If you’d like to eat healthier but you’re having trouble finding time to make healthy food, try making this Avocado Pesto, which is easily made from scratch without even using a blender!
Another recipe that I accidentally created as a student with very limited cooking equipment, I really believe this is a great recipe to have up your sleeve for rushed weeknight dinners or a super easy lunch.
This avocado pesto is honestly so quick and easy to make and you don’t even need a blender! As long as they’re fairly ripe, all you need to make the avocados perfectly smooth and creamy is a simple piece of cutlery: the humble fork.
Once you’ve finished mashing the avocado into a luxuriously creamy sauce, all you need to do is add a squeeze of tangy citrus, a handful of fragrant basil leaves, and a smattering of pine nuts and you’re good to go!
A little drizzle of good quality olive oil isn’t a bad idea either, neither is a touch of cheesy nutritional yeast, but the sauce will taste just as good without it.
And what’s great about this super easy avocado pesto is that it’s really healthy, and also highly customisable. It’s oil-free, you can use whatever type of pasta you want (I used brown rice penne), and you can add whatever vegetables you want.
For ease and convenience, I like add some frozen green peas when boiling the pasta, and you can also add greens like broccoli, spinach, or kale too. I then topped it off with some thinly sliced raw veg like peppery radishes, crunchy purple cabbage, sweet red peppers and nutty sugar snap peas.
You can also add chickpeas for extra protein, or whatever other protein you like. Edamame would work well too I think.
Coming together in around 20 minutes, this makes the perfect lazy weeknight dinner. Want more no-blender recipe ideas? You might like my sweet potato hummus or my lazy falafel!
Love pesto? Check out my:
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Avocado Pesto Without A Blender (Vegan + GF)
Ingredients
- 2 portions pasta of choice (gluten-free if necessary)
- Two handfuls green peas (fresh or frozen)
- Greens of choice e.g. broccoli, spinach, kale
For the pesto:
- 2 ripe avocados
- Handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
- Salt + pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
To serve (optional):
- Red peppers
- Purple cabbage
- Radishes
- Sugar snap peas
- Chickpeas
Instructions
- Boil the pasta according to instructions on the packet (add the peas and other greens too, so you can cook them with the pasta and save energy/time/washing up)
- Meanwhile, scoop avocado flesh out of the skins into a bowl and mash with a fork until a smooth paste forms (the riper they are the easier this will be)
- Add the lemon juice, basil, salt + pepper and nutritional yeast, and mix well
- Drain the pasta and peas once cooked and take off the heat
- Add the avocado pesto, to the pan and mix well
- Serve up and scatter over the pine nuts and fresh salad and chickpeas if you like
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of the products, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Mina
April 28, 2018 at 10:22 pmMade this for lunch today – it’s so simple and delicious!
Rhian Williams
April 28, 2018 at 10:25 pmThank you!
Sabina
May 27, 2018 at 9:00 pm…reading through the recipe/blog l came across the old and insensitive cliche of ‘killing two birds with one stone’ – when have you done such a deed lately and why do you think killing birds with a stone is ok?
Or that it’s alright repeating such terrible words thoughtlessly?
Please think about what you say, words have power – isn’t that the reason why you’re writing a blog?
Thank you,
Sabina
Rhian Williams
May 28, 2018 at 9:16 amHi Sabina,
Thank you so much for your feedback. I’m really sorry about my thoughtless use of that phrase – I wrote that post a couple of years ago when I wasn’t as aware about these things. I’ve amended the post, thank you once again for pointing that out, it’s really important for me to improve my readers’ experience. Sorry again and thank you for your comment.
Rhian