Spinach Pesto

This spinach pesto is so quick and easy to make, you’ll wonder why you ever bought pesto!  It’s the perfect, flavourful addition in so many recipes! Plus a quick recipe video!

Watch how easy this Spinach Pesto is to make here:

Do you love pesto?  Add it to anything and everything?  Or hate it?

I’m starting to really love it.  I’ve been making a pesto pasta recipe with it incessantly lately, and I’m kind of loving the fact that the kids think it’s the best meal ever.  And these are the same children that refuse to eat spinach.  For the most part my kids aren’t too picky, but they won’t eat spinach.  Unless it’s sneakily hidden in a pesto pasta sauce that is (or smoothies, they’ll usually drink those).  We’ll see how long I can keep up that deception by just calling it green sauce.

This spinach pesto is my new favourite recipe because it is so quick and easy to make, but also because I am completely incapable of growing basil (which is the usual green stuff in pesto).  For some reason it will never grow for me, even when I buy the plants that are well started instead of just planting seeds.  It still dies.  I don’t know what I’m doing wrong – isn’t basil supposed to be one of those plants that is easy to grow?

But then, I can’t grow zucchini either, which is completely baffling.  It’s only the most prolific plant ever – except in my garden.  In my garden it  inexplicably dies.  Every. Single. Year.

At any rate, I can’t grow basil, so I’m definitely not harvesting boatloads of the stuff to make pesto with.

So I made spinach pesto – because I love spinach, I can grow spinach, and spinach is always available at the store.  And evidently, spinach pesto is one way to get the green stuff into my children without any tears.

Clearly, it’s perfect.

Tips for perfect Spinach Pesto:

• if you don’t care for pecans, you can replace them with pine nuts – I’ve made it both ways and both are delicious
• this is the food processor I have and love – if you don’t have a food processor, I think that a blender would work well here too
• I like to freeze my pesto in an ice cube tray, then pop the pesto cubes out and store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer for easy to thaw portions
• here are a few recipes that use this spinach pesto: Pesto Chicken Pull Apart Sliders, One Pot Sausage and Asparagus Pesto Pasta, and Caprese Pizza

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Yield: about 1 cup

Spinach Pesto

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This spinach pesto is so quick and easy to make, you’ll wonder why you ever bought pesto! It’s the perfect, flavourful addition in so many recipes! Plus a quick recipe video!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 6 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 5-10 minutes until fragrant. Let cool.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the spinach, pecans, parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice and zest, and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
3. Pulse a few times to combine everything.
4. With the processor running, drizzle in the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil until the pesto is well combined.
5. Use immediately or portion it into an ice cube tray to freeze to use later.
6. Once it’s frozen you can pop out the pesto cubes and store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer until you’re ready to use them, up to 3 months.

Notes

Source: Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Recommended Products

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may receive a small commission from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Cuisinart 7-Cup Food Processor
• 
  The Pampered Chef Garlic Press
• Lemon Zester
• 
  Metal Lemon Lime Squeezer

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8 servings

Serving Size:

2 tablespoons
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 174Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 343mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 2gSugar: 1gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Information is estimated based on ingredients used and may not be exact.