Life is but a Dish

Easy, approachable recipes for the everyday home cook

Easy Spinach Pesto

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Grilled Flank Steak w/ Spinach Pesto 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.

Grilled Flank Steak w/ Spinach PestoHow to make pesto you ask? Throw all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and boom bam pow you have pesto!

This goes great over my Grilled Flank Steak or really any steak, chicken, fish or veggie recipe!

Grilled Flank Steak w/ Spinach PestoYou 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!

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Grilled Flank Steak w/ Spinach Pesto

Easy Spinach Pesto

★★★★★ 5 from 16 reviews
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Description

Easy Spinach Pesto that goes great over fish, chicken, steak or veggies!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 cups spinach (can also use basil, arugula or any greens!)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • pinch of pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 lemon

Instructions

  1. 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.

Notes

Pesto can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for 7-10 days or frozen for 3 months.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. 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!

    Reply

    • 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..

  6. 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!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  8. 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.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • 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.

  12. 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!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  17. turned out great!! I substituted greek yogurt + water for the oil to be a bit healthier. This is my new favorite pasta sauce!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. 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?!?!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  20. 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!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  22. 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!)

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  23. 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!

    Reply

    • Hmm, not sure how that would work. Even when the nuts are ground, they still have some texture. It’s worth a shot!

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