If you are into clean eating and also love mint jelly then this mint pesto recipe is a must-make! Unlike with mint jelly, with mint pesto you aren’t consuming copious amounts of sugar with every spoonful. And although conventional pesto recipes made with basil almost always call for cheese, this minty version is dairy free.
Think of mint pesto as a Mediterranean style spin on salsa verde.
But what do you do with it? Dressing up lamb is probably the most common reason the average person reaches for a mint sauce of any type, but there are countless culinary ideas for putting fresh mint sauce to good use. Here are just a few of my favorites below…
10 Ideas for Using Mint Pesto (That Don’t Involve Lamb)
- Bake a mild white fish (such as cod or halibut) and smother it in pesto. Serve with fresh lemon wedges.
- Use it as a marinade for chicken.
- Toss mint pesto with whole grain pasta, frozen thawed petite peas and chopped walnuts (see photos above and below) for a super easy Meat Free Monday dinner.
- Roast a medley of vegetables (such as carrots, onions, eggplant and red peppers) and then drizzle with pesto just before serving.
- Mix a tablespoon of pesto in one cup of cooked whole grains (such as brown rice, quinoa, millet, etc.) as a delicious flavor booster.
- Mix 1/4 cup prepared pesto with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and use as a salad dressing.
- Use it as a dip for sprouted whole grain bread.
- Smother 1-inch thick slabs of extra firm tofu with mint pesto and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
- Substitute mint pesto for basil pesto to dress zucchini pasta.
- Serve as a dip to grilled shrimp kabobs.
Kitchen Favorites
Mint Pesto
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 cups fresh mint
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tablespoons raw honey
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts
- 1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a mason jar and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Looking for More Sauces to Jazz Up Your Healthy Dinner Recipes?
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Kaneez says
Hi Ivy,
The pesto looks delicious and since I have tons of mint from my garden I will be trying this out for sure. I just wanted to make sure the “14 cups of walnuts” was not a typo. Can you please confirm. Thanks
Ivy Larson says
Oh my gosh Kaneez!!! I am SO glad you caught that. It is definitely a typo—it should be 1/4 cup! Definitely NOT 14 cups. Thank you so much for catching that. I already made the change in the recipe. Please do let me know how it turns out….