Dairy Free Pesto has no Parmesan and a much sharper garlic flavor. Of course, you can cut down on the garlic if you like; but lamb can take it. Spread this Pesto over a whole Rack of Lamb and you have a mouthwatering treat! The delicious taste of roasted lamb melts into the Pesto and results are spectacular.
I first started working on this recipe when my son was a little boy. Years later, by the time we did the photo shoot of Rack of Lamb with Pesto, he and a friend arrived in my kitchen and consumed the whole rack themselves. It was the best tribute I could have.
If you want to give the Dairy Free Pesto the vegan flavor of Parmesan, you can stir in a few tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast. It has a funky nutty flavor that can be a good Parmesan substitute. It bulks up the Dairy- Free Pesto and gives it a more mellow flavor. Enjoy
Prep time: 10 minutes
Dairy-Free Pesto
By Published: January 5, 2015
Yield:
- 1 cup
Ingredients
- 8 medium garlic cloves peeled
- 1 cup basil leaves stems removed, rinsed and tightly packed
- 1/2 cup pine nuts use unsalted sunflower seeds for those who are allergic to nuts
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast optional
Equipment
- electric food processor steel knife inserted
Directions
- Place garlic cloves in processor bowl and pulse cloves coarsely. Add basil to garlic. Pulse a few times until leaves are coarsely chopped. Add nuts and pulse again a few times. Scrape all the ingredients down from the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add lemon juice. Pulse once or twice. With the processor on, slowly pour oil through the feeding tube and process until all the ingredients are incorporated. Scrape the pesto down from the sides of the bowl again and process a minute more. I like to have a little texture in the pesto so I stop short of fully pureeing it. Scrape pesto out of processor into a small bowl. Stir in optional nutritional yeast at this point. Use Pesto right away or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
