Kale Pesto and Macaroni – Gluten Free

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Pesto is just a great tasting dish. I’ve made various versions of pesto before, but I thought to try my hand at a better version that I could make and eat with noodles, but that can also stand on its own. Enter vegan kale pesto, making this dish perfect for a noodle side, dip or to eat on its own!

This different between this kale pesto and others is that I very lightly steamed half the kale before making the pesto. This allowed for a better flavor and also gave me the option to mix steamed kale into the dish on its own!

You can use any noodle you like, I just happened to have gluten free macaroni in my house, so that’s what I used. This would taste delicious with linguini or spaghetti noodles.

So without further ado…let us begin!

You will need:

4 cups of kale
2 cups of fresh basil
1 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup extra virgin organic olive oil
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp sesame seeds
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tbsp)
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste
any type of noodle you want

Step 1:

Prepare the noodles according to package directions.

With a pot, very lightly steam 2 cups of chopped kale. Make sure to steam it before the kale completely withers. Remove the kale from the stove, and add half of the kale to your high powered blender.

Step 2:

In your high powered blender or food processor, add all of the rest of the ingredients. If you are not sure about the size of your lemon and juice, add a little bit of juice first, then add more after you taste it. You don’t want too tangy of a pesto

Pulse-blend all ingredients together until mixture is blended but still a bit chunky. Add to a bowl and wait until your noodles are done

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Step 3:

This dish is so simple, the longest thing that will take to prepare is the noodles. Once the noodles are done, drain the water and add to a bowl. Add the remainder of the steamed kale on top first, then add your pesto mix.

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