Parsley Walnut Pesto

Recipe: Parsley Walnut Pesto
Parsley Walnut Pesto is different from the traditional basil and pine nut pesto. With a bit of peppery and earthy taste from the parsley, slight tang from the walnuts, this pesto is a pleasant change especially during winter time. Basil tends to disappear or is too expensive during winter. Parsley makes a good substitute. And most of us have walnuts in our fridge or pantry.
What Is Pesto?
Pesto is a green sauce typically made from fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and hard cheese like parmesan. Originating from Genoa, traditionally it is crushed in a mortar using a pestle. However, modern times make use of food processors, blenders, choppers, etc.
Some Pesto Recipes On My Blog
Coriander Mint & Cashew Nut Pesto
How To Use Parsley Walnut Pesto
Pesto is a versatile sauce that can be used
- as a dressing for salads. Love it especially when I make a pasta salad. Have you tried pesto with roasted potatoes and avocado?
- as a base for sandwiches, my all time favourite is a caprese sandwich. Have you tried grilled sandwich with avocado and pesto?
- as a sauce for pasta. Makes a delightful change from the usual tomato or white sauce.
- with roasted chicken or grilled fish.
- on pizza or flatbread.
- as a dip. Tastes so good with pita chips, tomatoes, cucumber, etc
- as a spread for breads. I love to use it as a filling for home baked breads. Check out my Braided Pesto Bread.
Sunday Funday Group
This week members are making homemade sauces. A theme suggested by Amy, I am sure we’re going to have a variety of them. My initial plan was to make homemade tomato ketchup which I use to make often when my kids were younger. But I was running short of time and also didn’t get the nice juicy roma tomatoes. They are still quite small and a bit hard.
Hubby bought a whole big bunch of flat parsley instead of cilantro (coriander)…again! Parsley doesn’t go well with Indian Cooking and how much can I use in salads, soups and bakes. So pesto it was. And this time added some walnuts instead of pine nuts. Turned out super delicious if I may say so.
Memories
When my daughter was working in Bangalore, she preferred to carry hearty salads when she didn’t want to have the lunch provided at her workplace. I use to make different salad dressings at home for her to carry with the salad. Once I tried out parsley walnut pesto and she loved it. My best friend use to love it whenever I would a jar for her. When I was in Mombasa, getting fresh basil was a bit difficult and pine nuts frightfully expensive. Often I would use coriander or parsley to make the pesto.
first published on 25/06/2017
Check Out Homemade Sauces By Fellow Members
- Nasturtium Pesto by Cook with Renu
- Buffalo Chicken Sauce by Palatable Pastime
- Homemade Marinara Sauce by Sneha’s Recipe
- Carrot Greens Pesto by Food Lust People Love
- Rockfish with Cajun Butter Sauce by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Stir-Fried Squid in Black Bean Sauce by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Parsley Walnut Pesto by Mayuri’s Jikoni
- Pineapple BBQ Sauce by Amy’s Cooking Adventures
Ingredients Required For Parsley Walnut Pesto
Fresh Parsley – I have used flat parsley. You can use the curly one too. Pluck the leaves and tender stalks. Don’t use the thicker stalks. Save them to prepare stock.
Walnuts – lightly roast them in a pan over low heat or in the microwave oven. Usually I roast it for a minute.
Olive Oil – use good quality virgin olive oil. Use enough olive oil so that the pesto stays fresh for a few more days.
Garlic – peel about 2-3 cloves of garlic. Best to use fresh garlic.
Hard Cheese – I have used parmesan. Use good quality parmesan for that cheesy taste.
Salt – use any salt. I have used normal iodized one.
Pepper – Black pepper crushed. Add according to your taste.
Watch How To Make Parsley Walnut Pesto – YouTube Shorts

PARSLEY WALNUT PESTO
Ingredients
- 10-12 walnuts lightly roasted
- 2 cups fresh parsley roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 20 g parmesan cheese about ¼ cup grated
- 4-6 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper powder
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients into a food processor
- Process the ingredients to a paste. Add more olive oil if required.
- Whether you want the pesto a bit coarse or fine is up to you.
- If you are using a sliced parmesan, chop it into smaller pieces before processing.
- Store the pesto in a glass jar till required.
- Top it with more olive oil if you want to.
Notes
- Use either flat or curly parsley. I prefer flat as it does not have a very strong taste.
- Adjust salt and pepper according to your taste.
- Add more olive oil so that the pesto can stay fresh for a few more days in the fridge.
- Make sure you roast the walnuts to bring out the flavour.
- Use good quality olive oil and parmesan.
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18 Comments
Jyoti Babel
June 26, 2017 at 3:28 am
Lovely salad. Bookmarking it.. I am sure the pesto makes the salad taste great
vaishali sabnani
June 28, 2017 at 12:19 am
I am fond of pesto as well as salads ! Combining the two would definitely be a treat .
Pavani N
June 28, 2017 at 2:21 am
Healthy and delicious salad. LOVE that pesto dressing.
Archana Potdar
June 28, 2017 at 8:39 am
Lovely salad. I do not like parsley but maybe because the 2 times I used it I used it like coriander. Will try again. Bookmarking it.
Harini R
June 28, 2017 at 5:40 pm
Interesting ingredients for the pesto.
Priya Suresh
July 3, 2017 at 6:40 am
My kids will go crazy if they see this delicious pasta salad, thats a super flavourful pesto.
Sharmila- The Happie Friends Potpourri corner
July 6, 2017 at 10:04 am
What more is needed for an ideal lunch.. Perfect!!
Chef Mireille
July 12, 2017 at 4:36 am
oh wow – what an awesome pesto!
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan
July 16, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Parsely and walnut pesto sounds delicious. Definitely will give it a try. 🙂
Sapana Behl
August 16, 2017 at 8:08 pm
Pasta salad with pesto sounds very flavorful.
Wendy Klik
June 11, 2023 at 9:52 am
I love the idea of using parsley instead of basil. I so often have parsley that needs to be used just languishing in the refrigerator. Now I know that I can use if for pesto. Yay.
mayurisjikoni
June 11, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Thanks Wendy,I was a bit skeptical when I tried the recipe. But, we loved it. So yes, when I have extra parsley or hubby buys it instead of cilantro, I make pesto with it.
Stacy
June 12, 2023 at 1:39 pm
I love how accommodating and flexible pesto is! Truly a wonderful sauce.
mayurisjikoni
June 12, 2023 at 5:22 pm
Thanks Stacy and I totally agree with you.
Amy’s Cooking Adventures
June 12, 2023 at 2:18 pm
this sounds so fresh and tasty!
mayurisjikoni
June 12, 2023 at 5:22 pm
Thanks Amy. Give it a try.
Sneha Datar
June 13, 2023 at 10:25 am
Yummy! This looks amazing!
mayurisjikoni
June 13, 2023 at 4:31 pm
Thanks Sneha.