The BEST Avocado Pesto

5 from 1 vote

This Avocado Pesto is one of my favourite green pasta sauces to make. It takes 5 minutes to make and only requires 6 ingredients.

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: European

Servings: portions

Calories: 548kcal

Author: Emily Roz

Ingredients

30g fresh basil leaves
50g pine nuts
2 garlic cloves sliced
50g parmesan cheese grated
150ml extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe avocado
100ml water optional
300g pasta cooked and drained

Instructions

Place a non-stick frying pan on medium heat and add in your sliced garlic and pine nuts. Toast for 3 minutes, tossing frequently until the pine nuts turn a golden brown.
Place your toasted pine nuts and garlic, basil, grated parmesan cheese, avocado, olive oil, a pinch of salt and grind of pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth. If the blender is struggling, add some water.
Once the avocado pesto is blended, taste and season with salt, pepper, or for acidity, a bit of lemon juice (I'd recommend starting with ½ tablespoon and then blending again before tasting).
Cook your pasta (4 portions) in salted boiling water and then once it's al dente, combine in a pan with your avocado pesto on low heat. Once combined, serve up with a sprinkling of parmesan, pine nuts, and optional squeeze of lemon.

Notes

Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.

To double quantity: This recipe can be doubled to make the dish for 8 people.

Storage: Avocado goes brown when oxidised, so to avoid this from happening, squeeze some lemon into the avocado pesto (if you haven't done so already), and combine. This should stop it from browning. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. If combined with pasta, store in an airtight container for up to 4 days too.

Freeze: I wouldn't recommend freezing this pasta sauce.

Reheat: Place the avocado pesto pasta into the microwave with a dash of water to ensure the mixture stays moist. If you're heating up the avocado pesto alone, then add it into a saucepan with your freshly cooked pasta until piping hot.

Top Tips:

If you're buying a whole basil plant for this recipe, transfer the basil plant into a larger pot and cover with soil. Cut off any basil leaves you need for the recipe and then continue to water the plant - it should regrow leaves in no time!
If you like a less creamy and more bitty pesto, then you can combine all the ingredients in a pestle and mortar to your desired consistency.
If you don't want to use too much extra virgin olive oil in this recipe, you can replace 100ml of the olive oil with water.

Nutrition