5 Pesto Combos to See You Through Summer

Pesto is one of those things I make far more of in summer than I'd ever admit to. It's quick, it's forgiving, and it turns whatever's sitting in the fridge into something that tastes like you tried.

The classic basil and pine nut version is brilliant, but there's a lot more room to play once you start swapping the base. Here are five combinations I keep coming back to.

1. Basil, walnut and nutritional yeast Walnuts instead of pine nuts, a spoon of nutritional yeast for that cheesy note. Cheaper than pine nuts too, which never hurts.

2. Roasted red pepper and almond Blitzed roasted peppers with toasted almonds and a good glug of olive oil. Sweeter and smokier, brilliant stirred through warm new potatoes.

3. Rocket and cashew Peppery rocket, cashews for creaminess, a squeeze of lemon to lift it. Good on anything that needs a bit of a wake-up call — roast veg, flatbreads, a bowl of plain rice.

4. Sun-dried tomato and pumpkin seed Punchy and a little sweet from the sun-dried tomatoes, pumpkin seeds for crunch and iron. Works well spooned over the Roast Broccoli & White Bean Hummus Bowl if you want to change it up.

5. Wild garlic (when you can get it) or garden herb mix Whatever soft herbs are doing well — parsley, chives, a bit of mint — blitzed with garlic and a neutral oil. Less showy, endlessly useful.

The beauty of pesto is it doesn't need a recipe so much as a method: leafy thing, nutty thing, sharp thing, oil, salt. Once that's in your head you can make it with whatever's left in the crisper drawer.

If pesto-making isn't how you want to spend a Sunday, that's exactly the kind of thing I do the thinking on for you — seasonal, no-fuss flavour built into the week's meals without you lifting a blender.

Fancy someone else doing the chopping this week? Order your meal prep here 👈