Pumpkin Seed Pesto Recipe: Ingredients, Yield and Per-Serving Nutrition

By What Are Pepitas Editorial Team · Updated 2026-09-14 · Part of Pepita Seed Recipes: Roasting, Seasoning and Sauce Guides

This pumpkin seed pesto recipe is written as a complete card: weighed ingredients, an exact yield, numbered steps, nutrition per serving, and storage. It uses hulled pumpkin seeds toasted in a dry pan, flat-leaf parsley with a little basil, hard cheese, and olive oil, and it makes about 280 g of pesto, which dresses 400 to 450 g of cooked pasta with a little left over for bread.

Everything here is by weight because volume measures for herbs are unreliable: a packed cup of parsley can weigh anywhere from 30 to 60 g depending on how hard you press. If you want the no-cheese version instead, the ratios in pepita pesto are built for that, and the swap logic for pine nuts is in pumpkin seed pesto. All three sit in the pepita recipes collection.

Ingredients and Yield

Use flat-leaf parsley for body and a smaller amount of basil for aroma; all-basil pesto made with toasted pumpkin seeds can taste muddled, because the seed and the herb are both pulling toward sweet. The seeds should be hulled and raw before you toast them, and the oil should be a decent olive oil you would happily eat on bread, since it is 30 percent of the finished weight.

Cheese goes in last and is pulsed rather than blended. Grate it on the fine side of a box grater so it distributes evenly instead of forming clumps. If you plan to freeze the batch, leave the cheese out and stir it in after thawing.

Two ingredient choices decide how the finished pesto behaves. Seed form first: hulled kernels give a smooth, deep green sauce, while whole in-shell seeds give a browner, grittier result that some people prefer on bread but that never coats pasta evenly. Use hulled here. Oil second: a fruity olive oil gives a greener, pepperier pesto, while a mild one lets the toasted seed lead. Whichever you choose, measure it, because the difference between 85 g and 100 g is the difference between a sauce and a soup.

Numbered Steps

Step 1: toast the 70 g of hulled seeds in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 5 to 6 minutes, shaking every 15 seconds, until light gold and popping. Step 2: spread them on a cold plate in a single layer and let them cool a full 5 minutes. Step 3: wash and thoroughly dry the parsley and basil; any water left on the leaves will make the pesto separate within a day.

Step 4: put the cooled seeds and the garlic in a food processor and pulse 8 to 10 times to a coarse meal. Step 5: add the herbs and 2 g of the salt, pulse 8 times, and scrape down the bowl. Step 6: with the motor running, drizzle in the 85 g of olive oil over about 20 seconds and stop as soon as the pesto comes together. Step 7: add the cheese and pulse 3 or 4 times only.

Step 8: transfer to a bowl, stir in the 10 g of lemon juice and the remaining salt, and rest 10 minutes before tasting - the salt needs that long to distribute through the oil. Step 9: toss with 400 to 450 g of hot drained pasta, loosening with 30 to 60 g of the pasta cooking water until the sauce coats evenly.

Nutrition per Serving, Storage and Variations

One serving is 40 g of pesto, and the batch makes 7. Each serving provides about 190 kcal, 5 g protein, 18 g fat, 3 g carbohydrate and 1 g fibre, with roughly 310 mg sodium depending on how salty the cheese is. The protein comes mostly from the seeds: hulled kernels supply 30.2 g of protein per 100 g, so the 10 g of seed in each serving contributes about 3 g on its own. A 40 g serving also supplies about 60 mg of magnesium.

Store in a sealed jar with a 3 mm layer of oil on the surface for up to 5 days refrigerated, or freeze in small portions for up to 3 months. For variations: swap the basil for 30 g of cilantro and use lime juice for a brighter version; replace the parsley with 90 g of baby spinach plus 20 g of basil; use walnuts for half the seed weight; or drop the cheese and add 12 g of nutritional yeast for a dairy-free batch that keeps a week.

Leftovers are worth planning for, because pesto is more useful as a condiment than as a pasta sauce. Spoon 20 g over a bowl of bean soup, spread 15 g on bread before grilling a sandwich, or thin 30 g with 10 g of water and 5 g of vinegar for a salad dressing that comes together in a minute. A 40 g serving of this recipe supplies about 190 kcal, so a light spread of 15 g adds roughly 70 kcal to a sandwich without much effort. Homemade seeds work here too; how to roast pumpkin seeds covers the in-shell roast if you are starting from a carved pumpkin.

• Serving size: 40 g; batch makes 7 servings
• Per serving: about 190 kcal, 5 g protein, 18 g fat
• Per serving sodium: roughly 310 mg
• Refrigerated with an oil cap: up to 5 days
• Frozen without cheese: up to 3 months
• Toss with 400 to 450 g pasta plus 30 to 60 g cooking water

This page is part of the Pepita Seed Recipes: Roasting, Seasoning and Sauce Guides guide.