Name: Spinach Basil Pesto
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves; ¾ cup fresh basil leaves; ½ cup toasted pine nuts; ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese; 4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered; ¾ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice; ½ teaspoon lemon zest; ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

This sauce is perfect for freezing in an ice cube tray. I just pop out a couple of cubes from the freezer and add to a pasta dish for a quick and easy meal. The Parmesan cheese can be omitted and added after thawing. Pour any pesto you aren't using immediately into an ice cube tray, cover with plastic wrap, and store in freezer.

Spinach Basil Pesto

baby spinach leaves

basil leaves

pine nuts

Parmesan cheese

garlic,

salt

black pepper

lemon juice

lemon zest

olive oil

Blend the spinach, basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a food processor until nearly smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Drizzle the remaining olive oil into the mixture while processing until smooth.


How delicious! I have never made pesto sauce before, so this was my first attempt and it was exquisite! Finding at the last minute that I did not have pine nuts, I looked up on the internet to find a suitable substitute, and finding almonds were appropriate (and I had them) I used almonds. They cut up beautifully in the food processor and I have some left over which I am going to freeze for another treat some summer evening! I highly recommend it!

This was fantastic! This was my first attempt at homemade pesto, and I will never be buying that nasty stuff in jar again. It is so fresh and all the flavors come together beautifully. I used 3 cloves of garlic because of previous reviews, but I don't think the extra clove would have been too much. I guess it depends on the strength of your garlic. I also used fresh parmesan, which I think is crucial to the taste of the pesto.  I served it with gnocchi and shrimp.  I don't have ice cube trays, so I divided the leftovers into little pesto "cookies" on waxed paper, put them in the freezer and then wrapped the frozen pesto in plastic wrap and then put them in a freezer bag.

really easy and yummy - substituted frozen spinach and basil and still turned out great!

Perfection. I was a little wary because other reviewers mentioned this tasting a little 'earthy' because of all of the spinach. I was also worried because once I blended mine all up the mixture only smelt of spinach. I had made this in the afternoon and stuck it in the fridge for a few hours. Once it came time for dinner it smelled much more like pesto. Actually one of the best pestos I've even had, this is one for the recipe books!

This is the real deal, truly amazing flavor. I followed the recipe exactly and since I do not have a food processor, I made this in my Kitchen Aid blender. I had to add all of the oil before turning it on with this method. I was pleased it worked just great. I used pine nuts and had no trouble finding them, I didn't think they were terribly expensive as some others have mentioned. Thanks Dianne for yet another wonderful recipe.

My 4, 7, and 9 year old love anything with pesto in it so I wanted to find a way to make it as healthy as possible since they eat it almost every day.  The spinach adds veggies and I used Walnuts to add Omega I added 1/2 cup more walnuts than the recipe called for.  Really good recipe.  I have huge crops of Basil in the summer time so I double the recipe and freeze in ice cube trays so it lasts for a few months. 

Yummy!!! I thought the spinach may alter the flavor too much but it was awesome! I would slowly just add garlic to taste next time..it's a bit much (or maybe try roasted garlic?) and this is coming from a garlic lover! My cloves were pretty big tho. Great recipe!

Simplicity and fresh ingredients are a divine combo! I added cilantro parsley red pepper flakes nutmeg and walnuts; omitted the cheese.

Mmmm this got thumbs up all-around! This was my first attempt at pesto and I am thrilled with how it came out. Thanks also for the tip on freezing for future use. Great recipe Dianne:)

I don't know what I did wrong with this recipe.  I used fresh homegrown basil, toasted the pine nuts and just followed the recipe.  Neither my husband nor I cared for it.  BTW, I do like pesto.....in the jar.

See how to make a simple, healthy sauce for pasta.

Spinach Basil Pesto

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total: 20 minutes

Servings: 12

Author : Dianne

Ingredients

Instructions

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