Roasted Garlic Basil Dip

This vegan, nut free pesto is our favorite for pizzas, appetizer plates and dipping vegetables and crackers.

When we started to uncover my daughter’s food allergies, it became my mission to ensure she could enjoy all our flavorful favorites, but within her limitations. Pesto has always been one of my go-tos because of its versatility to be a sauce, a spread or a dip.

This version is allergen friendly by replacing pine nuts with sunflower seeds and parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast. You’ll want to be sure to use a heavy dose of salt to compensate for omitting the cheese in a traditional pesto recipe. It’s creamy, salty and has a nice garlic flavor from its roasting.

Roasting the garlic is an optional addition, but it rounds out the flavor and gives it a nice kick. You can use the extra garlic in sauces, spreads on toast, or pureed into hummus.

How to Roast Garlic

Chop off the top of the garlic, drizzle with olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover in foil and roast at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove roasted cloves and add to the below pesto.

Ingredients

1.5 cups of basil, packed

1/4 cup of nutritional yeast

1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

2 cloves of roasted garlic

1/4 cup of olive oil

juice of one lemon

4-6 tablespoons of water

healthy pinch of salt and pepper

Method

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor, except the oil. Begin pureeing and slowly add the oil until the mixture is well incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.