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
Ashley
This is the absolute best recipe ever!! I also swap out scapes for basil and its fabulous!! So good!! Thank you!!
Lauren
Do you think it’s ok to use other nuts instead of the walnuts? I have raw pecans, pistachios, cashews & almonds but of course no walnuts. Have you tried any of these in place of the walnuts? I see that you say to swap parm cheese with cashews, so I was hoping I could swap the cashews for the walnuts 🙂
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Lauren, you can absolutely swap out the walnuts for other nuts, I would just go with whatever nut you prefer the most. Cashews would offer a nice creaminess to your pesto. Good luck and enjoy your pesto!
Marcy Francis
You mentioned in your blog that other greens can be used. Do we measure them the same as the basil? We have these carrots….with ginormously beautiful greens and was wondering if there is any difference in usage. Also, have you ever used these and how is the taste? Thanks!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Marcy, I think your carrot green pesto would be great if used in the same proportions. Carrot greens have a pungent, almost piney (but mostly carroty) flavor. It is a popular green to use for pesto, let us know how it comes out and good luck!
Nikita
Hey, Deanna! I can’t wait to make this recipe with our basil before our season ends! Have you ever used different types of basil in pesto? I have an abundance of Thai basil in my garden (whoops) and I won’t be able to use all of it fresh before our first frost date. Was wondering if you think it would sub well into this recipe.
Thanks!
Nikita
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Nikita, absolutely you can use different types of basil. We have used a variety of Genovese, Cinnamon, Opal, and African Blue basil. Good luck and enjoy!
Sarah
Can’t wait to try this! I was wondering though if you are vegetarian? I haven’t come across any mention of meat recipes on your blog but I also know that Parmesan cheese is technically non vegetarian. (Unless you are using a vegetarian Parmesan)
Also loving all of your articles on here! I’m trying to convince my mom to let me have a worm bin!!
DeannaCat
Hi Sarah – We are vegetarian, yes. Over 13 years now I think! But cheese is indeed considered vegetarian – it isn’t “meat”. Cheese isn’t considered suitable for vegan diet however. Maybe that is what you’re thinking of? Vegans do not eat any animal-sourced products whatsoever, even honey. We are fully vegetarian (no meat, fish, etc) and I’d say borderline vegan. The only eggs we eat are from our own chickens, never buy them, and limited organic cheese/yogurt, but no milk, ice cream, whey protein isolate, etc. Anywho, thanks for reading and tuning in!
ace
I know this was kind of an old comment, but I think Sarah might have been talking about the difficulty of finding Parmesan that isn’t made with animal rennet. They used to be pretty much impossible to find, though they’re getting easier as vegetarianism is getting more mainstream. I know Trader Joes has at least one Parmesan made with vegetable rennet (or at least they did, I haven’t been to a TJs since before the pandemic).
Katie Braswell
My pesto came out tasting very lemony! I only added 1/3 of a cup to start. My husband and I don’t keep salt in the house. Any thoughts on how to bring down the lemon taste? Thank you!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Just reduce the amount of lemon used in the recipe or emit it all together. We enjoy the lemon flavor and feel it gives it an extra tang and twist that regular pesto doesn’t have.
Amanda Brazil
Love this super simple basil recipe. It’s easy and delicious and I love that it uses walnuts instead of pine nuts (which I don’t love anyway and are expensive). Such a great recipe to have for using up all that basil we’re growing!
Jen
I don’t usually eat pesto because it always tastes like perfume to me. However, I made this recipe because my son and husband love pesto, and HOLY SMOKES. I’m a pesto convert. I’m not sure if it’s the lemon or garlic or walnuts or what, but this stuff is SO delicious. Definitely full of basil flavor, but you can taste the other flavors, too. Top notch!
Taylor Ozimac
Hands down the only pesto recipe you’ll need!! I’ve tried a bunch of different ones and this will be my go-to from here out.
Nailed it again, Deanna!
Bonny
Hi Deanna
I have been making pesto for years but because I live in winnipeg, we have a short growing season so in winter I usually have to buy it as needed. I can never find basil pesto that doesn’t taste bitter. But I finally found and made your recipe with lemons and walnuts and froze it. I was stunned at how fresh and delicious. I love lemons and always added zest to mine but never the juice. Wow. Anyway thank you for this amazing recipe. I’ve never had better nor do I ever think I will 🙏🏻❤️
Tiffany
This pesto recipe is delicious!! I LOVE that you can adjust the ingredients and still end up with something so tasty. I’ve tried this the classic basil way, but also with carrot tops and it’s amazing!! This is my go-to pesto recipe from now on!
Kathy
Our household just became pesto converts due to this recipe. Easy and delicious.
Riley Bianchi
So good! My husband has a nut allergy so we use hemp hearts instead and it’s still the “besto”. He likes the texture of them rather than blended so we add them after blending everything else. Also, I love how versatile this recipe is; we have also made it with carrot tops and parsley and all sorts of garden goodies. I’m not a big basil fan, so I like to mix it up with other herbs and greens.