Keto Basil Pesto
The mean green pesto machine
For keto, or even otherwise, Pesto is an incredible condiment to have on hand – it’s great on pizza, pasta, meat, fish etc. This basil and parsley pesto sauce recipe comes together in literally seconds and features everyday ingredients. Plus it has plenty of fat in it if you’re on the ketogenic diet. Toss it with zucchini spaghetti, turn it into a chicken pesto bake, drizzle it on salads, add it to sauces, eat it as is in a caprese salad… tell us how you’re using your pesto.
The perfect fat bomb
At 16 grams of fat per serving, it’s da bomb on Keto. Of course if you aren’t on Keto just use less oil when making it and use it in moderation. I’ve even made a keto vegan pesto without cheese. Sometimes I like to throw a spoon of pesto into my scrambled eggs, that’s kind of how I invented my ‘green eggs’ from the green eggs and ham recipe. I also find that if you trying to keep your carbs low, it’s a great replacement for my Keto marinara sauce on your pizza recipes.
Nutrition Info (Per serving)
- Calories: 142
- Net Carbs: 0g
- Carbs: 0g
- Fat: 16g
- Protein: 2g
- Fiber: 0g
This recipe makes 12 servings. 1 Serving = about 15 grams. Get this recipe on myfitnesspal.
Keto Basil Pesto
Ingredients
- 30 grams Parmesan cheese
- 20 grams Pine Nuts I recommend these
- 5 grams Fresh Garlic
- 30 grams Parsley
- 50 grams Basil
- 3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil I recommend this one
- Lemon/Lime Juice
- Salt to Taste
Instructions
- Grate the Parmeasn cheese and blend along with the pine nuts and garlic
- Add in the parsley, basil, olive oil, lemon juice and salt
- Blend to a smooth paste.
- Store in the fridge, Use in pasta and even on pizza.
Dear Sahil,
My name is Lelio, I’m just start to try some of your recipes and I love them!!
I’m Italian and I often go to the region where the original pesto came from, so I have the opportunity to compare different pesto recipes with the original one.
If you are interested in a recipe that come closer to the original one, you can try this one:
3-4 (pasta) serving:
half garlic glove
25 grams of pinenut
50 grams of parmesan
50 grams of extra virgin olive oil
50 grams of Basil
I crush garlic, pinenut and parmesan with half of the oil in a blender. This mix is already pretty tasty!
Then I add basil and the rest of the oil and I crush it a little less fine.
Thanks a lot for you work!
P.S. The original recipe has half parmesan and half pecorino cheese, but is quite good with parmesan alone. 😉
Also the servings number are calculate base on a pasta dish. As a topping you can count easily to 12 serving as you did.
hey thank you so much for this! Much appreciated.
Hi Sahil, I wanted to try your pesto, but otheringredient like parmesan cheese is costly for me here in our country, is cheddar cheese can be an alternative? And the peanut for pinenuts, I cannot find pinenuts here?
Your fan,
Sweetjoi ?
hey you can skip the cheese part and just add cheddar in your keto pasta and stuff directly and instead of pine nuts use walnuts.
Do I soak and peel the walnuts or can I use them directly? Also, is the quantity going to be the same as pine nuts? Thanks in advance!
I would do it with the skins directly, I’m not fussy but you can soak and peel them if you like. And yes same quantity.
Hi, I am a bit confused as we call the yellow Lemon as Lemon but you seem to call it Lime juice. Here in the US we have 2 varities, Green, which we call Lime (they are smaller) and Yellow, that we call Lemons (they are bigger). If you could clarify that,, it would be great.
Thanks so much for your recipes, so easy to make as I am challenged when it comes to cooking. :-((
You want the Yellow Lemon
Hi, Sahil! This recipe looks fantastic. However, my husband can’t eat pine nuts or walnuts. In the past, I’ve used unsalted sunflower seeds as a replacement in pestos — do you think that would work well here?
Yes it will work for sure.
Hi Chef ! I have heard that Pine nuts are not great for Keto…are you sure they have 0 Carbs ? I doubt that…
Check this visual guide by Keto doctor >
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/nuts
Arnaud, so we use a small amount of them in this recipe and it’s broken up into a lot of servings so the carbs per serving is less than once hence not shown. It’s 9 net carbs in 100 grams. Mine calls for 20 grams which means that’s 1.8g of net carbs in this recipe. Now divide that 1.8 grams over 12 servings which is 0.15g of net carbs per serving of pesto. Hope that clears it up.
How long will this will last in the fridge please?
Mine lasted about 2 weeks.