Easy Cannabis Pesto » with Leaves or Oil

Use all of your favorite homegrown herbs like basil, parsley, and cannabis leaves in this easy-to-make, savory cannabis pesto. This recipe includes multiple infusion options for you to try, including fan leaves, infused oil, and more.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

If you’ve ever grown a cannabis plant, you may know the intense feeling of wanting to use all parts of the plant.

Members of my Well With Cannabis Community know that all parts of the plant are special, and this recipe is a great way to preserve their favorite different homegrown herbs.

Once made, this recipe can be enjoyed as a dip on meat, served over vegetables, swirled into pasta, used as a spread on sandwiches, and more.

In this guide, you will find the recipe, step-by-step instructions, and multiple different infusion options so that you can use up all parts of your beloved cannabis plant.

Ingredient Notes

• Toasted walnuts: find instructions for toasting walnuts below
• Garlic: fresh or pre-minced garlic will work
• Parmesan cheese: freshly grated parmesan cheese is best
• Fresh basil: freshly harvested and stems removed
• Fresh parsley: freshly harvested and stems removed
• Fresh fan leaves: fan leaves are optional; see notes below
• White wine: optional, but helps add a delicious flavor
• Lemon juice: fresh squeezed is best, but bottled is OK
• Crushed red pepper: for heat and flavor
• Extra-virgin olive oil: depending on your infusion preference, you can use traditional olive oil or cannabis-infused olive oil

Note: a complete list of ingredients with amounts and printable instructions is in the recipe card below.

Step-by-Step Instructions

• Step 1 – If you haven’t already, toast the walnuts.
• Step 2 – Add the toasted walnuts, minced garlic, and cheese to a food processor and pulse in 5-second intervals until all ingredients reach a fine consistency.
• Step 3 – Add the basil through crushed red pepper to the food processor. Turn the processor on medium speed and blend all ingredients for 60 seconds.
• Step 4 – Turn the food processor down to medium-low speed, and with the processor running, very slowly pour in the cannabis olive oil.
• Step 5 – Continue to blend for an additional 60 seconds or until all ingredients are broken down and well incorporated.

Note: complete step-by-step printable instructions are located in the recipe card below.

Storage Instructions

Store the fresh pesto in an airtight container, like a mason jar, in the refrigerator or freezer. Be sure to check out this guide for more help with storing cannabis edibles.

Alternate Infusion Options

There are many different ways to make a healthy and nutritious cannabis-infused pesto.

And just like with all things edibles, there is no right or wrong way to make something; it just depends on your available options and personal preferences.

Raw Cannabis Leaves

If you have access to female cannabis plants (or even males), you can use them to make your cannabis leaf pesto.

The most common cannabis leaves used in pesto are fan leaves, and these should be washed well, with any long stems trimmed off, before adding to the pesto.

To make a cannabis pesto with leaves, replace every cup of loosely packed basil with 1 cup of loosely packed cannabis fan leaves or trim. You can double that as needed.

Remember that cannabis fan leaves do not contain very high amounts of trichomes with active cannabinoids and are typically not intoxicating.

However, they are nutritious and contain cannabinoid acids, like THCA and CBDA. These acids have many powerful benefits on their own and are generally non-intoxicating.

If you’re looking for a cannabis pesto that will cause a ‘high’ feeling, use one of the options below.

These options use decarboxylation to activate THCA and CBDA into THC and CBD, respectively.

Use Infused Oil

One of the easiest ways to make a cannabis pesto is using cannabis-infused oil.

Once you have a cannabis-infused oil prepared, you can use it anywhere, in any recipe, including this one.

While you can make many different cannabis-infused oils, EVOO works and tastes best in this recipe.

You can use this cannabis olive oil recipe to make your own homemade infused olive oil.

Other oil options include:

• Store-bought CBD oil
• MCT oil
• homemade CBD oil
• homemade CBG oil

Leftover Cannabis Pulp

If you make your cannabutter or coconut oil at home, you may have some leftover cannabis pulp that would be perfect for this recipe.

The leftover cannabis pulp will not be nearly as potent as your first infusion, so you can use your discretion regarding how much you want to use here.

It will depend on how much you have, how strong the flower you started with was, and your flower-to-oil ratio guide.

A good starting place is to use 1/4-1/2 cup of leftover pulp and add it during step 1.

Decarbed Flower or Kief

Using just a decarbed flower, kief, or already vaped bud is a super easy way to infuse this recipe.

Simply decarb the flower, grind it into a fine powder, and add it to your recipe as a separate ingredient.

Kief typically contains the highest concentration of resinous glands, or trichomes, that contain the cannabinoids like CBD, THC, CBG, etc.

This means that kief can be much more potent than flower or trim.

Because of this, you may be able to use less of it in this recipe, or more, depending on the effect you’re looking for.

Remember that you still need to decarb the flower it kief just as you would traditional flower to enjoy the benefits of CBD, THC, CBG, etc. 

If you’ve never worked with kief before, you can get my guide to decarbing and making edibles with kief here.

For this recipe, I recommend adding 1 teaspoon of decarbed cannabis kief in step 2, adjusting your tolerance level.

Cannabis Concentrates

If you are a medical patient or live in a recreationally legal state, you may have access to cannabis concentrates. 

This recipe can easily use to make an easy pesto.

All can work in this recipe, from distillate or CO2 oil to shatter or wax and FECO or RSO.

Depending on your concentrate, you will want to ensure that your cannabis concentrate is decarbed first if needed.

If you are unsure if your cannabis concentrate needs to be decarbed first, you can check this guide here.

Once you know whether or not you need to decarb your concentrate, you can gently warm it up and mix it into the 1 cup of olive oil called for in this recipe.

How much you will add is up to you and your tolerance and preferences; 1ml or 1 gram is typically a strong place to start.