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 your homemade pesto with your favorite pasta for Meatless Monday, top chicken or fish, toss with vegetables. The possibilities are endless!
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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.
You can make the pesto with kale ahead and refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.
I love to make a double batch and freeze it 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.
These jars 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 it 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 salad tossed in pesto is especially delicious when it's our Pesto Florentine Campanelle Pasta.
Be sure to visit the Swirls of Flavor Amazon Storefront for GG's personal kitchen recommendations!
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How to make homemade pesto
Scroll down for the full recipe instructions and ingredient amounts in the recipe card below
- Pour olive oil into the blender.
- Top with kale leaves, almonds, Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and kosher salt.
- Puree until blended.
Recipe Tips
- Make a double recipe and freeze some of the pesto.
- Freeze pesto in ice cube trays or silicone freezer trays for small servings
Substitutions
- A good substitute for kale is spinach
- Arugula is a kale substitute too
- You can replace the almonds with your favorite nut
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
Learn all about pesto, what does pesto taste like, how to make it, store it and even freeze it, along with lots more pesto recipes!
Ingredients
Kale pesto ingredients:
- 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
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Ingredients
- 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 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
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Instructions
- Pour olive oil into blender. Top with kale leaves, almonds, Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and kosher salt. Puree until blended.
Thanks for coming and linking up at #The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST The Midnight Baker ! I hope to see you there!
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Happy to be a part of #The Weekend Social! See you next week!
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!