Asked Questions.

More Vegan Sauces and Spreads

• Vegan Mushroom Pâté
• Vegan Teriyaki Sauce
• Vegan Brie
• Maple Mustard Tahini Sauce
• Vegan Vodka Sauce
• Vegan Tartar Sauce
• Lemon Miso Tahini Sauce
• Vegan Garlic Aioli

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