Parsley Pesto
If you love pesto, you’re going to love Parsley Pesto. Parsley pesto is a spin on traditional pesto and is similar to the Kale Pesto Recipe.
Best, you’ll need 5 ingredients: parsley, walnuts, garlic, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. And you’ll be amazed at how yummy it tastes.
Parsley Pesto
While store-bought pesto (mostly basil pestos) can be nice, I’ve often found that making pesto at home is one of those things I love to do myself.
There are so many uses for pesto. Serving it as a side with Roasted Salmon is just one idea. Another classic use is pasta and pesto.
Ingredient Notes
PARSLEY – I used flat-leaf parsley, but you can also use curly-leaf parsley.
WALNUTS These are pre-chopped and don’t contain any added salt.
GARLIC – For this recipe, you’ll want fresh garlic. If you are serving this for a mixed company, you can omit it.
PARMESAN CHEESE – If you can, use freshly grated parmesan cheese. It’s more flavorful and doesn’t have any of the unwanted fillers you’ll get with pre-shredded parm.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Using top-quality olive oil is going to enhance the flavor of your pesto. Good olive oil is flavorful, pungent sometimes with grassy, herb, or fruity notes.
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How to Make Pesto Parsley
- Combine fresh parsley, walnuts, garlic, parmesan, and extra virgin olive oil in your favorite food processor.
- Run the processor high until the ingredients turn into a smooth pesto.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Tips For Success
STORAGE – If you are new to making homemade pesto, you’ll want to know how long it lasts. The answer is about 4 to 5 days. If you’ve made a big batch, you can freeze it, extending the shelf life to several months.
One neat way of freezing pesto is to fill it into an ice cube tray. Pop the tray into the fridge, and once the parsley pesto is frozen, pop the pesto cubes into a freezer bag. This works great if you plan to use the pesto as a later pasta sauce. It’s a great method to keep portion control in check.
Substitutions
If you don’t like walnuts, you can substitute pine nuts. But I mostly use walnuts for all my pesto because the chances that I’ll have a bag of walnuts in our fridge are higher than a bag of pine nuts.
The fridge, you wonder? Yes, I began storing all my nuts in the fridge a few years ago. The reason is that nuts have a high percentage of oil and can become rancid more quickly, especially during warm summer months.
Another alternative for walnuts is to use almonds or cashews.
MAKE IT NUT-FREE – If you are trying to avoid nuts, you can use pepitas or sunflower seeds instead of walnuts.
MAKE IT VEGAN– Yes!!! You can easily make a vegan pesto. I recommend using cashew nuts (they become very creamy) and nutritional yeast (instead of parmesan cheese). This recipe is good if you want to make a traditional vegan pesto.
NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS – Parsley is high in antioxidants, can improve heart health, and has cancer-fighting properties.
Walnuts are also rich in antioxidants and a good source of plant-based Omega-3s. Among the many health benefits, walnuts may help a healthy gut, lower blood pressure, and reduce inflammation.
Shop The Tools
FOOD PROCESSOR – This one will do the job. If you’re looking for a more powerful food processor, you’ll love this one.
CHEESE GRATER – You can always buy shredded parmesan, but remember that it’s more expensive, and the quality isn’t as good as when you buy a block of parmesan cheese. Pre-shredded Parmesan tends to also include extra fillers to maintain freshness.
Ideas to Use Parsley Pesto
- CRACKERS – Serve your parsley pesto as a dip with crackers.
- BAKED POTATOES – You can add a tablespoon of fresh pesto to your baked potatoes (I even like to top a dollop of pesto on a hard-boiled egg).
- PASTA – Simply mix it into fresh pasta (we love it with fresh linguine)
- PIZZA SAUCE – Are you tired of traditional red pizza sauce? Replace it with some fresh parsley pesto.
- DEVILED EGGS – Yes, deviled eggs! Perfect as a Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day snack!
- SANDWICHES – Works great as a spread for tons of sandwiches.
- STEAK – serve your favorite steak with a small side of pesto … and a baked potato -> delish!
You can add pesto to a creamy white pasta sauce like our Alfredo sauce.
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Parsley Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 cups parsley fresh
- ½ cup walnuts
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ cup parmesan cheese grated
- ½ cup olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
- Combine fresh parsley, walnuts, garlic, and parmesan, and extra virgin olive oil in your favorite food processor.
- Process all ingredients on high until they have combined.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Nutritional Information
Nutritional Disclaimer
Cheerful Cook team members are not trained nutritionists or medical professionals. Calorie information and nutritional values are estimates. If you have nutritional concerns, we recommend using a nutritional calculator.
Maike Corbett grew up in German kitchens learning to cook and bake alongside her Omas before spending over a decade running full-service restaurants in the US. She founded Cheerful Cook in 2017 to share practical, tested comfort food recipes that actually work on busy weeknights, drawing on both her American restaurant experience and her German home-cooking roots. Her work has been featured on MSN, Yahoo, the Associated Press, and other major media outlets.
Looks delish, can’t wait to try this.
Quick and easy, wonderful recipe for pasta, chicken, sandwich spread, etc. Isn’t as stong as basil pesto to me, so I find lots of alternative uses for it.