Made with a blend of baby spinach and basil, you hardly even know that spinach is packed into this delicious spinach pesto.
Eating seasonally is ideal, I know, but in my defense I live in a city of perpetual summer. Pesto in February doesn’t feel out of step with the seasons when you're still taking your kids to outdoor swimming lessons.
Wherever you live, I still think that pesto is a perfect winter sauce, spooned over comforting bowls of pasta and steaming bowls of soup, like Slow Cooker White Beans and Tomato Soup with Orzo.
Of course, pesto is always delicious in summer, with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella or in a cold pasta salad.
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Why Should I Add Spinach to Pesto?
I like adding spinach to pesto for two different reasons.
- An added boost of nutrients, like Vitamin K, Vitamin C, iron and calcium
- More bright green color in your pesto!
How Much Spinach Should I Add?
It's up to you. I usually add a large handful of baby spinach, but you can add more or less, depending on what tastes good to you.
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📖 Recipe
Spinach Pesto
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Adding raw spinach to traditional basil pesto changes the flavor and texture of pesto just slightly. Spinach pesto is a tasty way to get more healthy spinach in your diet.
You can use a variety of different nuts for this recipes. To make nut-free pesto, use sunflower seeds or roasted pumpkin seeds.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons nuts (pine nuts, slivered almonds, walnuts or cashews)
- 1 clove garlic
- ¾ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (or less expensive Grana Padano)
- 1 handful raw baby spinach leaves (either a small or big handful, it's up to you)
- 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil (or slightly more to adjust the texture)
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor, blend the nuts, garlic and grated cheese until very finely chopped.
- Add the spinach and blend for about 8 seconds until the leaves are very finely chopped (scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed)
- Add the basil, then put the lid back on the food processor.
- Slowly pour in the olive oil with the blade running, continuing to blend until the pesto reaches a consistency you like. If you’d like the pesto to be less thick, then add more olive oil.
- Add salt to taste.
Notes
Pine nuts are traditionally used in pesto. However, I really like dry roasted, slivered almonds in pesto. You can use whatever type of nut you like best.
I buy a bag of pre-washed baby spinach, which makes it easy to add fresh spinach to pesto.
This spinach pesto stays fresh for about 5 days in the refrigerator. I often make a double batch so we have enough for dinner with pasta and leftovers to pack in lunches the next day.
- Category: Vegetarian
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: spinach pesto, pesto, spinach pasta,
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