Easy Spinach Pesto that goes great over fish, chicken, steak or veggies! Made in less than 5 minutes!
Sometimes you just need a good, simple pesto recipe. I love this one because it’s a little different (I use spinach instead of the traditional basil), but the recipe is so flexible you can get creative! This Easy Spinach Pesto is gonna be your new go-to sauce for everything.
Watch how to make it
How to make pesto you ask? Throw all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and boom bam pow you have pesto!
The Home Cook’s Guide to Salt
Learn about the basics of salt, plus the best salt for cooking (hint: it’s Kosher salt!) with this easy-to-understand guide to salt for home cooks.
This goes great over my Grilled Flank Steak or really any steak, chicken, fish or veggie recipe!
You can also make this ahead of time and pop it in the fridge or freeze for longer use! Hope you love it! For more recipes that make dinnertime rock, head to my free 5 Days of Dinner Meal Plan that takes the hard work out of that “What’s for dinner?” question. I got you!
5-Minute Easy Spinach Pesto
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Food processor
Description
Easy Spinach Pesto that goes great over fish, chicken, steak or veggies! Made in less than 5 minutes!
Ingredients
- 3 cups spinach (can also use basil, arugula or any greens!)
- 1 clove garlic
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon salt
- pinch of pepper
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ lemon
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor or blender add the spinach, garlic, pine nuts, cheese, salt and pepper and pulse until well combined, but not totally smooth. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while pulsing. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Pesto can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for 7-10 days or frozen for 3 months.
Comments
Maxie
I’ve made this a few times. Today I used it as the base for grilled cheese on English muffins – my toddler LOVED it. I usually freeze the rest in small batches and use it for the base of pizza for easy weekday meals. Yummm
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
That’s a great idea!!
Eo_741
Very good recipe! I altered it a bit with Cashews and it tastes really good
★★★★★
pennie wolfe rose
This is so good. I didn’t have pine nuts so I used sunflower seeds. Pine nuts would’ve been better but they were okay. The pesto was delicious. Thank you. So simple and easy.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Beth
This stuff is addictive and delicious! I had to slow myself down. Check your teeth after eating because of green decor, but it is so good, you won’t care.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
hahah I love this!
Israel Oerlemans
Excellent recipe! My pasta taste’s amazing!
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Oh, I’m so glad you love it!
Ange
Delicious indeed. I had no pine nuts so I used almonds and cashews crushed with mortar and pestle.
Also lime instead of lemon adds a pleasant tang. Chervil also is a superb herb to flavour the pesto.
It was eaten on a pizza too so overall much enjoyed
Thank you
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Love your swaps, thanks for sharing Ange!
Sarah
Really love this recipe thank you! One of the comments suggests adding jalepenos. I didn’t have any to hand so added some pitted kalamata olives instead and it was a success! Definitely a keeper.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
I’m so glad you loved it!
Miranda
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate more veggies into meals for a picky eater and this is perfect. Added a splash of heavy whipping cream and worked so well with penne and chicken.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Ooooh, love the idea of adding some cream! I’m so happy you all love it!
Alexyss
Thank you for this great recipe! I use only 2 tbsp olive oil and then another 2 tbsp water and a very small amount of salt because I am making this for my 1 year old. Trying to add more iron and greens to his diet and he enjoys this sauce with his chicken! *huge win for me, happy mommy* haha thanks again!!!
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Yessss!! Huge win for everyone!!
Sue D.
This was terrific! I actually liked it just as much as pesto made with all basil. I had all the ingredients in my pantry. Oregano is just coming up in my yard so I added a couple tablespoons of that. It tasted so fresh and delicious on sundried tomato & goat cheese ravioli with fresh grape tomatoes.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Oh wow that sounds delicious, Sue!! Thanks so much for the 5 star review!
Aline
Just made this pesto and I have to say thank you so much for the amazing recipe! It was so easy and tasted sooo good! I used it to make farfalle pasta with pesto and peas! And my 3 year old and 1 year old both devoured it!
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Such a win that the kids love it too!
Sylvia
I had spinach that was sitting in my fridge for quite a few days now. I was looking at leftover pasta that was asking for topping. Not sure how I ran across this recipe, but remembered it. I had cheese and garlic and fancy olive oil. Did have to go get pine nuts (expensive but worth it) and whipped up this pesto. OMG! Sooooo yummmy!!! I had no idea it was this easy and the pesto is sooooo delicious. Thank you for posting.
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Sooooo easy and delicious!! Thanks for the awesome review!
Pam
The best spinach pesto!! Made Italian Club Sandwich on Focaccia bread and spread it on the bottom focaccia bread, and it was excellent. Didn’t have pine nuts, so I used slivered almonds….so good!!!! Thank you
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Oooooo, love the idea of using almonds for this!
Susan
This recipe is awesome. I changed it slightly since my daughter is vegan. I used Violife vegan parm and added extra. I also decreased the olive oil to about 1/3 cup and it came out GREAT. We have used this as a pasta sauce and as a pizza sauce:) Today I am going to try to use it in a pesto bread recipe. Spinach is our go to “green” for it’s nutritional value so I was very happy to find this pesto recipe. Thanks!
★★★★★
Laney Schwartz
Love how you were able to make swaps Susan! Thanks for the awesome review!
Betsy
This looks great!
Could I use almond flour? Since it’s just almond ground up. We really want to make this for st P day. But don’t have any pin nuts on hand. But I have everything else.
Thanks!
Life is but a Dish
Hmm, not sure how that would work. Even when the nuts are ground, they still have some texture. It’s worth a shot!
Caroline Hornsey
Hello and thank you so much for this delicious recipe! Three hungry kids and a very tired and hungry mama with no husband home…no pesto or basil in the house but a big bag of spinach so I looked up spinach pesto and found myself here…and I’m so glad. I had to use walnuts as we ran out of pine nuts but I’m sure it would be equally delicious! We all had seconds and there’s just enough left for my lunch tomorrow, win win! This is now my go to pesto recipe and next time I will be making x4 and freezing some! (Only sad we ate too quickly to take a photo for Instagram!)
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Oh I love this Caroline! Thank you for the review!
Kenny
Can this be frozen? Without the cheese? Just the olive oil? It sounds so good, when spinach is ready!
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
I think it would freeze well!
Reggie
Excellent recipe! I wanted to make some Pesto for my Avocado Eggs and realized I was out of Basil! Thank goodness for your recipe! Im added an extra tablespoon of parmesan for flavor rather than adding salt directly. Substituted the pine nuts with brazil nuts my wife had sitting around. Added a little more pepper than a pinch for extra flavor. And my love for garlic added an extra tablespoon. Came out great! Thank you again!
★★★★★
Felipa
really easy and yummy – substituted frozen spinach and basil and still turned out great!
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Good to know! So glad you loved it
Damian
I love this. Have also added Jalapeno’s to this for a little extra KICK! Really great stuff! Who knew pesto would be so easy?!?!
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Hooray!!
Nicole T
turned out great!! I substituted greek yogurt + water for the oil to be a bit healthier. This is my new favorite pasta sauce!
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Sounds awesome!
Ana Feeney
Oh man, this looks gorgeous and absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Dandre
This pesto was absolutely delicious! So easy to make and love all the fresh flavors in this.
★★★★★
Lesslie
This looks so delicious and beautiful! Can’t wait to make it! 💚
Thanks for sharing
★★★★★
Lisa
So yummy! Love that gorgeous colour!
★★★★★
Angelica
This just looks so perfect, Katerina. I love spinach pesto even more than basil pesto (I know, I know… blasphemy).
I love the addition of ricotta, too!
★★★★★
Robert Marshall
Is the spinach packed tightly, or is it just three loose cups?
Life is but a Dish
I would say somewhere in between. I usually do 3 large handfuls
Thegiftsports
I cannot buy pine nuts. So I replaced it with walnuts. It was also great.
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Glad to know!
Teetine
Easy and delicious. My steak is better thanks to it. I love your recipe.
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
Hooray!
Kelly
Thank you for a great recipe & beautiful pictures without a full-on manifesto of text…oh, the scrolling! I will be back for more recipes.
★★★★★
Life is but a Dish
You’re so welcome!
Penny
This was the first time I saw this site I signed up!). I made the spinach pesto with walnuts, and it was deli pious. Thank you for the recipe
I served it as the 1st layer in a plain glass bowl. Second layer was plain ricotta cheese. The 3rd layer was tomato jam I made earlier. It was beautiful and oh-so good. Next day, everything was even better, so I put the leftover on some pasta and enjoyed a wonderful lunch.
Tarikk
Does it have to be cooked/steeamed spinach or can I work with raw?
Life is but a Dish
I’ve only used raw
Anne
I used a full lemon and almonds with spinach and I had no leftovers. My hubby actually put extra pesto on his food. This is a very nice easy recipe for pesto that I’m going to have fun playing with..trying different nuts, different greens, etc. thank you!!
★★★★★
C
Also not as strong of flavoe as basil.
Kimberly Savage
More a question than a comment. Why use spinach vs basil? Maybe just that spinach is cheaper? Like the advice to use walnuts or pepitas vs pine nuts to save money. I’m definitely on a budget!
Life is but a Dish
Just a twist on the classic pesto!
Nancy Clark
I haven’t made it yet, preferring pesto made with basil, but I had no luck growing basil this year and buying large quantities is impossible, so I needed an alternative. My parsley is doing great and have made a combination of basil and parsley, but was still looking for other combinations. I am looking forward to using spinach..
Amy
I made this today with pepitas, very good!
★★★★★
Theresa Gunderman
Use walnuts instead of EXPENSIVE pine nuts
Pam
Any place special you get your pine nuts? They are quite pricey!!
Life is but a Dish
Trader Joe’s!
Sonya
You can also use sunflower seeds 😊
★★★★
Laney Schwartz
For sure!