I love this vegan peppermint pesto during the hot summer. Try it on raw zucchini pasta or even added to your cooked grains or on top of steamed vegetables.

Peppermint Pesto Recipe Ingredients

Peppermint

This is one of the main ingredients in peppermint pesto. Cool fresh peppermint with its stimulating aroma is a popular flavouring for gum, toothpaste, and tea. This superfood is full of many health benefits from helping with digestion to increasing memory. Did you know it helps keep mosquitos away too? It adds a nice fresh taste to this peppermint pesto.

Basil

One of my favorite herbs to use in my kitchen is basil and it adds a delicious flavour to this peppermint pesto. Basil has been considered to be ‘The Oldest Herb’. It has been used for health reasons and for its distinct flavour which is delicious. Basil is full of health benefits making it a herb superfood and it has an amazing history. Learn more about The Oldest Herb Is Full of Health Benefits.

Garlic

Garlic can lower cholesterol, prevent blood clots, and lower high blood pressure. It also prevents artery-clogging plaque in its early stage by keeping cholesterol particles from sticking to artery walls. Add some garlic to your pesto, soups, stews, and salad dressing recipes to lower high cholesterol.
Sometimes it is easier to use some Organic Freeze Dried Garlic so no chopping and peeling.

Olive Oil

Olive oil is packed with health benefits from helping with weight loss to improving bine health to lowering bad cholesterol and much more. Learn all 12 of the Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Olive oil was referred to as “Liquid Gold” by the famous Greek poet Homer. If you are what you eat, what would happen if you consumed “Liquid Gold” daily? It’s one of the top oils you need in your kitchen.

We were shocked to find out that the olive oils that we thought were real authentic extra virgin olive oils were not! Read about The Olive Oil Fraud and which are the Best Real Olive oils

Walnuts

The walnuts add a good crunch to this peppermint pesto. My mom loved to cook with them. Now I know that walnuts are also highly nutritious, so much so that I consider them a superfood. They are high in omega 3 fatty acids, are a good source of protein, and are rich in minerals.

Lemon

Lemon’s health benefits are immense. To begin they are acidic to the taste but are alkaline-forming in the body. In fact, they are one of the most alkaline-forming superfoods; this makes them great for balancing highly acidic conditions in the body. Also, they are full of many health benefits that add to my pesto.

Nutritional Yeast Flakes

The nutritional Yeast Flakes add a tangy, cheesy taste to the peppermint pesto which is good since I don’t eat cheese. I add this to sauces and pesto as a replacement for Parmesan cheese. Nutritional yeast flakes are an inactive form of yeast and are a good source of protein (contain 18 amino acids and nine are essential ones that your body cannot produce). Also, are a great source of B vitamins and the minerals iron, selenium, and zinc.
Not to be confused with baker’s yeast, which is still active and can grow inside your stomach, depriving you of nutrients, or with brewer’s yeast, which is inactive but bitter.

Organic nutritional yeast is not fortified, so it does not have the same B vitamins and bright yellow color as conventional yeast flakes. Any fortified yeast cannot be organically certified. Try this very good variety of nutritional yeast: Druids Grove Organic Nutritional Yeast Flakes Kosher Certified

Also, I always use Pink Himalayan Salt which is a salt that is actually healthy for you!

Time to make this delicious peppermint pesto.

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Peppermint Pesto

I love this vegan peppermint pesto during the hot summer. Try it on raw zucchini pasta or even added to your cooked grains or on top of steamed vegetables.

Course Sauce

Cuisine gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian

Keyword basil, mint, peppermint, pesto, Vegan

Author Diana Herrington

Ingredients

1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 + 1/4 cup walnuts
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1-3 cloves garlic optional
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

In a blender combine the lemon juice and oil, blend.
Add the mint and basil leaves slowly and pulse until it just comes together.
Blend in the garlic and salt.
Now add the1/2 cup of walnuts while pulsing on and off.
Put the mixture in a jar and mix in the rest of the 1/4 cup of walnuts.
Now use the pesto on your pasta, rice or on top of steamed vegetables.

Notes

Find out more about the healthy ingredients that I used for this peppermint pesto: Mint, Basil, Walnuts, Lemon, Himalayan Salt, Garlic, Nutritional Yeast, & Olive Oil

Pesto keeps very well; it is delicious for a few days (mine seems good for at least a week) and it freezes well, too.

Note: you can use any type of mint that you want to. It does not have to be peppermint. I use chocolate mint that is growing in my garden.

Now that you have made peppermint pesto, check out these recipes.

More Delicious Pesto Recipes:

Tasty Chickweed Pesto – This chickweed pesto is vegan, is easy to make and tastes great! What is particularly great about this is that it is made with free weeds. 🙂

Arugula Pesto Dairy Free Recipe Healthy Arugula Pesto Recipe – This arugula pesto is a favourite of mine and it is great to be able to use walnuts instead of the wonderful pine nuts with are so expensive. Cheese is usually an ingredient when making a pesto recipe but there is no cheese in this pesto and it still has a cheesy flavour thanks to the Nutritional Yeast used.

Vegan Hemp Heart Pesto is Nut Free and Delicious – This hemp heart pesto is vegan, nut-free and raw. It makes lunch or dinner extra delicious. Most pestos have cheese in them which doesn’t work for those of us who eat dairy-free. I always make my pestos without the cheese. For some, it is best not to eat lots of nuts and this hemp heart pesto is perfect as the hemp hearts add flavour and texture without the nuts.

Peppermint pesto is delicious and mint in these recipes is too.

More Peppermint Recipes:

olive oil fraud — Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

Lemon Mint Salad Dressing – This a delicious and refreshing mint salad dressing.

Fresh Mint Tea is Refreshing and Energizing – This fresh mint tea is a traditional tea in many desert countries like Morocco, Turkey, and Egypt. They drink this because it is so cooling.

Cucumber Mint Mango Drink is Refreshing and Hydrating – This cucumber mango drink is so hydrating for hot summer days. Of course, it is super tasty and healthy too.