Recently, I’ve been wanting to make my own pesto sauce again, but was a bit alarmed when I found that most recipes require at least 1/4 of olive oil plus a handful of nuts. While I have no aversion to olive oil or nuts, I wanted to find a lighter version so that I could eat it any time without feeling too heavy. I found a delicious low-fat pesto sauce made by Bolani, East & West Gourmet Afghan Food. If you’ve ever been to a farmers market in Northern California, you will have seen them before passing out tons of free samples of their bolani, sauces, and dips (an excellent sales strategy, by the way). Their sauces are great, but at $6 per tub, they can get pricey pretty soon. So I decided to make a skinny pesto sauce of my own.
The Challenge: Make My Own Skinny Pesto Sauce
I found an oil-free pesto recipe on eat, live, run and adjusted the recipe a bit.
Skinny Pesto Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 TBS white miso paste
- 2 TBS freshly grated parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast
- 2 TBS sliced almonds
- 3 TBS water, you can use more or less water
- lemon juice from 1/4 of a lemon
Instructions
- Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add the water gradually to make sure that you get the right consistency.
- Enjoy!
The Verdict: Pretty Good
I quite enjoyed this pesto. I thought that the miso paste was a bit too strong, so I added almonds in there to neutralize the taste. The original recipe did not call for any almonds. Next time, I will use only 1.5 TBS miso paste.
I used this sauce for my zucchini and summer squash noodles for dinner.
Yum!
Kristin says
Yummy!! I LOVE pesto sauce so thank you so much for this recipe and for this delicious looking post!!
Lisa says
That’s awesome! Glad I could help!
Joey Levin says
I adored Bolani’s Basil Pesto but cannot find it anymore in SoCal. Is your recipe similar in calories?
Lisa Lin says
Hi, Joey! I’m not sure how this pesto compares in terms of calories but my recipe does use less oil than many other pesto recipes I’ve seen. I don’t think I’ve answered your question completely but I hope it helps!
Ariana - Perez says
Tried this tonight with pistachio nuts instead (all we had on hand) and vegetable broth instead of water and it was outstanding thank u!!
Lisa Lin says
Ariana, thank you so much for trying this recipe! I LOVE the idea of adding pistachios to this! Glad you enjoyed it!