Basil pesto is a summer thing. Kale pesto is a year-round thing — heartier, peppery, deeper green, and made with a vegetable you can buy from a local farm in January. It freezes beautifully into one-portion cubes, which means a jar of homemade pasta sauce on a Tuesday in February is five minutes of defrosting away. The blanch-and-squeeze step is non-negotiable; do it and you get a vibrant green sauce instead of a sludgy drab one.
Sauce
Easy
Italian-American
Kale pesto
A hearty, year-round twist on basil pesto using kale, almonds, and Parmesan — pourable, freezer-friendly, and deep green.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 1 min
- Total
- 16 min
- Serves
- 8
Kale pesto
Makes About 1 1/2 cups pesto
Serves
8
Scaled 1×. Ingredients adjusted — but cook time, pan size, and oven temperature don't scale linearly. A bigger batch usually needs a bigger pan and a few extra minutes; a smaller batch often finishes sooner. Trust your eyes, not the timer.
Ingredients (11)
You'll need
- Food processor or high-powered blender
- Large pot (for blanching)
- Slotted spoon
- Colander
- Kitchen towel
Instructions
0 of 8
Nutrition
Estimated per serving · 3 tablespoons
175
Calories
4 g
Protein
4 g
Carbs
17 g
Fat
1 g
Fiber
1 g
Sugar
230 mg
Sodium
What to look for when you shop
Best varieties
- Lacinato (Tuscan/dinosaur) — tender, mild, deep blue-green; the ideal pesto kale
- Red Russian — tender, frilly, purple-tinged; makes a gorgeous pesto
- Curly kale — more peppery; blanch a little longer and add extra lemon
- Baby kale (any variety) — skip the blanching; use directly
- Siberian kale — cold-hardy and sweet after frost; excellent winter pesto
Ripeness
Leaves should be crisp, dark, and unblemished with firm stems. Yellowing, wilted, or pierced leaves are past prime. The bunch should feel heavy and fresh-smelling, not limp or musty.
Imperfections are fine
Small holes from insects are fine — they indicate the kale wasn't heavily sprayed. Trim away yellowed leaf tips; the rest of the bunch is perfect. A bit of dirt on the stem end rinses off easily.
Good substitutions
- Mix of kale and basil for a classic-leaning pesto
- Swap kale for spinach — milder and no blanching needed
- Arugula kale mix — adds peppery bite
- Carrot tops or radish greens — sustainable way to use farm bunch trimmings
- Walnuts, pecans, or sunflower seeds in place of almonds
In season
Kale is at its sweetest after a frost (October – February) but is available from local farms nearly year-round. Summer kale tends to be more peppery.
How much to buy
About 8 oz (one standard bunch, 6 to 8 large leaves).
From a grower near you
Find your kale grower on CollectiveCrop
Kale is sweetest after a frost — the plant converts starches to sugars to survive cold, and you can taste it in a single leaf. A supermarket bunch sourced from somewhere that doesn't frost tastes peppery and flat; a local bunch from a cold-weather farm in November or March tastes almost sweet. CollectiveCrop is how you find that farm. A pesto made from cold-season local kale is a different sauce from one made with bagged grocery leaves.
- In season September – April (peak after frost)
- For this recipe 8 oz / 1 bunch
- Freshness Picked within this week
- Imperfects welcome Second-grade produce works great here
- Diet-friendly vegetarian · gluten-free
- While you're there Fresh garlic · Lemons · Pecorino or Parmesan from a regional dairy · Local nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans) · Fresh basil in summer months
At the market
About 8 oz (one standard bunch, 6 to 8 large leaves).
Best varieties
- Lacinato (Tuscan/dinosaur) tender, mild, deep blue-green; the ideal pesto kale
- Red Russian tender, frilly, purple-tinged; makes a gorgeous pesto
- Curly kale more peppery; blanch a little longer and add extra lemon
Good to know
Tips
- Toast the nuts. Raw nuts make a flat-tasting pesto; toasted nuts taste like three times as much.
- Use the stems for stock, not pesto. They're too fibrous to blend smoothly but make a great vegetable or chicken stock.
- A splash of reserved pasta water when tossing with pasta loosens the pesto and helps it cling. Don't skip it.
- Kale pesto thickens in the fridge. Stir in a splash of olive oil or warm water before using.
- Freeze extra in ice cube trays — 1 cube per serving of pasta.
Storage
- Refrigerator: 1 week in a clean jar, topped with a 1/4-inch layer of olive oil to seal out air.
- Freezer: 6 months in ice cube trays (transfer to a zip-top bag once solid) — no cheese lost to freezing.
- Pesto turns from bright green to olive over time due to oxidation — still safe to eat, just less pretty. The olive oil cap keeps it green longer.
Reheating
- Pesto isn't usually reheated — it's stirred into hot food at the end of cooking.
- For frozen pesto: thaw in the fridge overnight or drop a frozen cube directly into hot pasta — it melts in seconds.
Make ahead
- Full batch stores in the fridge 1 week or freezer 6 months.
- Make a double batch and freeze half — kale pesto is a pantry superhero all winter.
- Blanch and freeze the kale separately if you want to make pesto in small batches over several weeks.
Variations
- Kale-basil pesto: half kale, half basil — best of both worlds.
- Sun-dried tomato kale pesto: add 1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes for a richer, reddish pesto.
- Spicy kale pesto: add 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.
- Roasted garlic kale pesto: swap raw garlic for 1 whole head of roasted garlic for sweeter, mellower flavor.
- Kale-walnut pesto: swap almonds for 1/2 cup toasted walnuts; deeper, earthier.
- Meyer lemon kale pesto: swap regular lemon for Meyer; rounder, more floral.
Swaps
- Vegan: swap Parmesan for 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast plus an extra pinch of salt.
- Nut-free: replace almonds with 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.
- Oil-reduced: use 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable broth for a lighter pesto (won't keep as long).
- Gluten-free: already gluten-free; pair with your favorite GF pasta.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is kale pesto better than basil pesto?
It's different, not better. Kale is heartier, slightly more peppery, and available year-round — making it the better pesto for winter. Basil is summer pesto. Traditional Italians would disown both, but they're both excellent.
Do I have to blanch the kale?
Yes, for the best result. A 30-second blanch softens the leaves, kills bitterness, and locks in the bright green color — raw kale pesto tends toward army-drab. The exception is baby kale, which can go straight into the processor.
What's the best kale for pesto?
Lacinato (also called Tuscan or dinosaur kale) is the sweet spot — tender leaves, mild flavor, and the best color. Curly kale works but is more peppery. Red Russian kale is tender and a beautiful purple-green. Skip tough leaves and any yellowed tips.
Can I freeze kale pesto?
Yes, and it's one of the best meal-prep moves. Spoon into an ice cube tray, freeze until solid, pop into a zip-top bag, and keep up to 6 months. Each cube is a portion for one serving of pasta.
Why is my kale pesto bitter?
Usually the kale wasn't blanched, or the stems were blended in. Blanch the leaves for 30 seconds and strip them off the tough central rib before processing. A touch of lemon and honey also balances any residual bitterness.
Can I make this without cheese or nuts?
Yes. Nutritional yeast (2 tablespoons) replaces the Parmesan; sunflower or hemp seeds replace nuts. The texture is slightly different but still rich and savory.
What do you use kale pesto for?
Pasta (the classic), spread on sandwiches, dolloped on roasted vegetables or eggs, stirred into soup, tossed with roasted potatoes, or spooned over grilled fish or chicken. It also makes an excellent pizza sauce.
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