Spinach Walnut Pesto

Spinach Walnut Pesto is an easy spinach pesto recipe that comes together in minutes with only 5 ingredients. You’ll never buy store bought pesto again!

I’ve told you numerous time that I have a thing for sauces.  A great sauce is worth its weight in gold because it changes up your run of the mill dinner and makes it extra special.  

This spinach pesto does just that, and is just the thing to liven up your pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, meats, and you name it!

Spinach pesto

While I’ve shared numerous tomato sauces with you here, I’ve also got a few pestos as well because I love myself a good pesto.  

The best part about pesto sauces is you can pretty much use whatever you have — basil, arugula, kale, and yeah — spinach.  The sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to what you can make a pesto with.

See my post on How to Make Pesto Sauce to see all of my variations!

This spinach pesto recipe is special to me because I created it during one of my practical exams in cooking school, which you can read about here.  

We were allowed to choose two types of produce from a wide variety and create a composed dish with them.  I chose butternut squash (surprise!) and spinach.  

I’d memorized a pastry dough recipe, and knew I wanted to make a savory galette with the butternut squash.  And I served it with — you guessed it! —  my spinach walnut pesto.

I re-created the Butternut Squash, Leek, & Gruyere Galette that I made at school and shared it with you here last year, and I have used this pesto sauce in other recipes like my Roasted Eggplant Sandwich as well.  I always feel compelled to give a sauce it’s own post, however, because they can be used for so many different types of dishes.  We wouldn’t want to pigeon hole a great sauce, now would we? 🙂

This spinach pesto is nice and healthy because it’s made purely with baby spinach.  Add some garlic, fresh lemon juice, and parmesan to punch up the flavor, with some toasted walnuts to make it a bit hearty and nutty.

I don’t like to add too much oil to my pesto sauces because I like the freshness to shine most of all.  If you like yours with a bit more oil, simply add more to suit your preferences.

This is a great sauce to make on weekends because it keeps for a few days in the fridge until your ready to use it.  It also freezes well, too.  It’s your ace in the hole when you want to pull a healthy, quick meal together on a busy night, or for last minute entertaining.  Like I said, a good sauce is worth it’s weight in gold. 🙂

More pesto recipes you’ll love:

Carrot top pesto

Basil Pesto Sauce

Grilled Pesto chicken

Pesto pizza

Pesto ravioli

Pesto zoodles

Spinach Walnut Pesto

Yield: About 1 cup of sauce

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Spinach Walnut Pesto is an easy spinach pesto recipe that comes together in minutes with only 5 ingredients. You'll never buy store bought pesto again!

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Ingredients

• 4 cups baby spinach leaves*
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons toasted walnut pieces
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Place the spinach, garlic, lemon juice, walnuts, and parmesan into the bowl of a food processor or blender and pulse until roughly chopped. With the processor running, add the oil through the feed tube and process until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste, then and add salt and pepper, and process once more. Adjust the seasoning as necessary.
2. Use immediately and serve with pasta, pizza, sandwiches, or meats, or store in the fridge for 2-3 days until ready to use. Enjoy!

Notes

• *I used triple washed, packaged organic baby spinach leaves, which was a huge time saver.
• To toast your walnuts, place on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until fragrant.
• If you like a thinner sauce, simply add 1-2 more tablespoons of oil.
• This sauce freezes well! You can store it all in one airtight container or place it in an ice cube tray wrapped tightly with foil and plastic and pop out however much you need at a time and thaw.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

2 tablespoons
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 81 Total Fat: 6g Saturated Fat: 1g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 5g Cholesterol: 3mg Sodium: 157mg Carbohydrates: 5g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 1g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 4g

Nutrition information is mean to be an estimate only. The numbers will vary based on the quantity consumed, brands used and substitutions that are made.

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