This delicious Creamy Avocado Cilantro Pesto is so simple to make with just 6 ingredients!
Oil-Free Creamy Avocado Cilantro Pesto
Avocados + Cilantro + Cinco de Mayo = Perfection!
This Avocado Cilantro Pesto is so creamy and delicious and simple to make. Just a few ingredients and you’re ready to rock and roll 😉 Adding fresh cilantro in the place of fresh basil to a pesto, gives it that south of the border twist. Avocados, cilantro and lime are a match made in Heaven, don’t you think?
Just In Time For Cinco de Mayo
Many years ago, actually back in the mid-70’s, I lived in southern New Mexico for about 6 months. It was right on the edge of Mexico in a little border town with dirt streets.
One day, totally unaware of what day it was, my husband and I and some friends ventured into Mexico for a day trip. We started at the border crossing at Palomas and travelled through the countryside of Mexico. Our destination to re-enter the US was the border crossing at Ciudad Juárez near El Paso, Texas.
To our surprise, when we got to Ciudad Juárez the city was teeming with very festive people all in major celebration mode! We had arrived there on Cinco de Mayo and found out it was party time in Mexico that day!
Here in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become a good excuse to “partay” and celebrate Mexican heritage with lots of food and margaritas! So avocados are a must for celebrating – any excuse to party, right?
Avocado Love
Living in New Mexico was the beginning of my love affair with avocados. I don’t think I had ever had an avocado before that time. I grew up far north in the White Mountains of New Hampshire – not too far from the Canadian border. So, there weren’t too many avocados around there!
Being a vegetarian, avocados became a staple of my husband and I’s favorite sandwich – avocado, tomato, cheese and alfalfa sprouts! That sandwich was known in many places as “The Hippie”.
A lot has changed since that time.
Avocados in just about anything are so popular and mainstream.
Only Healthy Fats
This pesto has no added oil. It’s really unnecessary to add extra oil because it’s already so creamy and delicious without it. All this Avocado Cilantro Pesto has is the whole food benefits of the naturally occurring fat of the avocado.
Easy Peasy
Creamy Avocado Cilantro Pesto over Rotini Noodles
This is a very easy recipe to make and comes together very quickly – creamy deliciousness! We like that, right?
To get the smooth consistency for a sauce like on the noodles in the picture, use a high speed blender like a Vitamix to make it ultra creamy and smooth. For the thicker consistency like in the jar, using a food processor is the way to go!
So Versatile
The noodles I used with this pesto are brown rice rotini pasta, but any noodles would be great. You could even use it with rice to make an Avocado Cilantro Pesto rice, as a dip for veggies or crackers, spread on toast or a sandwich, a baked potato, thinned out a little as a dressing, etc.
Put it on anything that sounds good to you – even by the spoonful if that’s your thing! 😉
Creamy Avocado Cilantro Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 large ripe avocados or 2 medium
- 1 cup cilantro leaves, packed tightly, large stems removed
- 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 limes, juiced - about 4 1/2 - 5 Tbsp
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Combine avocado, cilantro leaves, pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, salt, lime juice and nutritional yeast in a food processor with the metal S blade and process until well combined and creamy - stop and scrape the side of the processor as needed ***See Notes***
- Serve over noodles of your choice, rice, baked potatoes, as a dip, spread, etc.
- Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and serve
Notes
Inspired by: Avocados
I hope you’ll give this simple, tasty and healthy recipe a try!
xo
What can I use to substitute nuts? I’m making it for a pasta bar party and I would like to avoid allergens
Hi Miranda, I would think raw sunflower seeds would work in this recipe if you want to avoid nuts. I haven’t tried it myself, but I think I would soak the sunflower seeds for a few hours to soften a little and then process in a food processor or high speed blender just like nuts. Hope this helps!
I used Cashews for the nuts and it is delicious! Thank you!
Great idea using cashews Karen! So happy you liked it.