This easy 10 minutes parsley pesto (with cilantro) is packed with lots of flavors and is perfect for a dip, sandwich, or pasta. It’s made with 8 ingredients only.
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❤️About This Recipe
It’s tasty! It has the perfect amount of acidity, saltiness, creaminess, fresh herby flavor, and hands down the most addicting pesto.
Quick to make: All you have to do is pulse the ingredients in the food processor. It takes under 10 minutes and is extremely easy to make.
Cheaper alternative to classic pesto: parsley and cilantro are a whole lot cheaper than buying a ton of basil. So this parsley pesto is budget-friendly.
Use leftover herbs: I’m sure you’ll have a ton of parsley and cilantro left after adding a couple of tablespoons in one dish as a garnish. This is the perfect way to use up these herbs from the fridge.
🧾Ingredient Notes
Here is the pic of the ingredients you’ll need to make this parsley pesto.
- Parsley: I prefer to use flat leaf parsley. If you prefer the strong flavor then use curly parsley.
- Cilantro: I have also added a little amount of cilantro here. You can skip adding cilantro and add more parsley here to make all parsley pesto.
- Garlic: Use fresh garlic or use ready made minced garlic.
- Walnuts: It adds a nice nutty flavor. Another classic option is to use pine nuts. Since this is budget-friendly pesto, I have used walnuts.
- Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice is the best choice over bottled juice.
- Olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil should be used while making any pesto as it has a mild flavor. Plus, pesto is eaten raw, and fresh so extra virgin should be used.
- Parmesan cheese: As being vegetarian, I only buy vegetarian parmesan cheese and not the original Parmigiano Reggiano that has rennet.
🎥Watch The Recipe Video
👩🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
Cleaning Herbs:
- Choose only fresh leaves, discard the yellow and wilted ones.
- If stems are tender then keep them. If stems are tough and more fibrous then cut and discard them.
- Keep the cilantro and parsley in the bowl of water for 5-10 minutes and let the dirt settle at the bottom of the bowl. Then gently remove leaves, lightly squeeze to remove excess water, and add to a food processor bowl. If leaves are really muddy then you might have to repeat the same 2-3 times.
Making Parsley Pesto (With Cilantro):
1) Add walnuts to a food processor.
2) Run it to grind walnuts coarsely.
3) Add parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and lemon juice.
4) Again run the processor until it is coarsely ground.
5) Add olive oil.
6) Cover and run the processor until it is a pesto consistency. You may need to stop and scrape the sides with a spatula and blend again.
💭Expert Tips
- For an extra nutty flavor, you can toast the walnuts before adding them.
- For mild flavor use flat leaf parsley and for strong flavor use curly parsley.
- Don’t over-blend your pesto. There should be some texture in the pesto. We don’t want it to be smooth like mint chutney.
- Quantities of herbs can be adjustable as per your liking. Like more cilantro then add more and less parsley. Don’t like cilantro then skip it.
- Storage:
- Make a thin layer of olive oil on the surface of the parsley cilantro pesto when your store it in the jar to keep it fresh longer and avoid browning.
- Store the parsley cilantro pesto in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. It can be frozen for 3-4 months.
🍽 Ways To Use It
- Toss with cooked pasta (any type works but spaghetti, tortellini and gnocchi are the best options)
- Use it to enhance pasta salad
- Mix in some mayonnaise with pesto and use it as a spread for sandwiches or burgers.
- Use as a pizza sauce
- Spread over crostini or make pesto bruschetta
- Drizzle over steamed or roasted veggies
- Add a dollop of it to a soup like minestrone, quinoa vegetable soup or other creamy soup.
Check out another pesto recipe - Spinach pesto
Did you try this parsley pesto recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
📋 Recipe Card
Parsley Pesto
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Walnuts
- 2 cups Parsley packed
- 1 cup Cilantro or coriander leaves packed
- 1 clove Garlic
- ¼ cup Vegetarian parmesan cheese
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- ½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Add walnuts to a food processor. Run it to grind walnuts coarsely.
- Add parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and lemon juice. Again run the processor until it is coarsely ground.
- Add olive oil. Cover and run the processor until it is a pesto consistency. You may need to stop and scrape the sides with a spatula and blend again.
Notes
- For an extra nutty flavor, you can toast the walnuts before adding them.
- For mild flavor use flat leaf parsley and for strong flavor use curly parsley.
- Don’t over-blend your pesto. There should be some texture in the pesto.
Quantities of herbs can be adjustable as per your liking. Like more cilantro then add more and less parsley. Don’t like cilantro then skip it. - Make a thin layer of olive oil on the surface of your parsley pesto when your store it in the jar to keep it fresh longer and avoid browning.
- Store the parsley cilantro pesto in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. It can be frozen for 3-4 months.
Kitty
Such an easy recipe to follow and the result is a delicious pesto.
Kanan Patel
Very glad to hear it.