This pesto sauce with spinach is ideal for freezing in ice cube trays. For a quick and simple meal, I simply remove a few cubes from the freezer and add them to a spaghetti dish. You can skip the Parmesan cheese and add it once the dish has thawed.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 20 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves
- ¾ cup fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup toasted pine nuts
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place spinach, basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, lemon zest, and pepper into a food processor; blend until nearly smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
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- Drizzle remaining olive oil into the mixture while processing until smooth.
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- Enjoy!
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- Pour any pesto you aren’t using immediately into an ice cube tray, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the freezer.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 67 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 1 g |
| Cholesterol | 2 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 87 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Tossed it with pasta and cherry tomatoes and the kids loved it.
I skip the lemon and add a splash of fish sauce. Pesto perfection!
This is my favourite pesto recipe so far! I used roasted walnuts in place of the pine nuts and it worked out fine.
Wow this is amazing. Probably the best I’ve ever made. I used almonds instead of pine nuts, because almonds are my favourite and pine nuts are expensive. Still incredible and nice and garlicky!
I began making traditional pesto years ago. As time has gone by I’ve enjoy mixing the greens that I have on hand – homegrown basil, arugula & spinach. I go easy on the garlic and use lightly toasted walnuts and vegan Parmesan cheese. Can hardly go wrong! Great quick weeknight dinner.
Love it! I added in some arugula with the basil and spinach. I think the amount of garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper are to your taste. Easier to start with a little and add more!
Loved this recipe but found the garlic was too strong so I only did 3 cloves and added more lemon. Delicious
Absolutely delicious. Used Thai Basil and a few extra garlic cloves. Lemon juice keeps it sprightly.
SO good!! I also substituted walnuts for pine nuts. Makes a good amount of vibrant bright green pesto. Beautiful and yummy! I mixed the pesto with the pasta and served with sliced smoked lemon pepper chicken breast, 10 out of 10
Sounds really good, can’t wait to try, but the pinenuts and amount were left out!!
For the cost, effort, and taste it was just not competitive with what I could get at Trader Joes
Great recipe! Half spinach and walnuts make it more affordable. I used the juice of a whole lemon and no zest. I wouldn’t change anything else!
Oh, my goodness–this is a tango on the taste buds! Doubled the recipe se we could freeze. We’re in Texas so we amped it up with about 1/2 t. red pepper flakes. My husband asked to link the blender. We’re on a very low carb eating plan and this is most excellent on salmon or zucchini noodles!!
Jarred pesto doesn’t even compare. Love the different taste of the spinach and basil together. I used plain pine nuts without toasting them because I was lazy, and it was fantastic.
I don’t know what the cause is, but this causes a strong burning sensation in the mouth. Normally a recipe doesn’t include enough garlic… I cannot believe I am saying this – but this recipe has TOO MUCH garlic. I finished eating a half hour ago and the taste of garlic will not leave my mouth. SO STRONG! I’ve made spinach pesto before with no issues, but decided to try a new recipe tonight. I really wish I knew what causes the burning sensation.
Finger-licking good!
it was so quick and tasted so so so gourmet. Never buying store bought ever again
This is delicious. Only change I made was I added toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts since I had them. Loved the touch of lemon. Will make again. Have an abundance of basil this year.
Loved the lemon juice and zest for balance!
I can’t eat garlic and didn’t have any pine nuts, but even without those, this recipe was delicious!!
Good base recipe, and the lemon and lemon zest are nice touches. I tasted as I went along and so adapted it: I used at least 1/2 cup more basil; I stopped both nuts and cheese at no more than 1/3 cup each; and I used toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts (mostly because of the cost). My garlic cloves were large, and it was definitely strongly garlicky, which is fine with me. Personal preference: I always reduce the EVOO significantly (here to 2 tbs) and use broth for the difference, just because I find standard pesto too oily. Note: with my changes, this made a little over a cup—even with a few tablespoons more each of cheese and nuts, it would only be about 1-1/2 cups, which is more like 12 servings in my household. Also, someone said a blender doesn’t work, but I used mine and it was fine.