This Pistachio Pesto is full of vibrant flavor and is the perfect sauce for any time of the year. It’s a great condiment to meal prep for the week in just 10 minutes and with only 5 ingredients. Use it on pasta, chicken, fish—the options are endless!
Calling all of our pesto lovers! Trust us when we say, it’s one of our favorite condiments too. While traditional pesto uses pine nuts as the rich, nutty flavor in the recipe, we swapped them out for pistachios. We first tried Pistachio Pesto at restaurant in New York City, and it was just too delicious not to develop our own version of the recipe.
This easy sauce is ideal for any week of the year, it’s a great meal prep item to have in the fridge to jazz up any boring protein or dinner—we love it on pasta, chicken, drizzled over steak, and even whisked into a vinaigrette and drizzled over a salad!
When developing our pesto recipe, I consulted the restaurant about their version and asks for any tips and tricks they’d be willing to share. To make sure our pesto was restaurant-quality, we learned it really came down to toasting raw pistachios prior to blending in the food processor, and keeping the ingredient list short and simple. We found both tips, simple as they were, to be key.
With the shortest ingredient list of just 5 ingredients, we guarantee you’ll be making this basil pistachio pesto regularly. Some of our other favorite pesto recipes are Carrot Top Pesto, Triple Herb Pesto, and Radish Greens Pesto.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- 5 Ingredient Sauce: With a short ingredient list of approachable ingredients, there’s no reason not to whip up a batch for the week to add a punch of flavor to any recipe.
- Perfect for Meal Prep: This pesto with pistachios stores for about a week in the fridge and up to two months in freezer.
- Customize to Your Liking: We use basil in this version, but you can use other greens like arugula, and herbs such as parsley, mint or chives.
- Easy to make in the food processor. Just give this sauce a quick blend in the food processor (or blender if you don’t have one), and it’s basically hands-free cooking.
Lauren’s Tip
This is the BEST meal prep tip! We love to store our pesto in an ice cube tray in the freezer. This portions the pesto into individual servings for any recipe (and makes for quick thaw-time).
Ingredients
The ingredient list is simple, which is why this is one of our favorite weeknight sauce recipes.
- Fresh Basil Leaves: The base flavor of any pesto, make sure your leaves are fresh and pack them into the measuring cup to make sure the recipe is accurate.
- Pistachios: Raw, unsalted pistachios are best here. We toast them in the recipe for a richer flavor.
- Extra-virgin olive oil: Adds the buttery smooth texture to the pesto and a decadent underlying flavor.
- Parmesan cheese: Gives a nice hint of cheesy flavor as well as a bit of saltiness to the sauce.
- Garlic: just a few small garlic cloves to add flavor without overpowering the sauce.
How to Make Pistachio Pesto
With just two steps, this really is the easiest condiment to make at home! If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender. You may need to stir the mixture frequently to combine evenly.
- Pulse the basil, pistachios, Parmesan, garlic, and salt together in a food processor until finely chopped, about 12 pulses.
- With the processor running, stream in the oil until emulsified. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
Expert Recipe Tips
- Pulse most ingredients first until finely chopped. This is so important for even mixing. Be sure to add all ingredients except the olive oil to the food processor first and pulse until finely chopped. Then stream in the olive oil after to combine.
- Toast the pistachios and cool completely. By toasting the pistachios (on the stovetop in a pan or in the oven) prior to blending, you deepen their nutty flavor and make the sauce even more decadent.
- When measuring basil leaves, pack them into the measuring cup. To make pesto correctly, be sure to pack the leaves into the cup. It will be a lot of basil, but that is right for a pesto recipe!
- Customize the pesto. You can customize this sauce with other nuts or different greens and herbs. We also love baby arugula, mint, chives, parsley or even dill.
- Make it dairy-free and vegan. Just omit the Parmesan cheese and it’s still so good! You can add vegan Parmesan if desired.
What to Serve with Pistachio Pesto
The options are truly endless, this pesto recipe goes well with so many things. It’s another reason why we love it so much! Some of our favorite recipe pairings are:
- Tri-Tip Steak Sandwich is perfect for using up leftover steak or as a picnic main dish.
- Pesto Chicken Tenders are a crowd-pleaser for a weeknight meal.
- Zucchini Noodles: For a veggie-forward main or side dish, toss this pesto with a mix of angel hair pasta on zucchini noodles.
- Salmon Pesto Pasta is one of my favorite weeknight dinners of all time. It’s easy and very fast—coming together in just 30 minutes.
Storage & Make Ahead Tips
- For storing in the fridge, simply place the pesto into an airtight container. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap touching the surface of the pesto to prevent it from oxidizing. Seal with an airtight lid and refrigerate for up to one week.
- When freezing pesto, place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to two months. Thaw on the counter until soft and spreadable, a couple of hours.
FAQs
Yes! That’s what we did in this recipe. You can use any nut you desire in pesto to change the flavors.
Similar to the traditional recipe, it uses basil, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil.
They add a warm, rich flavor as well as natural fats that help to round out all of the fresh herb flavors.
Yes, just remove the Parmesan cheese and add vegan cheese if desired.
Store it in the fridge for up to one week or freezer for up to two months.
More Easy Condiment Recipes
Pistachio Pesto
Description
Ingredients
- 2 cups packed basil leaves
- ¾ cup shelled raw pistachios, toasted and cooled
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (2 ounces)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Pulse the basil, pistachios, Parmesan, garlic, and salt together in a food processor until finely chopped, about 12 pulses.
- With the processor running, stream in the oil until emulsified. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
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Equipment
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