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Easy Spinach Pesto

October 3, 2018 by Life is but a Dish 38 Comments

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a mason jar of homemade spinach pesto

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.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @lifeisbutadish on Instagram and hashtag it #lifeisbutadish

Filed Under: Dressings & Sauces, Gluten Free, Healthy, Quick & Easy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pam

    October 4, 2018 at 7:33 pm

    Any place special you get your pine nuts? They are quite pricey!!

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      October 9, 2018 at 2:31 pm

      Trader Joe’s!

  2. Theresa Gunderman

    September 14, 2019 at 6:52 pm

    Use walnuts instead of EXPENSIVE pine nuts

    Reply
  3. Amy

    November 16, 2019 at 6:39 am

    I made this today with pepitas, very good!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  4. Kimberly Savage

    December 28, 2019 at 11:05 pm

    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
    • Life is but a Dish

      January 6, 2020 at 8:46 pm

      Just a twist on the classic pesto!

    • Nancy Clark

      September 25, 2020 at 3:00 am

      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..

  5. C

    January 15, 2020 at 9:15 pm

    Also not as strong of flavoe as basil.

    Reply
  6. Anne

    April 29, 2020 at 6:35 am

    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
  7. Tarikk

    May 14, 2020 at 10:14 pm

    Does it have to be cooked/steeamed spinach or can I work with raw?

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      May 15, 2020 at 4:08 pm

      I’ve only used raw

  8. Kelly

    May 31, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    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
    • Life is but a Dish

      June 1, 2020 at 12:18 pm

      You’re so welcome!

    • Penny

      August 19, 2020 at 2:14 pm

      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.

  9. Teetine

    July 9, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    Easy and delicious. My steak is better thanks to it. I love your recipe.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      July 14, 2020 at 6:51 pm

      Hooray!

  10. Thegiftsports

    July 9, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    I cannot buy pine nuts. So I replaced it with walnuts. It was also great.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      July 14, 2020 at 6:50 pm

      Glad to know!

  11. Robert Marshall

    July 17, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    Is the spinach packed tightly, or is it just three loose cups?

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      July 30, 2020 at 1:28 pm

      I would say somewhere in between. I usually do 3 large handfuls

  12. Angelica

    August 9, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    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
  13. Lisa

    August 12, 2020 at 1:00 am

    So yummy! Love that gorgeous colour!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  14. Lesslie

    August 12, 2020 at 2:53 am

    This looks so delicious and beautiful! Can’t wait to make it! 💚
    Thanks for sharing

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  15. Dandre

    September 7, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    This pesto was absolutely delicious! So easy to make and love all the fresh flavors in this.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  16. Ana Feeney

    October 8, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    Oh man, this looks gorgeous and absolutely delicious!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  17. Nicole T

    October 20, 2020 at 10:59 am

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

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      November 2, 2020 at 3:05 pm

      Sounds awesome!

  18. Damian

    October 21, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    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
    • Life is but a Dish

      November 2, 2020 at 3:04 pm

      Hooray!!

  19. Felipa

    October 25, 2020 at 7:14 pm

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

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      November 2, 2020 at 3:02 pm

      Good to know! So glad you loved it

  20. Reggie

    March 7, 2021 at 9:00 am

    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
  21. Kenny

    March 9, 2021 at 11:20 pm

    Can this be frozen? Without the cheese? Just the olive oil? It sounds so good, when spinach is ready!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Life is but a Dish

      March 10, 2021 at 2:42 pm

      I think it would freeze well!

  22. Caroline Hornsey

    March 11, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    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
    • Life is but a Dish

      March 11, 2021 at 2:14 pm

      Oh I love this Caroline! Thank you for the review!

  23. Betsy

    March 17, 2021 at 9:20 am

    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
    • Life is but a Dish

      March 17, 2021 at 12:01 pm

      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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