There is no more delicious way to eat your greens than adding them to your pesto. This Vegan Nut-Free Kale Pesto is made with nutrient-rich kale, flavourful fresh basil, sunflower seeds, and nutritional yeast! It’s super delicious, easy and quick, healthy, and lower in fat, made with less than half of the extra-virgin olive oil that most recipes use. Vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, low-fat and low-calorie. The perfect pesto! Serve it with our homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi & our Nut-Free Vegan Parmesan Cheese. Enjoy!


Pesto sauce is one of our all-time favourites. We add it to gnocchi, pasta, pizza, mini pizzas, vegan burgers, baked potatoes, etc. You need to try this Kale Pesto!


1 tiny 40 g serving of this Vegan Nut-Free Kale Pesto provides you with 89.2 kcal, 10% of the protein, 11% of the dietary fibre, 261.7% of the vitamin B1, 229.9% of the vitamin B2, 114.9% of the vitamin B3, 196.4% of the vitamin B6, 53.2% of the vitamin B12 (if using B12 fortified nutritional yeast), 23% of the vitamin C, 16% of the vitamin A, 5% of the calcium, and 5% of the iron recommended daily (based on a 2000 kcal per day diet). See more detailed nutrition facts below!


If you’re interested in more of our Vegan Pesto Recipes, we have a few:
- Pumpkin Gnocchi with Walnut Pesto – Vegan & Easy
- Vegan Pesto Sauce
- Avocado Pesto Made Entirely of Whole Foods
If you liked this recipe for Vegan Nut-Free Kale Pesto, check out our The Best Ever Texas Style Vegan Chili, our Vegan Red Cabbage Soup w/ Chunky Bratwurst Style Tofu Bites, our Swedish Style Vegan Christmas Ham, our So Delicious & Healthy Lentil Loaf made Entirely of Whole Foods, our Homemade Celebration Seitan Roast, our Mushroom Vegan Soup (Quick & Easy), our One Pot Tomato Vegan Soup with Basil Dressing, our Fluffy Homemade Vegan Bagels, our Sage&Rum Marinated Seitan Tenderloin, our Vegan Seitan Steaks (Wheat Meat), our Gluten-Free Vegan Mortadella, our Succulent Seitan Tenderloin, our Creamy Vegan Potato Gratin, and our The Best Gluten-Free and Vegan Fish & Chips. You’ll love them all!

If you’re into more Italian inspired dishes like we are, you need to check out some recipes from our cookbook that you’re going to LOVE. Here is a list of them:
- Our amazing recipe of Ravioli al Formaggio. Cheese-filled ravioli used to be one of our favourite dishes while growing up. That’s why when we went vegan, we became obsessed with veganizing this dish. Believe us, you’re going to love our creation. Homemade made from scratch vegan ravioli, filled with the most delicious and creamiest vegan cultured cream cheese, made with cashews and probiotics. Served with a super creamy, delicious, and oil-free homemade sun-dried tomato sauce.
- Our insanely delicious Pesto Lumaconi. Cheesy Pesto Stuffed Lumaconi is the perfect recipe to make for a special celebration or romantic dinner. Fancy, creamy, super delicious, and full of flavour, and yet so easy to make! Served with our Champagne Lemon Sorbet for the best evening ever!
- The Best Vegan Pepperoni Pizza, where we show you how to make the best pizza from scratch and the most delicious vegan pepperoni you’re ever going to try, also from scratch! The key to achieve the best pizza dough is the overnight fermentation. You end up with a golden, beautiful crust with the perfect amount of crunch and subtle yeasty undertones. Totally worth it! And as far as oven temperatures go – we have great results at 482ºF/250ºC and using a pizza stone (it makes a huge difference!).
- So juicy Hot Italian Sausages. If you used to love Italian style sausages, then you will love these insanely meaty and juicy vegan sausages. They are so delicious and have that spicy touch. But if you don’t like them spicy, don’t worry, simply skip the red pepper flakes! We promise you these will be the very best vegan Italian sausages you will ever have!
- Thyme & Rosemary Vegan Chicken Cutlets. This is the best Vegan Chicken that you will ever try! Completely made from scratch, the texture and flavours are just perfect, and the recipe is so easy. Fresh rosemary and thyme mixed with garlic and a little of extra-virgin olive oil take this succulent seitan chicken cutlets recipe to a whole new level.
- Vegan Caesar Salad & Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing
- Vegan Buffalo Mozzarella
- Vegan Mortadella
- Avocado Pesto & Walnut Pesto
- 4 different Vegan Cheese Sauces
- 9 different kinds of Vegan Cheeses, 4 of them Cultured with probiotics, 5-minute super melty vegan Mozzarella & Cheddar block-style cheeses, etc.
- The Best Tiramisu Cake you’re ever going to try. It’s just like the traditional Italian dessert, only in layer cake form and vegan. Rather than using ladyfingers, we are baking three layers of a light, fluffy sponge cake. The sponge is cooled and then soaked in a rich coffee syrup. The frosting is light and fluffy, yet rich at the same time. It’s made with homemade vegan mascarpone, folded together with vegan whipped cream, and a bit of cacao powder. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G
- Insanely yummy Vegan Raffaello, which we call RAFFAELLA. If you used to love Raffaelo, you will absolutely adore our vegan version. With only 6 ingredients, so rich and creamy, perfectly sweet, naturally gluten-free and grain-free, they are so addictive!
- The most delicious Vegan Basil Infused Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce (find this recipe also on the blog! Click here). Herbs love ice cream. And homemade ice cream flavoured with fresh herbs is a revelation. When sprigs of basil meet simmering (vegan) cream the result is fragrant, fresh, and irresistible. This is complimented perfectly by the vibrant strawberry sauce. We could say it’s a match made in heaven! Additionally, the ice cream is so so creamy, you won’t believe that it doesn’t contain any dairy. Absolutely no ice crystals!
- And many more!
Here you can see the photos of these delicious dishes from our cookbook:
ALL these recipes can be found in our very first cookbook ALL PLANTS: The Food You Love, The Vegan Way, which includes over 150 satisfying recipes to feed all the members of your household (including your dogs!). It’s available internationally as a hardcover on Book Depository (with free delivery worldwide), Walmart, and in many other bookstores! Yay! Click here to learn more. You can also purchase it as a downloadable e-book (pdf) in our Store (currently ON SALE!), and our Etsy Shop (also on sale there!).
Vegan Nut-Free Kale Pesto (Healthy & Low-Calorie)
Enjoy friends! If you make this recipe, please snap a photo and tag @veganvvocals and #veganvvocals on Instagram! We’d also love it if you would leave a comment below, and give the recipe a rating! Thanks so much!
Ingredients
- 200 g kale, steamed for 5 minutes & rinsed with cold water
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 50 g fresh basil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 garlic clove, minced, soaked in the lemon juice for 5 minutes. Optional!
Instructions
- Soak the minced garlic clove in the freshly squeezed lemon juice and let sit for 5 minutes.
- In a food processor, combine the steamed and rinsed with cold water kale, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, extra-virgin olive oil, water, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh basil, freshly squeezed lemon juice and optionally soaked minced garlic, and process until smooth.
- Now it's ready to be served with your favourite dishes. We love serving it with our homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi & our Nut-Free Vegan Parmesan Cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
- Store in the refrigerator, in a sealed container, for up to 5 days. After that time, if you still have leftovers, you can also freeze them and store them in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
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I LOVE this recipe. I never thought eating kale could be THIS TASTY! What an incredible recipe, thanks so much!!