When it's not yet summer and the craving for a delicious, fresh, vibrant pesto strikes, make this simple vegan dill artichoke pesto. Nutty artichoke hearts do a tango with citrusy dill, spicy garlic and creamy walnuts. Tie all the flavors together with a glug of extra virgin olive oil.
One of my secrets to making a healthy, delicious meal in no time at all is to always have a jar of pesto handy. You can use it as a spread for sandwiches and wraps or mix it with a pasta or, if you're feeling indulgent, smear it on bruschetta for an appetizer.
In summer, I make and freeze jars of my favorite vegan basil pesto that I can enjoy during the winter. But by this time of year, with spring about to begin its march across the northern hemisphere and with my basil pesto from last summer long gone, I turn to some of my favorite panty ingredients - and some early spring produce - to make my vegan dill artichoke pesto.
This is a delicious sauce with jarred artichoke hearts, fresh dill, and other traditional pesto ingredients like garlic, nuts and a few red pepper flakes for spice. Nutritional yeast adds a bit of cheesy flavor and extra virgin olive oil helps blend the pesto and adds to it tons of nutrition and flavor.
Table of Contents
Recipe card
Vegan Dill Artichoke Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 cup artichoke hearts (jarred. Drain out all oil but don't rinse the artichoke hearts.)
- 1 cup fresh dill (trim any tough stems and chop the dill fronds roughly.)
- 3 cloves garlic
- ½ cup walnuts (lightly toasted)
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor.
- With the feed tube open, run the food processor on high speed while drizzling in the olive oil. Blend until a coarse paste forms. Turn off food processor and store the pesto in an airtight jar.
Nutrition Information
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Ingredient notes
- Artichoke hearts. Use jarred artichoke hearts marinated in oil. These have the best flavor and the correct texture for pesto. Drain the artichoke hearts of any excess oil but don't rinse them.
- Dill. The fronds should be fresh, rich green, and healthy. Avoid brown or wilted greens. Trim the thick stems.
- Garlic. I use lots of garlic - four cloves - and it's perfect. You can tweak the amount up or down to your taste.
- Walnuts. These healthy nuts add creaminess and more flavor to the pesto. You can use pecans or cashews or pine nuts as a substitute.
- Nutritional yeast (optional). The yeast adds cheesy flavor. You can either omit it or swap it out with two tablespoons white miso or ¼ cup of my vegan parmesan cheese.
- Red pepper flakes. You can skip the red pepper and use only ground black pepper instead. Tweak the amount to your liking.
- Lemon. Lemon adds lovely tang to the artichoke pesto. Marinated artichoke hearts already have some tang to them so if you want to use more lemon do so after tasting. You can also toss in the lemon zest for more fresh, lemony flavor.
- Extra virgin olive oil. The oil ties in the flavors and also balances them. Use the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can find.
Step by step instructions with photos
Hold the olive oil and place all ingredients - artichokes, dill, walnuts, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, ground black pepper and lemon juice - in a food processor bowl.
With the feed tube open, run the food processor on high speed while drizzling in the olive oil. Blend until a coarse paste forms. Turn off food processor and store the pesto in an airtight jar.
Recipe FAQs
You can, but you will need to braise them or roast them until they are tender before processing into a pesto.
Use a long pasta like spaghetti or linguini or anything with ridges, like penne rigate or rotini, that allows the pesto sauce to cling to it.
The pesto sauce is gluten-free and if you want to make the pasta gluten-free, use a gf pasta or chickpea or edamame pasta.
You can use an equal amount of parsley in the recipe instead of dill.
More yummy pesto recipes
- Vegan fennel fronds pesto. This fresh, delicious pesto sauce uses greens that you might otherwise throw away, and it packs a sound nutritional punch.
- Vegan carrot top pesto. Again, this is a great use for greens you might just trim off, and it tastes amazing!
- Vegan mint pesto. A great way to eat those armloads of mint that will show up in spring.
- Vegan beet pesto. A simple pesto sauce with golden beets that looks and tastes gorgeous!
Recipe first shared on Jan. 12, 2008 under the title "vegan pasta with dill artichoke pesto."
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