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
Stephanie Kowalski
This is seriously the best pesto I’ve made. The lemon juice makes all the difference. Happy to have found this way to use my abundant basil!!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
That is so great to hear Stephanie! Congrats on your bountiful basil harvests and be sure to stock your freezer with pesto for the winter!
Anita
I was never a big fan of pesto until I made this recipe. I just made a double batch, and we all love it! We ate some on pasta tonight and froze the rest. I can’t wait for the basil to grow some more and make more to stock up on!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
That is amazing to hear Anita, we are always sure to stock our freezer with pesto before summer is over.
Erin
I love this pesto recipe! So easy to make and absolutely delicious. Every year I add more basil to my garden so I can make and store more of this pesto. Highly recommend!
Megan
This is our absolute favorite basil pesto! I plant extra basil plants each year specifically so we can make enough to freeze!
Lisa
As always, DeannaCat is incredibly thorough and detailed. This recipe is delish and so easy!
Erin
Hi, can I freeze in freezer bags instead?
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Erin, yes you can, just try and get the extra air out of the bag, good luck!
Deb
Just made a double batch of this recipe. It is fantastic!! Best tasting pesto I’ve ever made (and I have made many). Hope my basil plant generates enough yet this summer so I can make more!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Deb, we are so glad you enjoyed the Besto Pesto and we hope you are able to harvest a bunch more basil this summer to make more! We are usually able to make a couple big batches throughout the summer so we can stock our freezer full.
Meg
Love your recipe!! I mix basil and lemon balm because I have so much of both and usually hemp hearts in place of walnuts because I never have walnuts on hand.
Thanks for sharing!!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Meg, we never thought to use lemon balm before, thanks for sharing and enjoy!
Samantha G
Such a flexible recipe, and it comes out brilliantly with each variation! Love!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
So glad you enjoy it Samantha!
Gabriela
Hi Deanna,
Absolutely love your website! Your story and writing is inspiring.
Question for the Pesto: Can I include the basil blossoms or will it spoil the taste?
Gabriela
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Gabriela, thank you so much for your support! We typically pinch back the flowers on our basil plants the best we can and will typically remove the blooms before using the basil in pesto. However, the blooms are just fine to eat and use, although they may be more mild in flavor compared to the leaves. Hope that helps and enjoy your Besto Pesto!
Naomi
So happy you sent this recipe on the newsletter today, I remembered I tried the recipe last summer and LOVED it, very simple but delicious. I happened to have everything on hand, also, appreciate not having to spend extra money on pine nuts.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Naomi, that is great to hear and we prefer pesto with walnuts as they are a lot more accessible for most people. We are always sure to stock our freezer full of this pesto before the summer growing season is over, enjoy!
Kat
Do you think a little liquid hickory smoke would be good in this?
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Kat, while that isn’t something we would likely consider it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel free to experiment. We like that pesto has bright and fresh flavors, where the liquid smoke would likely detract from that. Although if you do want to experiment, I would likely only add some to a small amount of pesto, that way if you don’t like it, you haven’t altered the entire batch. Hope that helps and let us know if you try it out.
Annie
I haven’t tried this yet but it does sound like it will be delicious. I can my produce. Can I do so with your recipe? Thank you
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Annie, unfortunately there are no safe home canning recipes for pesto, hope you have some room in your freezer, good luck!