Pesto rice is the perfect weeknight meal. It uses just 10 ingredients & takes about 8 minutes to make.
Eat it on its own, as a side dish, or as a base for delicious pesto rice bowls with your favorite toppings! Vegan & gluten-free.
When most people think of pesto, they imagine pasta. However, there are lots of delicious ways to enjoy that flavor-packed sauce.
One of my favorite ways is in pesto rice bowls. You just toss cooked rice with pesto, pile it into serving bowls, and load it up with delicious toppings.
It’s a meal that comes together quickly, which is perfect for warm weather months. And it can easily be tweaked to fit your preferences. So many delicious options!
Pesto is an excellent way to pack in those greens. Usually if a person wanted to eat over a cup of leafy greens in one sitting, it would require a lot of chewing.
But with pesto, it's all broken down into a garlicky sauce. It's easy to effortlessly load up with greens in your meal.
Maybe best of all, it's a meal that comes together in under 10 minutes and takes little effort to make.
In this post:
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.
Fresh basil and cilantro: Basil is the standard leafy green in pesto. However, I like to use a combination of basil & cilantro. (If you’d prefer, you can use all basil.)
Pine nuts: Pine nuts are the standard nut for pesto. However, they can be on the pricey side. See the section titled “Make it your own” for less expensive alternatives.
Nutritional yeast & white miso paste: Traditional pesto usually has parmesan in it. However, for a dairy-free variety, I like to use a combination of miso paste and nutritional yeast flakes.
Miso paste gives rich, umami roundness and nutritional yeast offers that bold cheesiness that balances the grassiness of basil.
Extra virgin olive oil: Pesto can be as dry or oily as you prefer. Even with an oil-free recipe, there's usually enough moisture in the pesto and wetness on the pasta or rice that oil isn't strictly necessary for getting the pesto to spread. However, oil can help with the body of the sauce.
Plus, frozen rice like I'm using today doesn't have as much moisture as the kind you'd make on the stove. So I added a Tablespoon in this version. If you avoid oil, feel free to omit it or use water instead to fill it out.
Garlic: Not everyone can tolerate raw garlic. So I don’t go too heavy with it in my pesto. If you’re really concerned about it, you could use roasted garlic which is milder. And if you’re not at all concerned about it, add more to your liking!
Cooked brown rice: While rice is easy enough to make, brown rice requires some wait time (at least 30 minutes' worth). So I like to keep frozen rice on hand for bowl or stir-fry emergencies.
As I mentioned in my favorite vegan Trader Joe's products post, their frozen organic brown rice is one of my must haves. The box comes with 3 packages of cooked brown rice inside that can be heated and eaten in just minutes. Homemade rice also freezes beautifully, FYI.
Step by step instructions
This section shows how to make this recipe at a glance with process photos of the steps. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.
Put all of the following into a food processor:
- Fresh basil
- Fresh cilantro
- Garlic
- White miso paste
- Lemon juice
- Pine nuts
- Nutritional yeast flakes
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch of salt
Blend until completely broken down, stopping once to stir any ingredients that have gotten caught up on the sides of the bowl.
Spoon the pesto onto warmed brown rice. Stir completely, so that all of the rice is evenly coated.
Give it a taste and add more salt, if needed.
Making pesto rice bowls
Now here's where the real fun comes in - making pesto rice bowls!
As with any bowl situation, it's all about the toppings. Adorn your pesto rice bowls with any of the following delicious toppings.
Something protein dense
- Grilled lemon tofu
- Roasted chickpeas in the oven or air fryer
- Vegan chick'n strips
Briny things
- Jarred grilled artichoke hearts
- Kalamata olives
- Warmed Castelvetrano olives with lemon & garlic (Use olives without pits for bowl purposes.)
Cooked or raw vegetables
- Quartered cherry tomatoes or diced summer tomatoes
- Roasted or air fried asparagus
- Roasted broccoli
- Roasted fennel
- Air fryer radishes
- Steamed spring peas
- Sautéed broccolini & kale
- Roasted delicata squash
- Caprese salad
Make it your own
You can make this pesto rice your own by varying the toppings or adjusting the pesto.
Replace the cilantro: Swap out the cilantro for an equal amount of basil. Or use a different leafy green like spinach, parsley, or kale.
Personalize the pesto: When blending the pesto, add flavorful ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, or artichoke hearts.
Replace the pine nuts: Instead of pine nuts, use pumpkin seeds (pepitas), pistachios, almonds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and cashews. Simply replace whatever nut or seed you like 1:1 with pine nuts.
Replace nutritional yeast: Use store-bought or homemade vegan parmesan. Just replace nutritional yeast with vegan parmesan 1:1.
Replace raw garlic: For a milder garlic flavor, use roasted garlic.
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The pesto rice will keep for 3 or 4 days. Reheat in the microwave.
Be aware that the color of the pesto will get duller green over time, because basil oxidizes once its broken up & touches the air. That won’t affect the flavor. It’s still good to eat. It just doesn’t look quite as pretty.
FAQ
Blended basil tends to brown as it's exposed to the air and oxidizes. So for the brightest pesto, make it fresh and use it right away.
If you'd like to make it ahead of time, you can help homemade pesto keep its bright green hue by putting a layer of extra virgin olive oil over the top of it. That keeps it from coming into contact with the air. Or cover it with plastic wrap touching it on top, like you’d do with guacamole.
The Trader Joe's directions suggest poking a hole in the plastic packaging and then heating in the microwave. I don't feel comfortable microwaving food in plastic, however. So I empty mine from its plastic wrap, put it into a microwave safe bowl, and heat for two minutes, stopping once to stir.
Toasting pine nuts before making pesto brings out their natural nuttiness. However, it’s not a requirement.
If you’d like to toast them, simply add the pine nuts to a dry (not oiled) skillet. Cook on a medium-low heat until golden brown. Be careful to stir often, as they’re prone to burning. Once they are nutty brown, remove them from the skillet, and add to the food processor to blend with the other pesto ingredients.
If you try this recipe and love it, let me know! Leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comment section below. It truly makes my day and is such a help!
📖 Recipe
Vegan pesto rice
Ingredients
- 2.5 ounces fresh basil about 2 cups, thick stems removed
- 2 big handfuls cilantro about 1 cup, thick stems removed
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon white miso paste
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons pine nuts toasted, if you prefer
- 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch of salt plus more if needed
- 2 cups brown rice cooked & warm
Instructions
- Put the fresh basil, cilantro, garlic, white miso paste, lemon juice, pine nuts, nutritional yeast flakes, extra virgin olive oil, and pinch of salt into a food processor. Process until evenly combined and broken down, stopping once to scrape down the sides.
- Spoon the pesto onto cooked, warm brown rice in a bowl. Stir the rice & pesto until it’s evenly combined and equally coated on all of the grains. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
- Serve on its own as a side or use it as a base for pesto rice bowls with your favorite toppings.
Shell
I love the idea of using pumpkin seeds instead of pine nuts. I tend to avoid pesto due to pine nuts, so this sounds like a great idea to me! And I also need to try the frozen rice at Trader Joe’s!
Cadry
Oh, you will love it with pumpkin seeds! They have their own inherent cheesiness that really adds a lot. The Trader Joe’s brown rice is super handy. My freezer isn’t complete without it.
Pixie @ Cheerfully Vegan
What a great idea! Rice done the same old ways repeatedly can get boring. This looks wonderful! Plus, my son-in-law can eat all of the greens you use, so I will share it with my daughter. He’s allergic to all of the usual ones – lettuce, kale, spinach, etc., etc., etc. It makes dinner prep very different in their household.
Cadry
Oh, wow, that does sound challenging! Basil pesto sounds like a great way to get in some of those dark, leafy greens without the usual suspects. Thanks for the kind words!
Becky Striepe
This looks like a perfect side dish – I’m loving all of the flavors happening in this pesto recipe!
Cadry
Thanks, Becky!
Dianne
I love pesto and I think it’s weird that people usually serve it with just pasta. It makes sense to serve it with rice, and I love the idea of making a veggie-loaded pesto rice bowl for a fast weeknight meal.
Cadry
Thanks, Dianne! Yes, pesto with pasta is great, but there are so many more options than that. Plus, rice is naturally gluten-free and something most of us already have on hand.