This vivid green pesto offers a change in flavour to the more traditional sauce (ingredients below) as it includes lots of broccoli as well as the fresh basil, and toasted cashew nuts are used instead of pine nuts; walnuts also work well! Most dried pasta is egg-free, but it is always worth checking the packet to be sure.

Method:

• Put the broccoli in a pan of boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain really well and leave to cool. 

• Meanwhile, toast the nuts. Put them in a heavy frying pan and heat until they are beginning to turn golden. Alternatively, spread them out on a baking sheet and cook at 200ºC for 5 minutes, until golden. 

• Put the broccoli, most of the basil (save a few leaves for a garnish), salt and pepper, garlic, cheese, nutritional yeast and cashew nuts in a food processer and whiz until combined. Drizzle in the oil and whiz until you get the right consistency. Alternatively, place the ingredients in a mortar and pestle, and pound into a paste. Taste and season some more if it needs it, and add a splash more oil if the mixture is too thick. 

• For the pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook for 10–12 minutes or according to the packet instructions, until just tender. 

• Drain the pasta well, return it to the pan and toss with the pesto. Transfer to serving bowls, with a sprinkling of extra grated cheese if you like. 

• Variation: To make creamier green pesto, blitz a few spoonfuls of soya cream cheese with it before tossing it with the pasta. 

For a traditional (vegan) pesto sauce use the same method as above with the following ingredients: 

Leaves from a large bunch of basil, about 40g 
2 garlic cloves, peeled 
50g pine nuts 
120ml extra virgin olive oil 
25g vegan hard cheese, grated, plus extra to serve if you like 
2 tsp fresh lemon juice 
Salt and ground black pepper

Recipe adapted from: Vegan kids (Lorenz Books)