Pesto sauce can be tricky AND expensive. Here is a delicious Keto Pesto Sauce that uses goat cheese to lower the lactose content and raise the taste! Goat cheese, cashews and spinach give this Keto Pesto Sauce a winning flavor!
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Keto Pesto Sauce with Goat Cheese and Cashews
Hubby and I decided to make a stuffed chicken breast recipe, which I’m just going to say turned out to be just about the best dinner we’ve ever made.
THAT recipe (which uses this pesto sauce) is not being released online as it is reserved for my cookbook series – The Keto Option.
Anyway, we were looking at the ingredients on the pesto bottles at the store and realized they are ALL made with a reasonable amount of cheese. We are trying to minimize cheese in the Krug household lately, so we opted to make our own.
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The main ingredients
Goat Cheese
We went with goat cheese as the lactose content is lower and is generally better tolerated by those who are lactose intolerant, from what I understand. AND goat cheese just tastes great. It is tangy and doesn’t taste moldy and yucky. It is one of my favorites!
Cashews
We also went with cashews because those are one of my favorite nuts and we thought they would blend nicely with the goat cheese. They definitely do. I ended up mixing the two together and eating it as a snack while I cooked! So, yes, they are yummy together!
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Spinach
I asked my husband why he chose spinach for the pesto sauce. His response “Because it was green. And healthy. But mostly because it was green since pesto is green”. Well, there you have, it folks. It was green. I chose the goat cheese, he chose the spinach. Did I mention that we make a great team?
Seriously, though, spinach is one of the best greens to eat. Not just on keto, but in general!
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Kitchen Essentials
You’ll need some sort of high powered blender or food processor. My favorite is the Ninja because it comes with a bunch of different attachments. I use it daily to make my collagen smoothies and I use it anytime I need to blend or chop pretty much anything.
Definitely for this recipe, though, you will need something that can puree (not totally, but mostly).
Tips
This recipe makes about 1 cup and unless you plan to use it all, I suggest having a mason jar handy to store in the fridge.
The consistency is even better the day after so you can even make it the night before you plan to use it. The taste is phenomenal either way!
Keto Pesto Sauce with Goat Cheese and Cashews
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients into a large blender (I used my Ninja).
- Blend for at least 60-90 seconds until well mixed. I went between high and low speeds until I found the right mix. Each blender will be different.
Nutrition
Trina Krug is a Holistic Nutritionist, Integrative Health Coach and host of the Carbless Conversations Podcast. With a Master’s Degree in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, her single mission in life is to facilitate self-healing in herself and those around her through awareness, lifestyle shifts and low-carb eating. As a current Doctor of Science student, she continues her studies in functional nutrition.