I love making pesto dishes and searching for ways to improve my pesto skills. This White Bean Pesto is one of my favorites. The pesto dish has a creamy pesto sauce with added Yummy Parm Seasoning to make it even better. This dish has added vegetables and beans to fill you up. You, of course, can choose the ratio of carrots, beans, and tomatoes to make your dish hit the spot.
This White Bean Pesto dish is easily customizable. There are also many different ways that you can cut the vegetables to give you a different feel. For example, you can cut the grape tomatoes in half or shred the carrots. Either of these would provide a slightly different appearance for the White Bean Pesto Dish.
Tips for Pesto
If your garlic is not pre-minced, chop it in the food processor first to get it to the right size. Then it is a lot easier to add everything else.
To get your pesto to the right consistency, make sure that you only add the liquid in small amounts until you feel like it’s where you would like it.
We love different textures of pesto at our house. If you prefer a more chunky pesto, then chopping each item by hand and then adding them together will achieve that.
I always use a bowl to stir my pesto in before I plate it. It’s a lot easier to mix pesto with my noodles in a bowl than on a plate. I usually keep adding pesto until my noodles as green as I want them to be.
A Thought for Pesto
When I first started making vegan pestos, I realized that I was missing something. It took me a while to figure out what the taste was that I was missing. The pistachios do a pretty great job getting a similar flavor, but I was missing the parmesan. I soon figured out that salt was a replacement for parmesan if you aren’t going to add the yummy parm seasoning. It might be because my diet was higher in salt at the time, but I find that it hits my pesto desires. I hope that helps if you are missing it too.
Finally, here is the recipe that you have been waiting for:
White Bean Pesto
4
servings20
minutes15
minutesIngredients
- Pesto Sauce
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon white miso paste
3 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup vegetable broth
black pepper and salt to taste
- Pasta Ingredients
4 servings worth of your choice of pasta noodles
1 pint grape tomatoes
2 large carrots, sliced
1 15.5 ounce can of cannellini beans, drained
- Yummy Parm Seasoning
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup pistachios
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric
Directions
- Yummy Parm Seasoning
- If you want this nutty seasoning on top for extra flavor then use the food processor (or powerful blender) before your pesto to make this seasoning.
Combine all the Yummy Parm Seasoning ingredients in the food processor or blender until nuts are finely ground. - Pesto Sauce
- In a food processor or strong blender combine 3 garlic cloves, 1 tsp miso paste, 3 cups basil leaves, and 1/2 cup pistachios. After they are blended add vegetable broth until you reach the consistency you want, and black pepper and salt to taste.
- Pasta Ingredients
- Cook the pasta of your choice.
- Slice the Grape Tomatoes. Thinly slice carrots and steam them. Heat the beans,
- In a bowl, combine the desired amount of noodles with the pesto sauce. (It’s easiest to toss the pesto with noodles first and then add more pesto with the other items.)
- Add grape tomatoes, steamed carrots, and cannellini beans to your taste. Gently toss and add more pesto sauce if desired. Add the yummy seasoning on top for extra flavor. Add salt to taste.
Notes
- If noodles get dry at any point add water to them. It will help them separate.
Thanks for coming to the plant side one pesto at a time. Let me know if there is anything that you would change, and tag me on Instagram when you make this dish. @cometothe_plantside
