Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto

[This post is sponsored by my best foodie friends at Bob’s Red Mill! We’re using their Almond Flour for this recipe.]

Calling all garlic lovers!

This zippy, vibrant, bitey pesto is for y-o-u!

Oh, pesto. Honestly, my favorite way to enjoy pasta. If I had to choose, pesto would be my choice every single time.

The freshness! The herbiness! The color! The garlic! It’s all just my favorite thing.

That’s why I was beyond excited to see garlic scapes at a grocery store near me. I saw them and knew that pesto was in my immediate future.

If you’re unfamiliar with garlic scapes, don’t feel bad. This was the first time I’ve ever bought them tbh! They are the green sprouty parts of a bulb of garlic. They’re typically in-season in late spring and early summer, so I was surprised and delighted to find them at the end of

And… they’re delicious! They have a more mild raw garlic flavor, but they still deliver quite a punchy flavor that’s absolutely perfect for use in pesto.

Plus… they just look really cool (see above).

At its core, a pesto (more or less) always needs:

• Garlic
• Parmesan
• Nuts
• Olive oil
• Basil

Of course, me being me, we’re getting a lil creative with our definitions of each:

Garlic

So instead of regular ol’ garlic cloves, we’ll use our garlic scapes. Just chop off the “woody” ends and pop them into your food processor. Pulse them until they’re broken up into little chunks.

Parmesan

To keep this recipe vegan, we’re using my homemade vegan parmesan here! You may have made it before, but it’s just a mixture of Bob’s Red Mill’s Almond Flour, nutritional yeast, and salt. It takes two seconds to mix together, but it’s truly a game-changer when you want a quick, nutty dusting of a parmesan-esque topping on your favorite pastas, on vegetables, and now… in sauces!

Nuts

To be completely honest, my favorite nut for a pesto is walnuts. Walnuts may be my very favorite nut to begin with, but I think they add a really nice bitter flavor to the otherwise bright and luscious sauce.

That said, I had some raw pistachios leftover in my fridge from this recipe, and you better believe I was using them here to keep with the green theme!

Olive Oil

At the risk of sounding a wee bit pretentious, use a good extra virgin olive oil here, okay?

Since there are so few ingredients here, since you’re not cooking it, and since you’re using a good bit of it, it just… really makes a difference. I like a peppery olive oil, but feel free to use your fave.

Basil

Nothing to change here because basil is perfect in pesto. :)

Oh goodness is this pesto good. It’s very garlic-forward, but it’s also balanced thanks to a good helping of fatty ingredients like olive oil, nuts, and our homemade vegan parm.

Give it a go, and let me know what you think! And are you as big of a pesto fan as I am? Lemme know in the comments.

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