Plenty of olive oil and fresh basil make this Vegan Pesto Focaccia a rich and fragrant bread recipe. It's perfect for dipping. Find out how to make it below.
A riot of Italian flavours
Today I'm sharing my recipe for Vegan Pesto Focaccia. This Italian-inspired bread takes everything we love about traditional focaccia — its light, airy texture, dimpled surface, and golden crust — and elevates it with vegan pesto that’s bursting with fresh herbs and zesty flavours.
It's a really rich and indulgent bread that is incredibly moreish. I can't resist it fresh out of the oven!
Focaccia
In my opinion, focaccia is already one of the simplest breads to make (which is why I have so many focaccia recipes on the blog!) It's also a naturally vegan dough, made with just bread flour, water, yeast, salt, and olive oil so it's the perfect bread to learn to make when you follow a plant based diet.
You might be a bit surprised when baking this bread that it isn't the same as your average loaf of bread. The high liquid content in the recipe means it is a really wet, sticky dough to work with. But, the high hydration is essential to get the distinctive crumb texture.
My top tips for making this recipe is to keep your hands and work surface well oiled when you're working with the dough. This means it won't stick to everything!
Vegan pesto
What makes this particular focaccia recipe special is that pesto is worked into the dough as well as being drizzled on top.
Traditionally pesto is made with dairy (Parmesan) meaning it's not suitable for those following a plant based diet. Luckily, these days we don't need to miss out!
Instead of using Parmesan you can create a plant-based version that’s just as rich and savoury by blending pine nuts, basil, garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and plenty of olive oil.
Nutritional yeast is the key ingredient here. It adds a cheesy, umami flavour. Pine nuts provide texture, while fresh basil, garlic and a hint of lemon give it that iconic, fresh flavour.
Of course you don't have to make your own pesto and store bought is fine too.
Pesto variations
I used store bought vegan pesto to make this recipe. But, you can play around with different flavours if you make your own. Here are a couple of pesto variations you could try in this recipe.
If you want to get really creative you could also try red pepper pesto or sage and pumpkin pesto. Both of these recipes are vegetarian; just swap out the regular Parmesan for vegan Parmesan or nutritional yeast to make them vegan.
Serving suggestions
Vegan Pesto Focaccia is perfect on its own as a snack or served alongside your favourite soups and salads. It also makes a great sandwich bread or it can be torn up and dipped in extra olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Let me know how you eat yours in the comments below.
The recipe
Vegan Pesto Focaccia
Ingredients
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 g instant yeast
- 150 ml olive oil
- 300 ml water warm
- 8 tablespoon vegan pesto
- Olive oil for your hands
- Basil leaves
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast.
- Add the olive oil, warm water and half of the pesto.
- Bring together until you have a wet sticky dough ball.
- Knead briefly with oiled hands until it is smooth.
- Brush with olive oil and leave in an oiled bowl with a damp tea towel over the top.
- Leave to prove for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Line your baking tray with baking paper then tip out the dough on top.
- Oil your hands again and stretch it out into a large rectangle covering the baking tray.
- Press dimples into the dough at random intervals.
- Spoon over the remaining pesto and brush again with olive oil and cover.
- Let it prove for another hour.
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 C / 425 F / gas mark 7.
- Oil your hands and press down into the dimples again to make sure they are defined.
- Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 25 – 20 minutes until golden on top.
- Transfer to a cooling wrack.
- Top with fresh basil leaves before serving.
Nutrition
More focaccia recipes
More bread recipes
In the bread recipe archive you can find recipes for a whole range of different sweet and savoury breads, including fougasse, ciabatta, soda bread, English muffins and more!
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