Hard to believe I have yet to post a basic FODMAP friendly pesto recipe. I’ve done a hemp seed variety, a vegan version and a dairy free almond number, but never a garden variety, FODMAP friendly pesto. Today I’m here to fix that.

This pesto recipe originally appeared in my first cookbook. I use it for everything – lasagne, roast potatoes, pasta, you name it. It’s versatile, easy and damn delicious.

An aerial close up view of a white ceramic plate topped with verdant green kale pesto pasta. A small bowl of kale pesto sits to the bottom of the plate, which sits atop a white marble table

FODMAP Friendly Pesto

Name: FODMAP friendly pesto
Prep time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 large bunch of basil (or two small bunches, see notes); 100g freshly grated good quality parmesan (see notes); 1 cup walnuts or pine nuts; 1/4-1/2 cup good quality olive oil (see notes); Juice of 1 lemon; Seasoning, to taste

I use a very large bunch of basil for this recipe. I normally try to purchase basil from farmers markets because it tastes so much better. An added bonus of this is that they’re generally much bigger bunches, too. If your bunch of basil is small, consider getting two.
That said, rocket (arugula) makes a great stand in for a budget pesto. It makes for a different, slightly more bitter pesto which I love.
Another budget pesto tip is to use walnuts instead of pine nuts. They’re a lot cheaper and still make a delicious pesto.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – vegetarian Parmesan exists, whether regulations allow it to or not. Often you’ll find that cheaper brands use plant derived enzymes as opposed to animal ones. Here is my guide to finding vegetarian cheese in Australia.
If you like, you can use garlic infused oil for your pesto. I personally find a homemade version much more potent than store bought. Asafoetida powder also tastes remarkably like onion and garlic, so that’s an option if you fancy trying it. Use a TINY bit at a time.
When my food processor broke, I started using my Nutribullet for everything. While I love it and rely heavily on it, I find it’s too powerful for pesto. At the moment I don’t have another option, but I’d recommend using a less powerful machine (or a mortar and pestle!) for pesto.

Gluten free white bread sourdough toasties with zingy rocket pesto and Fromager D'affinois Campagnier cheese. Recipe from www.georgeats.com

FODMAP notes

This FODMAP pesto uses (optional) garlic infused oil to replace the garlic traditionally found in pesto. It also tastes good with regular oil, if you don’t want to use infused oil.

Parmesan is a low FODMAP cheese because of it’s low lactose content. If you are vegetarian, vegetarian Parmesan (or Gran Kinara) is equally low FODMAP.

The one FODMAP issue in this pesto is the nuts. I generally use walnuts, because they are a lower FODMAP nut. 1 cup of walnuts is generally around 110g and a FODMAP friendly serve of walnuts is 30g. This means that this pesto only needs to serve 4, which is a very generous serving.

1 cup of pine nuts is around 140-150g in Australia, and a low FODMAP serve of pine nuts is 14g. This means that a pesto using pine nuts would need to make 10-11 serves. Not impossible, but a lot less generous than a walnut version.

An aerial view of a halloumi, greens and pesto salad sitting atop a white marble table. Two glasses of water sit in the top of the image and create light and shadow patterns down onto the salad.

Places to use your FODMAP friendly pesto