Sacla ‘Free From’ Basil Pesto | Chewsday Review

Here’s one for the gluten-free and dairy-free kiddos! This pesto uses tofu instead of cheese - but is this ingenious or just a fad? Find out in today’s Chewsday Review.

Ingredients

Sunflower Seed Oil, Basil 38%, Tofu 5% (Water, Soybeans), Cashew Nuts, Organic Rice Syrup Powder, Potato Flakes (Potatoes, Emulsifier (471), Spices (Paprika, Turmeric), Emulsifier (450I), Preservative (223), Antioxidant (304), Acidity Regulator (330)), Acidity Regulator (270), Salt, Pine Kernels
This pesto uses tofu instead of cheese to give the same ‘creamy’ texture without the dairy.
Oil, basil, cashew and pine nuts are all things I would expect to see in a pesto.
The emulsifiers and preservative 223 works to keep the texture of the pesto consistent and are generally well tolerated.
Allergens: Tree nuts and soy.

Positives

A dairy-free pesto is a real win for anyone with a cow’s milk allergy. Using tofu instead of cheese is a unique twist that I haven’t seen before!
Without parmesan, this pesto is lower in sodium than a standard pesto. This pesto contains 480mg sodium per 100g, whereas other store-bought pesto’s can contain up to 1300mg per 100g. It’s still fairly salty though, so be mindful of other typically salty foods on days you include this.

Negatives

Replacing the parmesan with tofu means this pesto is not soy-free. This could be an easy thing to miss as soy doesn’t generally feature in pesto (but all you soy-free families are well used to finding soy where you’d least expect it!)
This product is very high in fat (37g per 100g), but this is coming from the nuts and sunflower seed oil, which are the main ingredients. Most of this fat is unsaturated so this really isn’t a big concern. Saturated fat is just above recommendations at 4g per 100g, but this is actually less than most other store-bought pestos.

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Alternatives

Pesto is a great versatile sauce that you can use for a quick pasta dish or as a spread, dip, in fritters, mixed into purees…. The list is endless!
Whilst I love a homemade pesto (members have access to my recipes- there’s even a low salt one for babies) this is a great store-bought option. Using tofu instead of cheese makes this much lower in salt than standard pesto, and doubles as an allergen friendly option for those looking for a dairy-free option.
If you don’t need a dairy-free pesto, then Jamie Oliver’s Green Pesto is another store-bought option with less sodium than most others on the market.

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.

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