Quick and easy, this bright green basil oil is perfect for drizzling over fresh vegetables, eggs, or french fries. Here’s how to make basil oil.
This recipe was created in partnership with California Olive Ranch. All opinions are our own.
Happy summer! We’re up to our ears in basil (we have 4 plants this year) and wanted to share a fun, easy recipe for using up some of that basil. Pesto is an obvious choice for basil, but what about bright fluorescent green basil oil? It’s simple to put together, easier and cheaper than pesto, and darn tasty. Here’s how to make basil oil.
Related: Best Basil Recipes | Italian Pizza with Pesto
How to make basil oil
The basic concept is: blanch the basil by boiling it for only 1 minute. Then plunge it into ice water to stop the cooking and keep that brilliant green color. After squeezing out all the water, blend the basil with olive oil. It yields a beautiful, verdant green sauce that tastes like summer. For the full recipe, scroll down to the recipe card below!
Basil oil uses
So now that you’ve made this basil drizzle, what are some basil oil uses? Here are a few ways we’ve brainstormed to use this drizzle, but there are many more:
- Sliced tomatoes (above), or a caprese salad
- As a dip for bread
- Pasta (spaghetti, rigatoni, etc)
- Crostini with goat cheese (minus the citrus jam in this recipe)
- Grilled corn
- Hard boiled eggs
- Scrambled eggs
- Grilled or roasted vegetables
- French fries
- Smashed potatoes
- Watermelon gazpacho
Our favorite olive oil
The quality of ingredients is key when making basil oil. Top of the line olive oil is a must! If you’ve listened to our podcast, you may remember Episode 17 where we had an olive oil tasting with an expert from California Olive Ranch. We learned everything from how to taste olive oil, how to purchase it (by looking for single country of origin, seals of authenticity, and harvest date), and the health benefits of olive oil. Incorporating olive oil in your diet has shown to prevent cancers, promote heart health, lower blood pressure, and decrease risk of diabetes. With basil oil, the flavor of the oil makes the magic, so make sure to use the best quality olive oil you can find. We used California Olive Ranch Rich and Robust flavor, which was a silky smooth carrier for the basil flavor.
To us, simple & quick “non-recipes” like this basil oil are the stuff of summer. We picked up the best heirloom tomatoes we could find and covered them in the basil oil, which was visually stunning and perfect for a patio party appetizer. Enjoy, and let us know if you try it out!
This recipe is…
This basil oil drizzle recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and refined sugar free.
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Best Basil Oil
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 minute
- Total Time: 16 minutes
- Yield: ½ cup 1x
Description
Quick and easy, this bright green basil oil drizzle is perfect for drizzling over fresh vegetables, eggs, or french fries. Here’s how to make basil oil.
Ingredients
- 1 cup basil leaves, packed
- ½ cup olive oil
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Start a small pot of water to boil. Prepare a bowl of ice water.
- Remove the basil leaves from the stem and wash them; measure out 1 packed cup of leaves (make sure to pack the cup full for the best flavor). Once the water is boiling, add the basil and boil for 1 minute. Immediately turn off the heat, remove the basil and plunge it into the ice bath.
- Once the leaves are cool, remove them from the water and squeeze out as much excess water as possible, then dry them with a paper towel. (At this point the leaves will have wilted and reduced to a very small handful.)
- Place the blanched basil, olive oil, salt and pepper in a blender or in the cup for an immersion blender; blend until fully combined. Taste, and add additional salt if desired. Pour into a sealable container. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 week.
- Category: Essential
- Method: Blended
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: Basil oil, Basil drizzle, How to make basil oil, Basil oil uses
This sounds terrific! I can already see myself drizzling, dipping, and drenching with this! I love the suggestions you had for using this, too – they all sound amazing :) I can never get enough basil!
Thank you so much! I hope you try it out. I agree on basil — it’s like gold to me in the summer! :)
This looks so lovely. I bet it would be fantastic on cold soups as well as all of your beautiful suggestions.
Ooo I love that idea! On a gazpacho or something?!
Can you can this for fall/winter use?
Hi! Since it has fresh leaves in it we don’t recommend keeping it for a long term due to the potential of bacteria growing.
Very easy and delicious
★★★★★
Just made basil sauce and will put on cod for dinner . Excellent flavor.
I disagree about properly canning this
I think it would be no different than other canned vegetables have you tried that?
★★★★★
We haven’t tried it.