Year round pesto awaits in this 15 minute, freezer friendly Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto recipe. Find garlic scapes at local co-ops, CSAs or farmer’s markets in late spring and early summer. Their season is short, so get them while you can! Enjoy this punchy pesto on on your favorite pasta, pizza, sandwich or drizzle it over soup. For a cheesy version see my original Garlic Scape Pesto recipe.
Discovering Garlic Scapes
The first year I’d ever purchased a Community Supported Agriculture Share (CSA), these twirly green lanky stems showed up in my box. I had never seen scapes before, and what in the world was I going to do with them?
To my delight and discovery, and after talking with a few farmers about scapes, I started making pesto with them. After-all, one must preserve summer’s bounty somehow, and this scape pesto was an easy decision.
This Recipe Is
- a condiment that’s loud and bold in flavor
- quick to whip up in a food processor
- versatile and delicious
If you make homemade condiments and love the bold flavor of garlic, you’ll enjoy this fun and delicious dairy free scape pesto.
What is a Garlic Scape?
A garlic scape is the flower stalk of a hardneck garlic plant. It tastes like garlic, only spicier and bolder. The stem (or scape) of the growing garlic is removed so that the remaining energy goes towards the development of the bulb, or head of garlic, which is good because this helps the plant develop plump, full flavored garlic cloves. So until the garlic harvest later in the season, we feast on scapes!
Freeze it For Later
I typically make multiple jars of pesto, in small batches, and freeze it in small Mason jars to enjoy throughout the many months scapes are no longer in season.
For smaller portions, I use an ice cube tray to store about 3 tablespoons per cube. Once frozen, they go straight into a zip top bag and back into the freezer. This is especially convenient when I just need a bit to drizzle over soup, or to use in pesto mayo. It thaws quick too.
How to Enjoy Your Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto
This pesto can be used like any other pesto but my personal favorites include slathering it on this Sourdough Discard Pizza, and Gluten Free Pizza as a pizza sauce, schmeared on crostini, drizzled on soup or swirled into Pesto Mayo to use on a tasty sammie or stir it into this Creamy Farro with Pesto, Asparagus and Peas.
This recipe is delicious as a condiment with many recipes, I find myself reaching for it often when I want a pop of flavor and color.
Do you know where to find your most local farm or farmer’s market? If not, check out Local Harvest. It’s an excellent resource to find local food!
Traci’s Tips
- How to Choose Garlic Scapes: Look for garlic scapes at farmer’s markets, farm stand or local Co-Ops. They should be bright green with a firm stem and no yellowing parts. Make sure they’re fresh by looking for the curl towards the end of the bulbil (towards the top of the scape). If the scape is straight, it’s past its prime which can produce a tough texture and bitter taste.
- The price of pine nuts have gone through the roof! I’ve been subbing toasted walnuts or almonds for the pine nuts in all my pesto recipes with delicious results.
15 Minute Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients
- 10 (154 grams) Garlic Scapes
- 1/3 cup (30 grams) Walnuts
- 2 tablespoons (12 grams) Nutritional Yeast
- 1/2 Lemon juiced
- 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1/3 cup (73 grams) Extra Virgin Olive Oil 73g
Instructions
- Trim the garlic scapes by cutting just below the bulb. Discard the bulb/tip and cut the scapes in about 1″ pieces.
- In a food processor fitted with the S blade, add the scapes, walnuts, yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Process by pulsing until the mixture begins to break down. Scrape the bowl down.
- With the processor running, slowly add all the olive oil. Continue to process until all the ingredients are incorporated and broken down, about 30-45 seconds, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Store in a covered container in the fridge and enjoy within a week. Also, you can freeze the pesto in a jar or in an ice-cube tray. Once frozen, in the ice-cube tray, remove and place in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
Delicious! I used roasted hazelnuts because that’s what I had in my cupboard when my garlic scapes needed to be harvested from the garden, and it turned out amazing! I will be saving this recipe for my yearly harvest to enjoy all winter long from the freezer!
Oh my! Hazelnuts sound amazing, Portia! Thank you for your note and giving the pesto a go. Storing for winter is a perfect way to extend the season! I am doing the same :D
This is so tasty! Thank you for a delicious recipe. Have made 3 batches so far.
Hooray for three batches, Darlene! I’m making my first today! Thank you for your note and giving the pesto a go!
So delicious. A little “spicy” for my 2 year old but the adults loved it
Yay! SO glad y’all are enjoying the pesto, Stefanie!
Thank you for this recipe. I made this without the oil and it was still delicious! I just used 2 TB of plant milk to give it a bit of liquid. Delicious!
Hi Carol! Thank you for your note and tip about no oil. So glad you enjoyed the pesto 👏🏻.
You’re welcome. I just realized that I forgot to rate it so I am doing it now.
So good. Love this recipe! Thank you.
Hi Molly! SO happy you enjoyed it. Thank youuu for your note and rating!
I make garlic scape pesto every year (& all year long with frozen scapes). My recipe is simple: scapes, oil, parmesan cheese & shelled pistachio nuts. So good. I plan to try your recipe & compare. I love nutritional yeast, so I’m intrigued!
Love your pistachio tip, Eileen, and that you make it every year too! It’s a freezer staple here. I hope you love the nutritional yeast version too :D
My first time growing my own garlic. Thank you for a great recipe!
Hooray! How amazing is home grown garlic! Thank you for your note, Mandi, and giving the recipe a go!
A lot more delicious than I expected! I was worried the nutritional yeast flavour would take over (as it sometimes does in vegan recipes) but the balance between the ingredients was just right and I couldn’t stop eating this.
Hii Sarah! Thank you for your note and giving the pesto a go! Hooray for a balanced pesto :D
I made this today so that my vegan niece can have some while the rest of us have a version with cheese. It came out well and tastes great. The only comment that I have is that I needed almost double the number of scapes that the recipe calls for. It took 18 scapes to get to 150 g. For someone without access to a scale, 150 g of scapes chopped into small pieces(random chop and mostly smaller than 1″) is about 1 dry cup of chopped scapes. – Pam
Hi Pam! Thank you for your note, giving the recipe a go and sharing your tip! Indeed, this is why I offer the mass measurement of ingredients, because in this example, scapes can be large or small (the smaller the scape, the more you’ll need). So glad you were able to make it work in the end. Thank you for sharing your notes as I know it will help others!
Terrific recipe and so quick and easy. We stirred it into a white bean and kale soup for the ‘extra something’, and it was a winner! I always freeze my pestos in ice cube trays and then transfer the frozen cubes to freezer bags, so that is what I’ll be doing with these.
Brava!
Hi BB! Freezing pesto in ice cube trays is such a great idea! Thank you for your note, tip and giving the recipe a go. SO happy to hear!
I love garlic scape pesto! I’ve always made it with nuts but now I’m wondering if I could use hemp seeds instead of the nuts?
Hi Charlene! I’m thinking that would be delicious! If you give it a go, let us know how it goes!
Why do you discard the bulbs? Whenever I make it I just trim the bottom of the stem and use everything else.
Hi Michele! I find the bulbs to be tough, but thank you for your tip! I’ll try adding them in next time.
My CSA newsletter linked to this, and it was a perfect way to use up this week’s garlic scapes! I used pine nuts instead of walnuts and lime juice and white wine instead of lemon juice (based on what I had) and just eyeballed the ratios and it still turned out great. It’s raw garlic, so it’s definitely spicy! Once I mixed it with rotini and some homemade cashew cheese, it had the perfect amount of bite. Thanks for posting!
Hi Laura! So happy to hear! Thank you for your note and tips… indeed, it’s got a bite!
This is so easy and delicious
Thank you Juke! So happy to hear!
My first encounter with garlic scapes EVER (we JUST joined our local co-op), and this recipe was a fantastic way to introduce me and my husband to this wonderful ingredient. I added extra lemon juice and olive oil because I had a couple more scapes than the recipe called for, but otherwise it was PERFECT.
SO happy to hear, Michelle! Aren’t scapes so nice? Thank you for your note and giving the recipe a go!
I recently got my hands on some garlic scapes and I’d like to make some pesto with them. I had a version of this a few years ago but I remember the woman who made it said she just used scapes and olive oil nothing else. I think your recipe sounds better so I’m going to give it a try. I’m a bit confused as to which part of the scape to use. Do you snap the top off at the bulb and use the bulb part and the top of the scape, or do you use the stalkier stem portion? I find the stalkier stem portion is spicer.
Thanks
Hi Amy! Trim the garlic scapes by cutting just below the bulb. Discard the tip/bulb. You’ll use the stem portion for the pesto. I hope this helps!
Traci, where do you find the time to make all these recipes!! You are amazing! Question: what could you sub the nuts for if allergies are an issue?
Hi Joy! Thank you for your note and kind words… one recipe at a time! :D Can you do seeds? If so, lightly toasted sunflower seeds would be nice. How does that sound?
this recipe is PERFECT.
Hooray! Thank you for coming back and leaving a note, Emily. SO happy to hear!
When searching this recipe I saw that there should be an option with no oil in the notes but I don’t see that when I come to the site. Do you have an oil free, vegan version of this recipe?
Hi Jennifer! I do not have an oil free, vegan version of this recipe.
I am going to try the recipe but I can not eat lemon or nutritional yeast. I was going to substitute a drop of lemongrass essential oil. What would you suggest for the nutritional yeast?
Hi Carol! Are you dairy free? If not, you can try my other recipe for Garlic Scape Pesto. Otherwise, simply leave the nutritional yeast out.
I made this – super delicious! I used toasted pine nuts instead of walnuts because that’s what I had and man was it good. Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth! Thank you for your note! Aren’t garlic scapes amazing? I absolutely love them in pesto. So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipe too!
This was hands down the best thing I’ve made since having to cut dairy out of my diet. I tossed about a half cup of the pesto with hot fettucine with broccoli, shrimp, lemon zest and lemon juice, off the heat. The heat from the fettucine tamed the “spicy” garlic bite. It was totally delicious and I’m so happy to have found this recipe!! Thank you!!
Hi Natalie! Thank you for coming back and leaving a note! SO happy to hear you’re enjoying those scrumptious scapes. Your recipe sounds fabulous too!
Would it work with cashews instead of walnuts?
Hi Valerie! I’ve not tried it with cashews but you could give it a go! I’m sure it will be delicious. Please let us know how it turns out for you if you give it a go!
I ended up using almonds and it worked great!! Also – I froze most of it but have had some in the fridge for about two and a half weeks. Do you think that’s still good? I know you said a week but I’m not sure what would go bad in it?
Hi Valerie! Thank you for coming back and leaving a note! So happy you enjoyed the pesto and with almonds (delicious!). I just tend to freeze things quickly if I don’t use them up, so I’ve not tested the pesto beyond a week in the fridge. You could nose it a and see what you think. I hope this helps!
I liked this recipe overall, but it was a little too garlicky for me. I added nutritional yeast, more oil, salt and basil to balance the flavors a little.
Thank you for your note, Shelby! No doubt, garlic scapes are garlicky! So glad you were able to adjust it to your taste.
Made this a few days ago and brought it along to our cabin for easy dinners. So far have enjoyed it on pasta and loved it on home made pizza dough with a little fresh basil, tomatoes and sweet pepper for toppings! Thanks so much for the great recipe! PS made it with walnuts because you’re right ~pine nuts are crazy expensive right now and tastes just as delicious with walnuts!
Hooray Heather! So happy you’re enjoying the garlic scapes. Thank you for your note and recipe suggestion! Your homemade pizza sounds absolutely fabulous! And pass the walnuts, right!?
We harvested about 150 garlic scapes today and were once again on the prowl for a way to use them. My hubby found your website and made this recipe for us tonight. We were both thrilled with the results! It was fast, delicious and easy. We didn’t have walnuts in the house so substituted pecans which certainly didn’t seem to harm this recipe. I will be making your “Creamy Farro with Pesto Asparagus and Peas” tomorrow. Thank you so much.
Hooray Joan! I’m so glad you’re finding what to do with all those garlic scapes! I’d love to take some off your hands! Fast, delicious and easy.. yup! Pecans sound incredible! I’m going to try it – thank you for that! I hope you enjoy the Farro … I love that one too! :D
Was I supposed to cook the scapes first? I made this tonight and it was so spicy like straight raw garlic that we couldn’t even eat it. We love garlic and eat a TON of it but this was inedible for us so I’m thinking I should have cooked them first?
I put a tsp on my pasta and added some margarine and vegan cheese to still try to use it with dinner but I’m trying to sort how to salvage it.
Thanks for any feedback.
Hi Nichole! I’m so sorry to hear the recipe didn’t taste good. This recipe is for raw garlic scapes, so there’s no cooking involved. Scapes are spicier than garlic for sure and a little can go a long way depending on taste. If you’d like to try making basil pesto and mixing it into the garlic scape pesto, that may help quiet the spicy.
Can I make this using frozen scapes? I froze them right after buying, and am hoping to make this recipe! Thanks!
Hi Natasha… I don’t see why not.. I’d thaw them first though. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
In response to Natasha’s question. We used up all of our fresh scapes and have had to move on to those we froze last summer (this has been a very popular recipe in our house)! My husband made a single recipe tonight to see how the frozen would compare to the fresh. The garlic flavor is diminished somewhat using frozen but otherwise we found very little difference. To compensate we added a small slice from a fresh garlic clove. We have served this pesto very frequently in the past 5 weeks and have had very positive responses along with requests for the recipe.
Thank you for sharing your notes on freezing and using a fresh garlic clove to amp up the garlicky flavors from frozen scapes! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipe! :D