Homemade pesto - it doesn't work

[payaklw]

Is it just me or is there no way to make pesto that is edible at home? I have tried several times recently and it never turns out like the pesto you buy in a jar - it's never the right taste or texture no matter what I do. I am clearly missing something.

Also wanted to try and make my own hummus but I'm feeling life's too short now given my pesto failures

AIBU - yes you can make edible pesto at home which is better than supermarket option

YANBU - let's just cut my losses and buy ready-made

I make it in a food processor using this recipe - it is delicious. The ingredients are quite expensive though, I always make it in bulk and freeze. I think it works out cheaper than buying a jar, but not much. The taste is so much better though.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-pesto

Bulk it out with fresh spinach. Add basil, garlic, cheese, plenty of olive oil, a few pine nuts if you can afford to, otherwise a few walnuts or chopped mixed nuts, salt, pepper - whizz to a smooth paste in the food processor. A bit of watercress thrown in is nice. It's my go to can't be bothered dinner!

Homemade pesto is really easy if you have a small food processor. I just use an entire pot of basil, a load of garlic, grated Parmesan and pine nut in a small food processor and enough olive oil to get it to the right consistency. Takes me about 5 mins, including peeling garlic and grating cheese

Jar pesto doesn't have much pine nuts in it the cheaper versions use cheaper nuts. Ground almonds are a good substitute and taste nice even in homemade pesto. I just use a whole basil plant from lidl. I generally have so much left I freeze it in cubes.

I think homemade pesto is lovely! The individual ingredients are all so nice I'm not sure where you can go wrong. Maybe you just prefer the jar stuff though which is fine and probably cheaper unless you have a greenhouse full of basil.

My impression of shop-bought hummus is that is has a lot of lemon juice and salt, which is delicious. Homemade versions let you taste the sesame flavour of the tahini, which is a different, more subtle kind of delicious. A powerful blender helps a lot.
You can make a blander, creamy version with butter/white beans from a jar (not a tin because they don't form that gelatinous substance). I strongly recommend it.

I grow basil and found even basil, oil and breadcrumbs made a nice pesto.
I can't taste the basil in jars. They are also very salty. Maybe add more salt to your home made one.

My Greek friend shells her chickpeas to get a smooth Hummus.
I'd rather peel my own flesh than put in that effort for a smoother Hummus, but also, I sieve potatoes for mash and she thinks that makes me ridiculous also 🤣

I find homemade Pesto costs me a fortune so I just don't bother my arse with it and even though I enjoy it, it's not much better than a jar if I'm honest.

Hummus is easy but tahini is pricey but you don't need loads, plus I love roasting peppers and onions and garlic in olive oil and using that as my oil.

I used to cook everything fresh, curry pastes etc but with COL and prices I've scaled back alot and stick to meal plans that incorporate same ingredients for different meals.

It's so sad that it costs less to buy frozen ready meals for some meals than making your own, obviously not as tasty or anywhere near good for you, but right now, things are just so tight you can't blame people for doing whatever is cost effective.

Can’t afford basil and pine nuts so use other leaves instead, usually spinach with some rocket, and swap the nuts for cashews. Much cheaper. I use far less olive oil than the BBC recipe says, as it makes it too wet for me. Then some roasted garlic and seasoning. If I’m feeling fancy, will throw in some fresh chilli as well.

I think with pesto it's the ratios that are tricky, I make it with mostly herbs and just enough olive oil to make a paste and enough nuts to add texture. Lots of garlic and salt and pepper. Sometimes I don't bother with cheese as often I'm making it for a vegan. My favourite at the moment is parsley and walnut.

The Gousto homemade pesto is incredible. 20g basil, 30g toasted pine nut, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1 garlic clove, stock cube, 20g Parmesan, 1tbsp olive oil, 2tbsp water, 50g cream cheese and blend.

Haven't gone back to jar pesto since!

To reduce the cost of homemade when you buy a pot of basil from the supermarket immediately divide it and repot in 4 new pots. Sunny windowsill, lots of water from below and you'll have plenty of basil all summer.

I made pesto to Jamie Oliver's recipe, it worked out very expensive but tasted amazing. The key thing was to use a lot of basil!!

It was literally just basil, pecorino cheese, pine nuts, garlic & extra virgin olive oil. Lots of basil especially.. for a small amount of concentrated pesto. But so tasty.

Home made pesto is a real pleasure, we don't do it enough. As for hummus, i frequently do a simple quick blitz of a tin of beans with olive oil lemon juice salt and pepper. It's not the real thing, but it's a wonderful quick lunch.

Also separate them out into lots of pots - they chuck loads of plants in together to make it look abundant and worth buying but then they die because not enough space. We bought a supermarket one one and now have maybe 6 or 7 separate basil plants thriving. Time for pesto...!

Have you tried pesto from the fresh pasta section? Home made pesto tastes like that and not like the jar version.

^^. This! The basil sold in supermarkets is crammed too tightly in to pots to make it look attractive, with the result that it never lasts long. It needs to
be separated and divided in to individual pots in order to survive all summer.

Homemade pesto is a million times nicer than the jarred rubbish.

Homemade hummus is easy, quick and cheap, and you can tweak it to your palate with cumin, roasted peppers, sumac, anything really. If you’ve got a stick blender it’s a 3 minute job.

Give hummus a try. It's not the same as shop bought but very moreish and moreish.

I tend to sub peanut butter in for tahini (Nigella Lawson suggestion) and Greek yoghurt for some of the oil. Probably heinous but I don't think it's damaging anyone.

*very filling and moreish

I cracked hummus when I started keeping back the liquid from the tin to use to get it to the consistency I liked and use olive oil just for taste. Maybe some of the chickpeas too to add later to keep a bit chunkier.

Then it's just a matter of adjusting tahini, lemon juice, garlic, oil, salt to your taste.

I use the Napolina chickpeas because they are nice and fat and soft.

I make delicious home-made pesto and hummus, my DC far prefer them to shop-bought.

Taste as you go, and don't be afraid to add more garlic or salt or a squeeze of lemon to boost the flavour.

Jar pesto is stuffed with cashew nuts. That's probably why it tastes different to the jars

Fresh pesto has a vry different taste to jarred. I do love Sacla but they definitely use cashew nuts not pine. The only time I tried to make fresh pesto it tasted really bitter - no idea what I did wrong!