This Spinach Pesto recipe is a bright, flavorful, and delicious pesto that swaps out some of the fresh basil for nutrient-dense spinach. This 6-ingredient, 5-minute recipe is healthy, easy, and surprisingly simple to make at home. Serve this super versatile recipe it with pasta, fish, roasted vegetables, and more.
Love Homemade Pesto? Also, try my 7 Homemade Pesto Recipes including Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Walnut Pesto Recipe, Homemade Almond Pesto and Walnut Pesto.
Spinach Pesto recipe
This Spinach Pesto recipe is a bit magical. From its vibrant green color to its flavor-packed taste, this fun twist on traditional pesto uses fresh spinach in place of a lot of basil. If you want to make pesto, but are short on basil, here is your solution! Swapping out most of the basil for spinach gives this homemade pesto more nutrients and a gorgeous green color- even brighter than regular pesto. To keep the traditional pesto flavor, I left in just a quarter cup of basil. It spreads out that basil, but you still get that herby taste you expect from a pesto.
Traditional pesto recipes use 2-3 cups of basil, but this one only uses a ¼ cup.
This Spinach Pesto recipe is a lovely sauce that is super versatile. You can mix it together with pasta for Pesto Pasta, drizzle it over roasted vegetables, add it to pizza or homemade stromboli, or even add it to proteins like Pesto Salmon.
The intense and rich flavors in pesto go a long way in adding that pizzazz to your next meal, without a lot of fuss. In fact, this recipe is only 6 ingredients and mixes together in just 5 minutes.
Can you use spinach in pesto?
Yes! Spinach is a fabulous addition to your pesto recipe. Its green color and texture are similar to basil. The flavor isn't the same though, which is why I still keep a small amount of basil in my Spinach Pesto recipe. That way you can still get the basil flavor, even without needing as much basil for this recipe.
Bright, flavorful and healthy - Homemade Spinach Pesto from Running in a Skirt Share on X
Why You'll Love this Spinach Pesto recipe...
- This Spinach Pesto recipe is your go-to recipe when you want to make pesto but don't have a ton of basil. If you want pesto in winter, this is how to do it!
- The spinach is actually a nutrient-dense food that adds more nutrients to this recipe than regular pesto.
- This is a simple, easy and fast recipe that uses 6 ingredients and only 5 minutes.
- It's vegetarian, gluten-free, low-carb, keto, and paleo. I included instructions below to make this Vegan Spinach Pesto that would also be dairy-free.
- Like traditional pestos, this recipe is easy to make ahead AND freeze.
- The recipe is still a flavor bomb, giving you a lot of intense flavors in a small package.
- You can blend it in your food processor, blender, or go old school with a mortar and pestle.
- This is a basic recipe but you can tweak it and make it your own.
- Spinach Pesto is super versatile and can be used in so many ways.
Ingredients:
Here's an overview of what you'll need to make this Spinach Pesto recipe, but keep scrolling for the full recipe amounts.
- Spinach: You'll need fresh baby spinach. Frozen will not work. Spinach is actually rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, folate, and potassium. The recipe calls for packed leaves which means you push them down into the measuring cup.
- Basil: You'll still need a small amount of fresh basil leaves to get the true herb-forward flavor of pesto. Use bright green basil leaves that are free of blemishes. You can't substitute dried basil.
- Pine Nuts: I like to keep my spinach pesto traditional and use pine nuts. Here's a somewhat affordable bag to buy! If you don't have pine nuts or want to buy them you can substitute cashews, walnuts, almonds, or even pistachios.
- Garlic: You'll need a real fresh garlic bulb for this recipe. Get two garlic cloves (the smaller part inside of the bulb) peeled. You can pop them in the food processor whole and let the machine do the work of chopping them up.
- Parmesan Cheese: I like to use freshly shaved or grated parmesan cheese for the most flavor. You can also use a blend of pecorino romano. You can make this vegan or dairy-free by substituting nutritional yeast for the parmesan or simply leaving it out.
- Lemon: I like to add some fresh lemon juice to my spinach pesto to bring out the flavors. This is optional.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: A good finishing olive oil is what gives this recipe its lovely flavor. This dish is the most flavorful when using nice, high-quality ingredients. I like this one.
- Salt: I add salt to taste but don't add pepper.
Instructions:
This is an overview of the instructions to make this Spinach Pesto recipe, but the full detailed printable recipe is below in the recipe card.
- Start with your food processor. Add the fresh spinach, basil, peeled garlic cloves, cashews, parmesan cheese, and olive oil to the food processor. You could also use a high-speed blender. Or if you are up for it, blend it with a mortar and pestle.
- Start making the pesto by using a few pulses and then process the basil pesto mixture for several minutes until the pesto is well combined to the desired consistency. A few times scrape the sides of the bowl down to make sure it's all mixed in. Watch it until you get the right pesto consistency. Don't blend the pesto for too long though because that could make it bitter.
- Add salt to taste.
- Enjoy!
Variations
I love this Spinach Pesto recipe as written, but here are some fun variations.
- Make it a Vegan Spinach Pesto: To make this a vegan or dairy-free pesto use nutritional yeast for parmesan. You can also use leave the cheese out of the recipe for a fabulous vegan pesto.
- Mix Up the Greens: You can also use different types of greens to make this basil. Use fresh baby kale or arugula leaves.
- Make it Spicy: Add some red pepper flakes.
FAQ
Storage & Leftovers
You can easily make Spinach Pesto ahead of time. Leftover pesto can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. If desired, you can put a thin layer of olive oil on top of the pesto to help prevent oxidizing and turning brown.
Freezing
Spinach Pesto freezes great! Put the prepared pesto into ice cube trays and freeze. Once the pesto is frozen, remove the cubes from the trays and store them in a freezer bag or airtight container. You'll have cool pesto cubes to use when you want them. When you need pesto, just pop out one cube and use it. You can keep frozen pesto for up to three months.
Why is my spinach pesto bitter?
The main reason pesto sauce can turn bitter is if you mix it in the food processor for too long. Olive oil has polyphenols which can turn bitter if you process them too much. Carefully mix your pesto until you hit that sweet spot consistency, but don't over-blend it.
Does pesto have to have basil?
I think it does. Basil is a critical and essential flavor in pesto and I think you need some for it to taste like pesto. You can substitute out greens for a lot of the basil, but leaving some means your pesto still tastes like pesto.
What's the best basil replacement?
There is no true replacement for fresh basil in a recipe BUT you can swap out some of the basil for leafy green baby spinach. It still gives you the same texture and color as basil. The basil flavor is truly unique and can't be duplicated.
This Spinach Pesto recipe is Easy, Healthy & Fresh!
I love this Spinach Pesto recipe because of its gorgeous green color, vibrant texture, and flavor-bomb personality with spinach, fresh basil, and garlic. If you've never tried homemade pesto, you are in for a treat. This is more vibrant and flavorful than packaged or prepared pesto. Add this to pasta, put it on a sandwich, add it to an egg, serve it as a dip, or even pizza. It tastes delightful anywhere you'd want to add basil flavor to a dish.
To make Spinach Pesto Pasta or a pasta dish, add one recipe of this to a box of cooked pasta. You can keep it plain or add a protein like tofu, shrimp, chicken, or more to round out your meal.
And if you'd like to add it to a recipe, here are some ideas.
Serve it With:
- Pesto Gnocchi
- Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables
- Homemade Stromboli
- Easy Lemon Pesto Salmon
- 4 Ingredient Caprese Pasta Salad
- Pesto Tortellini Salad with Asparagus
- Healthy Creamy Pesto Pasta
- Pesto Zoodles (zucchini noodles)
- Pesto Quinoa with Shrimp
Bright, flavorful and healthy - Homemade Spinach Pesto from Running in a Skirt Share on X
More Pesto Recipes to Try:
- 6 Fresh & Tasty Homemade Pesto Recipes
- Homemade Cashew Pesto
- Homemade Almond Pesto
- Homemade Walnut Pesto
- Cilantro Pesto
- Homemade Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
If you make this Spinach Pesto recipe, I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment and a star rating ★ below. Make sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook too!
Spinach Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 cups spinach leaves, packed
- ¼ cup basil leaves, packed
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Start with your food processor. Add the spinach, basil, peeled garlic cloves, lemon juice, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil to the food processor.
- Blend for several minutes until the spinach pesto is well combined. Occasionally stop the processor and scrape the sides down to make sure it's all mixed in.
- Add salt to taste.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Cara says
Delicious! Such a great idea to add some spinach if the basil supply starts to run low. We're about to make a huge batch to freeze for the winter.