Kale Pesto combines the trendy super food kale with toasted almonds and a hint of lemon to make an amazingly delicious, healthy, easy pesto recipe! Toss it with your favorite pasta for Meatless Monday, top chicken or fish, serve with vegetables……the possibilities are endless!
Kale Pesto Recipe
Inspired by my daughter-in-law Sydney, I created a kale pesto with almonds and a hint of lemon. Sydney made her own kale pesto with pasta for us for dinner this weekend and it was amazing! I’m so proud of her because when I first met Sydney she was cooking pasta in the microwave…… she’s certainly come a long way!
Kale, the trendy super food, combined with toasted almonds, the healthy nut, make for a fabulously delicious and amazingly healthy pesto! Toss it with your favorite pasta for Meatless Monday, top chicken or fish, serve with vegetables……the possibilities are endless! Refrigerate until ready to use. Make a double batch and freeze in ice cube trays for a taste of summer long after summer is gone!
Typically, a traditionally pesto is made with pine nuts, but you’ll love our pesto without pine nuts for not one, but two, reasons! The toasted almonds add a fabulous flavor to our pesto and are also much less expensive than pine nuts. Now that’s a win-win in my book!
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I love storing my pesto in these pretty jelly jars. They make beautiful gifts that everyone will love getting! Just fill jars with your homemade pesto with almonds, tie a pretty ribbon around it and bundle it up with a copy of the recipe!
Once you make your pesto, simply toss with hot pasta and chopped tomatoes for an easy pasta dinner. Or you can make a Grilled Pesto Caprese Naan Pizza for a quick summertime pizza dinner. A pasta sald tossed in pesto is especially delicious when it’s our Pesto Florentine Campanelle Pasta.
Pesto FAQ’s
How long does homemade pesto last?
Homemade pesto will last for 5-7 days in the refrigerator. Be sure to cover the pesto with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent it from oxidizing and changing color.
Does pesto freeze well?
Yes! Pesto does freeze well. I portion the pesto out into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen, I transfer the pesto cubes to plastic freezer ziplock bags. Pesto can be frozen for up to 2 months.
What goes well with pesto?
Pesto is delicious when mixed in with:
- Chicken salad
- Potato salad
- Tuna salad
- Pasta salad
- Mashed potatoes
- Rice
- Risotto
- Hot Vegetables
Ingredients you will need to make this recipe
- olive oil
- kale leaves
- grated Parmesan
- garlic cloves
- lemon zest
- kosher salt
Homemade Pesto Recipes
Pesto is one of my favorites recipes to make because it’s always so fresh tasting and brightens up anything you add it to. And I always love putting a spin on the classic basil pesto!
Traditional pesto made with fresh basil leaves! Basil Pesto is that go-to fresh pesto recipe you can always fall back on when you want a tried and true pesto flavor. I did change this up a bit and added toasted almonds as the nut and it makes a fabulously delicious Basil Pesto!
If you love pesto as much as I do then you’ll want to check out this twist on the tradition basil pesto. Pesto Florentine is made with tender baby spinach leaves, almonds, garlic and a hint of fresh lemon.
Fresh Mint Spring Pea Pesto is bursting with springtime flavors. Fresh peas and mint put a new springtime spin on the traditional pesto!
Kale Pesto combines the trendy super food kale with toasted almonds and a hint of lemon to make an amazingly delicious, healthy, easy pesto recipe! Toss it with your favorite pasta for Meatless Monday, top chicken or fish, serve with vegetables......the possibilities are endless!
- 1 cup olive oil preferably extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cups packed, stems removed, kale leaves, 3 ounces
- 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
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Pour olive oil into blender. Top with kale leaves, almonds, Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and kosher salt. Puree until blended.
Makes 1 1/2 cups pesto.
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This looks/sounds delicious! As a pesto lover, I def. Had to take a screenshot!
Thanks so much Belinda! I hope you enjoy the recipe. It’s one of my personal favorites!
Thanks Belinda! It’s one of my personal favorite recipes! Enjoy!