Lightened-Up Sundried Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta

Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free

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This lightened up pesto has just 1/4 cup of olive oil, but I promise you won’t know the difference . The sundried tomatoes, walnuts, and basil create an extremely flavourful pesto that goes wonderfully with pasta, sandwiches or wraps, or mixed into some grilled vegetables. Can’t have nuts? Just leave them out. The addition of the walnuts was more of an afterthought than a main ingredient.

Yield
3/4 cup
Prep Time
10 Minutes
Cook time
0 Minutes
Total Time
10 Minutes

Ingredients:

For the pesto
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 20 grams fresh basil leaves (1/2 cup packed)
  • 55 grams (about 7) oil-packed sundried tomatoes (see notes)
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 6-8 tbsp water
  • 3-4 tbsp walnuts (toasted, if preferred)
  • Fine grain sea salt + pepper, to taste (I used 1/4 tsp salt)
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
  • Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
For the pasta
  • Your choice of pasta
  • Walnuts, chopped and toasted
  • Fresh basil
  • Sundried tomatoes, chopped
  • Pesto

Directions:

  1. In a food processor, with the machine running, drop in the 2 garlic cloves to mince. Now, drop in the basil and process until finely chopped.
  2. Pour in the olive oil, with the machine running, along with the tomatoes, nutritional yeast (optional), and water (add slowly as needed). Process until mostly smooth.
  3. Pulse in the walnuts until chunky and season with salt and pepper to taste.

If using dry, non oil-packed sundried tomatoes, soak 30 grams in a bowl of water for 1-2 hours until very soft. Reserve the soaking water and use it in the pesto. I used 9 tbsp of soaking water, but you may need less or more depending on your preference.

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