Besto Pesto Recipe: Lemon Walnut Basil Pesto (Freezer Tips)
Last Updated on July 16, 2025
Summer and fresh basil go hand-in-hand. But what about once summer is over? Or, when you have too much fresh basil to use all at once? Come learn how to preserve basil with this easy freezer-friendly pesto recipe. Then you can enjoy the taste of summer all year long!
This lemon walnut basil pesto recipe is so delicious that I have lovingly dubbed it “the besto pesto”. It really is the best, IMHO! Packed with fresh basil, bright tangy lemon, hearty walnuts, creamy sharp parmesan, and savory garlic, this pesto recipe hits all the right spots. We love it with pasta, zoodles, eggs, sourdough and more. It’s also easy to customize with various types of nuts or seeds, or make it vegan.
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RELATED: Come learn how to plant and grow basil, our top tips to harvest basil to get big bushy plants,, how to dehydrate basil in an oven or food dehydrator, or how to freeze basil in olive oil in ice cube trays!
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Ingredients
- Fresh Basil – The recipe below calls for 2 packed cups of fresh basil leaves, but feel free to scale up or down as needed. We generally harvest a huge basket of basil, and make a big double or triple batch of pesto at once.
- Lemon juice – Fresh-squeezed is best, though organic bottled lemon juice works great too. If you can get your hands on them, Meyer lemons are even better, as they add a touch of sweetness! The addition of lemon is a also great natural preservative, and helps basil pesto maintain a beautiful bright green color.
- Parmesan cheese – For a vegan variation, hold the cheese or substitute with nutritional yeast, or even a handful of pistachios or cashews instead. See the amounts below.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Garlic – A few cloves or more, depending on how much pesto you’re making!
- Walnut halves or pieces. Walnuts pack a ton of flavor and protein at a fraction of the cost of traditional pine nuts, and are more sustainable too! For people with nut allergies, substitute with half the called-for walnuts with hemp hearts instead. Alternatively, swap them out for sunflower seeds. This recipe is also great with pecans!
- Salt – We prefer to use celtic sea salt.
Instructions
- Wash and prep the basil. You’ll want to use just the basil leaves with little-to-no stems. We find it easiest to lay the basil out on the counter, pluck off the leaves, and toss them into a large bowl of water to soak as we work – which helps to partially clean them. Then we rinse the basil leaves again in a strainer. (Our garden gets really dusty!)
- In a blender or food processor, combine the ingredients listed below, which makes about one pint or two half-pints of finished walnut basil pesto. We use a Vitamix, which makes a wonderfully smooth pesto!
For every 2 cups of basil leaves (washed, packed, and overflowing cups!) add:
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (to make vegan substitute with 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, and/or add a handful of raw cashews or pistachios)
- 1/2 cup walnuts (sub with 1/4 cup hemp hearts or 1/2 cup sunflower seeds for those with nut allergies)
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil*
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice*
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Blend until smooth. Or, pulse if you prefer chunky basil.
*Sliding scale for the amount of olive oil and lemon juice. I generally start on the lower end, adding more while blending until the desired consistency is reached. The amount may also vary depending on how tightly you packed your cups of basil.
Storage: How long is fresh pesto good for?
Store your finished pesto in an air-tight container with a lid. Fresh homemade pesto is generally good in the refrigerator for about a week. However, due to the hefty amount of lemon juice in this recipe (a natural preservative) we find ours usually lasts a tad longer than that! Do not use if the pesto develops an off odor, flavor, or mold. This pesto recipe cannot be canned.
How to Freeze Pesto
Pesto freezes incredibly well. Simply add it to your favorite freezer-safe containers, such as wide-mouth pint or half-pint jars* or these durable, reusable BPA-free freezer containers. Fill the freezer container to the designated fill line – near the top, with just a little headroom for expansion. Leaving too much empty air space in the container will lead to more freezer burn and off flavors. In mason jars, leave about 1/2″ of head room.
To defrost, take a container of pesto out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator the day before you wish to use it. Avoid heating the jar unless you intend to use the entire jar at that time. Store in the refrigerator and use within one week of defrosting.
*Note that only wide-mouth mason jars marked as freezer-safe are acceptable for freezing pesto (or any other food). Other jars with “shoulders” or any type of bend in their sides can easily crack in the freezer.
Ways to Use Pesto
In addition to all the classic ways to use pesto, such as with pasta, pizza, sautéed mixed veggies, or on homemade sourdough bread, we learned a couple pretty tasty ways to use this walnut basil pesto too. One is to add a dollop of pesto mixed with eggs, like you would milk or cheese when whipping up scrambled eggs, or even when making a quiche or frittata. Green eggs, anyone?
Even more, make a killer pesto salad dressing! When we have about a half a small jar or less, we top off and thin down the remaining pesto in the jar with some extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, another squeeze of fresh lemon, maybe a dash of apple cider vinegar – and boom! The result is a pourable, delectable pesto salad dressing. So good.
For more ways to use pesto, check out our Pesto Zoodles recipe, or this cast iron sourdough pizza crust recipe. Besto Pesto takes them to the next level of delicious.
So simple, right?!
And remember, frequently harvesting your basil keeps it coming back even bushier and stronger! Harvest now, and plan to make this a few times this summer. We always do. In all, I hope you enjoy this pesto recipe! If you make it, please report back and let us know how you like it.
Stay tuned for many more quick and easy recipes to use and preserve garden harvests, or produce you pick up at the farmer’s market! As always, feel free to ask questions ~ and spread the love by passing it on.
“The Besto Pesto” Lemon Walnut Basil Pesto Recipe
Equipment
- Blender, or food processor
Ingredients
- 2 cups Washed fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/2 cup Grated parmesan cheese (Vegan variation: substitute with 1 tbsp nutritional yeast and/or a handful of raw cashews)
- 1/2 cup Walnuts (Nut allergies? Substitute with 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, or 1/4 cup hemp seeds or sunflower seeds)
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup Olive oil*
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup Lemon juice*
- 2 – 3 cloves Garlic, peeled
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Wash basil and remove leaves from stems.
- In a blender or food processor, combine all of the ingredients as listed above.
- *Start with 1/3 cup each of lemon juice and olive oil, and add more as needed to reach your desired consistency.
- Blend until smooth.
- Enjoy! Store in the refrigerator, and use within one week.
- Add to freezer-safe wide-mouth jars if you intend to preserve it. Freeze, and use within one year.
Deanna Talerico
Deanna Talerico (aka DeannaCat) is a garden educator and writer with over 15 years experience in organic gardening. She is a retired Senior Environmental Health Specialist, and holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies and B.S. in Sustainability and Natural Resources.
106 Comments
Sarah
Just used this in a kale and egg omelette and OH. MY. GOD. Life changing! Great recipe- thanks for sharing!
DeannaCat
Yaaaassss that sounds amazing Sarah! Honestly, one of the ways we use this most is mixed into our scrambled eggs! I can get tired of all the eggs around here sometimes, but not when they have pesto! We also love to mix it with the eggs before they get poured into a frittata! I am so glad you loved it.
Amanda
Never tried pesto but always wanted to ! Just gave it a go and oh my gosh! So fresh ! Thanks for the easy recipe !
Jennifer Fernandez
I like pesto to begin with but I LOVE THIS PESTO! The tangy lemon and the difference in flavor with the walnuts packs in so much flavor. I immediately ate more than my share dipping cucumbers in this deliciousness. I froze some jars and will be trying it out with zoodles this week. I recommend anyone to try this recipe it. It will be the only way I make pesto from now on!
DeannaCat
Sweet! Yes I think the lemon is the secret that kicks it up notch, and brings all the flavor together! I am so glad you liked it.
lauren smallwood
Just tried this Deanna and it’s sooo good!! My basil bushes were out of control so I doubled it(maybe tripled?) I have like 8 jars full now. Not a bad thing!
DeannaCat
Awesome Lauren! That is the way to do it! 🙂
Hilary Melear
Looking forward to trying this recipe for all my extra basil! Have you ever used a different nut? Pecans, cashews etc? We have a walnut allergy in the family.
DeannaCat
Hey! We usually stick with walnuts, but many people use pinenuts. I am sure cashews or pecans would be great too! Maybe half and half? Since cashews are so mellow and pecans are pretty nutty?
Carrington
Amazing!! Made the recipe with spinach from the market, that was starting to bolt secretly so was quite strong and bitter solo, and my husband who is an adamant spinach and pesto hater LOVED it! Made a triple batch and am freezing the extra so I can try it on all the ways I can 😀
DeannaCat
Ha! I love this story! It shows a) how versatile it is – good call on the spinach! We’ve added arugula in the past! and b) that even skeptics may love it! Lol. Thanks for sharing!
Hilary Melear
Just tried it with 2/3 cashews and 1/3 pine nuts and it’s great! Going to try cashews/pecans tomorrow!!
Katie
Just made this…..so good!!!! If summer were a sauce, this would be it!! Thank you!
DeannaCat
Haha! Awesome! I am so happy you love it too! 🙂
Meghan Pyle
SERIOUSLY SO GOOD!!! I just love how easy and delicious they make everything look so people like me who are just starting their garden journey can do things like this❤️. Our generation was duped in a way because things like farming, home made foods and so on weren’t passed down from the previous generation like it used to be because there weren’t huge stores to go buy everything… all of that to say resources like this are HUGE so we as people can grow and create things that are first off way healthier for us but also being eco conscious at the same time❤️ So thank you for pouring into our generation so we can impact the future❤️
Ellen
I love your pesto recipe! I have been using it for a while now after following you on Instagram. My mother is lactose intolerant so finding things she used to be able to eat and now is not able to is a delight! Someone at work just gave me a bunch of basil and mine needs to be plucked back some, so PESTO HERE I come!
Vinnie B
Wow if this wasn’t the smoothest pesto I’ve ever had! Delicious!!!!! Another winning recipe from Deanna & Aaron. I added a little roasted garlic fresh from my harvest last week and it was AMAZING!
Shelby
This sounds DELICIOUS!! Can’t wait to harvest our Basil soon & try this recipe!! Yum!
Jessie
I originally found Deanna’s besto pesto recipe on her instagram page, and I have LOVED using it (and the variations she presents) over the years. It’s the most flavorful and versatile pesto recipe I’ve come across. Thanks for sharing your bounty, Deanna and Aaron!
DeannaCat
Thank you for this amazing feedback Jessie! We are so happy you love it
TammyB
Thank you. I love fresh pesto and my basil is overflowing so this is an awesome way to use it. Love the idea of walnuts since they are my favorite type of nut. I know what I will be making next weekend 🙂
DeannaCat
Awesome! Let us know how you like it! 🙂
Danielle j
This looks incredible! I only have ONE basil plant and I can’t find enough uses for how fast I’m harvesting so this is perfect! You always have the best recipes.
DeannaCat
I hope you love it as much as we do! Thanks for the feedback!
Nicole
Yummy!! I’m allergic to walnuts, can I subsisted them with pinenuts? If so.. is there a quantity difference? Love your blog and all of your recipes. You’re awesome!
DeannaCat
Hey! Bummer about the walnuts! Yes, most classic pesto recipes call for pinenuts – they’re just so dang expensive! Since they’re small (meaning they’ll fill the cup more with less empty space) and more rich in flavor, I’d assume you can probably use about half the called-for amount! If you try it, be sure to report back and let me know so I can let others know too!
Jessie
I have used the following (alone or in combination) with Deanna’s recipe instead of walnuts: pecans, almonds, hemp seeds, and sunflower seeds!
DeannaCat
Oooh pecans and sunflower seeds! Good call!