Pesto, with its vibrant green color and rich, herbaceous flavor, is a versatile sauce that can elevate a variety of dishes. But is pesto keto-friendly? If you're following a ketogenic diet, which restricts carbohydrate intake and emphasizes fats, you might be wondering if pesto can fit into your meal plan. This article will explore the compatibility of pesto with the keto diet, its nutritional benefits, and how to incorporate it into your keto lifestyle.
What is Pesto?
Pesto is a traditional sauce or paste that can be traced back to ancient Romans. "Pesto" is an Italian word meaning "to crush," which describes its original preparation process. Authentic pesto sauce originates from Genoa, Italy, and is crafted from simple ingredients. The main ingredients for preparing this paste are basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and low-carb aged cheese, traditionally Parmesan or Pecorino. This combination creates a flavorful and aromatic sauce that can be used in various culinary applications. Pesto allows your taste buds to dance joyfully while you shed pounds. Isn’t that tempting?
The Keto Diet: A Brief Overview
The keto or ketogenic diet is a low-carb diet that restricts the intake of carbohydrates, replacing them with fats and proteins. A strict low-carb diet recommends reducing overall carb intake to 20-50 g net per day depending on an individual’s activity levels and metabolic wellness. Doing this is said to make the body more adept at releasing energy by burning fats. The idea is to get your body into ketosis so that it burns fats for energy in the absence of carbs. By drastically reducing carbs, the body enters a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel instead of glucose. This metabolic shift can lead to weight loss and other potential health benefits.
Is Pesto Keto-Friendly?
You can rest assured, the answer is a definite yes. Pesto aligns with keto principles and has low carbs and high fats. Traditional pesto is low in carbohydrates and contains less than one gram of net carbs per tablespoon. According to Carb Manager, 1/4 cup (about 4 tablespoons) of pesto contains 2.1 net grams of carbs, which is incredibly low and suitable for the strictest low-carb diets. Moreover, 1/4 cup is a pretty generous serving size for a rich, flavor-packed condiment/sauce like pesto.
Also, the mentioned pesto ingredients are all-natural and do not contain any added sugars. The high fat content comes from ingredients like olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese, all of which are keto-friendly.
Read also: Easy Keto Dinner Idea
Nutritional Benefits of Pesto Ingredients
To understand why pesto is keto-friendly, let's examine the nutritional value of its main ingredients:
- Pine Nuts: Pine nuts are one of the primary ingredients in pesto and enrich its taste. The fact that pine nuts are keto-friendly should dissolve most of your concerns. They are low in carbs and high in fats, just as needed in a keto diet. Apart from being low on carbs, pine nuts also provide many other health benefits. They help lessen the appetite of a person and control the portion size. Note that moderation is key.
- Basil: Basil is a natural, flavorful herb from the mint family. Its leaves are used in pesto. As Dr. Berg explains, “Basil has some amazing health benefits. It’s loaded with vitamin K, manganese, and flavonoids, which can help support healthy bones, blood clotting, and skeletal health while offering potent anti-inflammatory properties.”
- Olive Oil: Olive oil is a liquid fat that has low carbs and brings taste to the pesto. Usually, high-quality extra virgin oil is recommended in foods. Olive oil has many other advantages, such as being beneficial for cardiovascular and brain health. Evidence published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition summarizes, “phenolic content of olive oil is reduced by chemical extraction and refining.”
- Parmesan Cheese: Parmesan cheese is a low-carb, high-fat cheese. It is a granular cheese produced in Italy. It is keto-friendly and benefits one’s health as it is a great source of calcium and protein. Parmigiano Reggiano, widely considered the best cheese for pesto, contains digestive enzymes and beneficial gut bacteria, also known as probiotics.
- Garlic: Garlic adds a distinct flavor to pesto and is also low in carbs.
These are some of the main ingredients of the pesto sauce that aren’t merely delicious but also beneficial for health. This sheds light on the confusion of whether pesto is keto-friendly or not. So, shrug off all your worries when on keto!
Store-Bought vs. Homemade Pesto
Both store-bought and homemade pesto can fit into low-carb and keto diets. While both have the same standard pesto ingredients, store-bought versions may have additional ingredients like oil, sugars, excess salt, and preservatives that give them a different nutritional profile. Italians will be the first to tell you there’s no comparison between store-bought and homemade pesto sauce.
To help extend pesto’s shelf life, store-bought versions often contain preservatives and additives that can negatively impact the flavor and quality of the sauce and may harm your health. Additionally, many store-bought pestos will substitute critical ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), cheese, or fresh garlic, with cheaper alternatives or omit them entirely, leading to a bland or unpalatable flavor and a significantly lower nutritional value.
Therefore, check the nutrition labels on store-bought pesto to ensure its nutritional content aligns with your low-carb diet goals. When buying premade pesto, checking the ingredients for added sugars, carbs, unhealthy fillers, and preservatives is critical to ensure the product is Healthy Keto® approved.
Read also: Pesto: A Flavorful Italian Staple
Preparing the pesto at home allows you to control the key ingredients, making it suitably low-carb and satisfying to your taste buds. For instance, you can make basil pesto keto-friendly by reducing the amount of onions and garlic. Look for low-carb traditional pesto recipes that yield delicious pesto.
How to Choose the Best Store-Bought Pesto Sauce
Homemade pesto sauce is always preferred, but if you don’t have time to make it, the best premade pestos can often be found in the refrigerated section. Look for pestos that don’t contain artificial preservatives or low-quality ingredients, such as sunflower oil or potato flakes. Instead, opt for certified organic and non-GMO products that use high-quality oil and real cheese sourced from grass-fed and pasture cows.
Variations of Pesto
Some people prefer something other than green or leafy vegetables and herbs. If you are one of those but want to treat your taste buds to something tasty while losing weight, then try red pesto on keto diet. The main difference between green and red pesto is that red pesto is made from tomatoes (sometimes sun-dried) instead of basil.
There are many variations of pesto. Other variations can also be made according to taste. While some pesto variants contain higher-carb ingredients like sundried tomatoes or excess garlic, traditional pesto with standard ingredients like fresh basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil is wonderfully low-carb.
Tips to Make the Best Pesto Sauce at Home
Here are some tips on how to choose the best ingredients to make a nutritious and flavorful pesto at home.
Read also: Versatile Pesto Ideas
- Parmesan Cheese: Opt for authentic Parmigiano Reggiano, an Italian staple that’s been in production for over 900 years. Known for its rich, nutty flavor and granular texture, Parmigiano Reggiano undergoes a meticulous aging process and adheres to stringent production standards, ensuring its authenticity and superior quality. The Parmigiano Reggiano standard guidelines underscore a commitment to natural production, prohibiting additives and ensuring cows are fed local forage. This approach not only guarantees the cheese’s premium taste but also preserves essential nutrients and probiotics.
- Olive Oil: Select only pure cold-pressed EVOO. Many olive oils on the market are diluted with cheaper oils that compromise flavor and can introduce harmful ingredients that may negatively impact your health. By prioritizing cold-pressed EVOO, you ensure your olive oil is rich in flavor and health-promoting properties.
- Fresh Genovese Basil: Harvested during early growth stages to ensure optimal flavor, Genovese basil is the prime choice for making basil pesto.
- Toast Pine Nuts: While not required, toast your pine nuts to get the most flavor. To do this, toast them on a dry skillet over medium heat. Toss them often until golden brown and fragrant.
- Process Basil Last: Even though I sometimes add all of the ingredients at once (like in the pictures above), for the brightest green, add the basil AFTER processing the nuts and garlic because overworked basil can turn a dark color.
- Avoid Over-processing: If your basil pesto tastes bitter, you likely over-processed your sauce. When herbs like basil are roughly processed, they can break down and get bitter. To avoid this, pulse your basil and avoid over-mixing.
Keto-Friendly Pesto Recipes
If you’re looking for a way to add extra flavor to your keto meals, look no further than pesto. Pesto sauce has low carbs if made at home or in-store without extra additives. A spoonful of pesto usually has around just 1 gram of carbohydrates (8). However, know that pesto is a sauce used to enliven your food. Sometimes, it is combined with dishes that might have a considerable amount of carbs. If you want to avail yourself of all the advantages of pesto and its taste, you must be careful of the food combos you opt for.
Here are some savory keto-friendly foods have low carbs and go perfectly with pesto. It might be shocking how foods like pizza could contain low carbs, but it is true. Everything can bring you the desired benefits when used with the right ingredients and amount.
- Keto Pesto Pizza: First, prepare the pesto sauce by blending basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Then, knead it into a dough. When the crust is ready, spread the pesto sauce to your heart’s content. If you want to add colorful toppings, you can add tomatoes, capsicum, or onion. Also, add some tomato sauce or red pesto if the regular pesto sauce does not satisfy your cravings. People often ask if tomato sauce is keto. Well, yes!
- Keto Pesto Chicken: If you are non-vegan and want some meat on your pizza or simply a chicken sandwich, you can use keto pesto chicken to spice up your pizza. Blend basil, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese.
- Keto Pasta: To complete your pesto experience, try experimenting with keto pasta recipes. Zucchini noodles, keto gnocchi, and keto egg noodles are excellent low-carb pasta alternatives that work well with keto pesto sauce.
- Eggs: Heck, I’ve even been known to drizzle it over eggs.
Easy Keto Pesto Recipe
This Low-Carb Keto Pesto Sauce is super easy to make, can be used in a number of recipes, and is THE BEST pesto recipe around thanks to a few simple tricks. I absolutely adore this homemade keto pesto with all its fresh, garlic-y, cheesy flavors!
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups Fresh Basil Leaves - thoroughly washed and dried
- ½ Cup Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 3 Tbsp. Pine Nuts - toasting is optional, see notes below
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
- ½ Tsp. Sea Salt
- ½ Cup Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil Or Avocado Oil
Instructions:
- Add garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese to the bowl of a food processor. Processes until finely minced.
- Add the fresh basil and pulse to combine.
- While the processor is running, slowly drizzle the avocado or olive oil through the chute.
- Season with sea salt and add lemon juice.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings.
- Serve immediately or store tightly covered in the fridge for up to 5 days, adding a generous drizzle of oil to the top to keep it from turning brown. Simply stir the oil into the sauce before serving. Or freeze for up to 3 months.