This pesto quinoa recipe is deliciously flavorful and so easy to make with fresh herbs and pantry staples! Cook it up as an easy gluten free side dish in less than 25 minutes for dinner tonight.
I think we all need some more basic sides in our back pocket for easy meals on a busy day. But let's elevate humble quinoa and make a delicious quinoa with pesto with lots of fragrant flavor from herbs and garlic!
Making homemade pesto is so easy, and also really customizable. As well as the recipe in the card below, you could also make pesto without pine nuts, pumpkin seed pesto for nut free and leave out the cheese for dairy free. All you need is a blender!
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🌿 Ingredients
All the ingredients and their quantities are set out in the recipe card below.
Some notes on a few of them:
- Quinoa - I suggest to use white quinoa in this recipe, and be sure to rinse before cooking. While often thought of as a grain, quinoa is a technically seed. It's a complete protein, with all nine essential amino acids (Healthline).
- Basil leaves - while you can of course make pesto with other herbs, such as in my Thai basil pesto and lemon balm pesto, I like to use basil for this recipe.
- Pumpkin seeds - you can make pesto with many different nuts and seeds. Using pumpkin seeds keeps the pesto nut free and low histamine for readers with those dietary needs. Make sure to use unsalted seeds!
- Garlic - if you're a garlic lover, you can easily add another clove or two to make the pesto sauce!
📖 Swaps and Variations
Add more pesto! If you love a really herby pesto quinoa, then simply make more pesto and stir it through.
Serve hot or cold. Allow the quinoa to cool and you have a pesto quinoa salad side dish!
🔪 How to Make Quinoa with Pesto
It's very easy to make this pesto quinoa in all simple recipe steps. So grab some fresh herbs and pantry staples and let me show you how easy it is!
All the instructions are in the recipe card below, but these step by step photos should help guide you.
Step 1: Combine pesto ingredients
Add fresh basil leaves, garlic, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and salt to a blender cup (image 1).
Step 2: Blend to a pesto sauce
Blend to a pesto sauce, adding a touch of water or oil to thin, if needed (image 2). I suggest to make it a thinner sauce so that it easily stirs through the quinoa.
Step 3: Cook the quinoa
Cook the quinoa to package instructions so that it is light, fluffy and the 'tails' of the quinoa have opened (image 3). You can use water or vegetable stock for the liquid.
Step 4: Stir the pesto through the quinoa
Spoon the pesto into the quinoa, and stir through so it is evenly coated (image 4). Use a fork to fluff up the quinoa and serve!
💭 Recipe Tips and Notes
- Make sure to rinse the quinoa before you cook it.
- Cook the quinoa in vegetable stock for extra flavor!
- If you love a really herby, garlicky flavor, make a little more pesto to stir through the quinoa.
📋 Frequently Asked Questions
Pesto quinoa can easily be served as a hot side dish, or leave to cool and enjoy as a pesto quinoa salad.
Quinoa is cooked through when it has soaked up the liquid and the 'tails' of the seeds are showing. You should be able to use a fork to 'fluff up' the quinoa so that it is light and airy.
🥣 More Pesto Recipes
Love a pesto recipe? Have a peek at my air fryer pesto chicken, pesto chicken pasta salad and my ricotta pesto pasta for hearty dinner ideas, as well as these tasty recipes:
I'm always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes! And I love to hear from you - so please do leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐ and comment if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Pesto Quinoa
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup basil leaves tightly packed
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds or pistachios, pine nuts or almonds*
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or white distilled vinegar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 cup quinoa dry weight
Instructions
- Blend together the pumpkin seeds, basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, apple cider vinegar and salt. Adjust with more oil or water to thin, if needed. Taste test, and adjust to preference.
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. You can cook in water, or for more flavor in vegetable stock. The 'tails' of the quinoa should be opened at the end of the cook time.
- Spoon the quinoa into a bowl and stir through the pesto.
Notes
- The quinoa can be cooked in plain water or in my low histamine vegetable stock to give extra flavor.
- Adjust the amount of basil, vinegar and garlic in the pesto to taste preference.
- If you love a very fragrant pesto quinoa recipe, simply make a little more pesto to stir through the cooked quinoa.
- Nutritional information is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
- garlic and apple cider vinegar, which score 1.
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