Spinach and Basil Pesto (and Ten More Interesting Pesto Variations)
In early summer, make this Spinach and Basil Pesto to stretch out your basil! It’s delicious and it’s low-carb, Keto, low-glycemic, gluten-free, meatless, and South Beach Diet friendly (with portion control)! Use the Fresh Herbs to find more recipes like this one.
Click here to PIN Spinach and Basil Pesto!
One of my favorite things about having a garden is Pesto, something I make many times every summer. Pesto is a great way to use and preserve huge bunches of basil, but this Spinach and Basil Pesto is something I make early in the summer when my basil is just starting to come on. (Later when I have a surplus of basil, I freeze some of the fresh basil for winter and make some into Basil Pesto with Lemon, which I also freeze.)
This double green pesto is delicious on grilled or sauteed vegetables, grilled chicken, fish, or pasta. Of course, there are as many ways to make pesto as there are cooks who make it; check below to see more interesting pesto variations.
I think the proportions of equal amounts of spinach and basil is great in this recipe, but if you don’t have that many basil plants, you could use less basil. I like my pesto a bit heavy on the cheese and pine nuts compared to some people, but pesto is something that’s always easy to adapt to your own taste so have fun experimenting with this delicious combination.
Two cups of packed basil is a big salad spinner full; give the basil is good wash and spin dry. You’ll need 2 packed cups each of basil and spinach leaves. Use the food processor to chop the spinach and basil, stirring a few times as needed to get it going. Then add the garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan and process until it’s well blended. Finally, add the olive oil through the feed tube of the food processor and process until it’s as smooth as you’d like. That’s it!
Make a big batch of pesto on the weekend and eat it things all week long!
Ten More Interesting Pesto Variations to Try:
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Asparagus Pesto with Pasta ~ Simply Recipes
Chard and Garlic Scape Pesto ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Beet Pesto ~ A Veggie Venture
Sage-Pecan Pesto ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Artichoke Pesto ~ Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Garlic Scape Pesto ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Dandelion Pesto ~ David Lebovitz
Basil, Arugula, Scallion, and Lemon Pesto Sauce ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Broccoli Pesto ~ Family Fresh Cooking
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Spinach and Basil Pesto
This Spinach and Basil Pesto is a great way to stretch out your basil.
Ingredients:
- (Pesto is always made to taste, so feel free to use more or less of any ingredient, whatever appeals to you.)
- 2 cups (packed) fresh spinach leaves
- 2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves (washed and spun dry or dried with paper towels)
- 2 T garlic puree or finely minced fresh garlic
- 2/3 cup pine nuts (more or less to taste)
- 1 1/3 cup good quality grated Parmesan cheese (more or less to taste)
- 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (more or less to taste)
Directions:
- To make this successfully you’ll need a food processor. There are many good brands, but for many years I’ve used a Cuisinart Food Processor DLC 10. (affiliate link)
- Spinach and basil should be washed and dried well.
- Put in food processor with steel blade and pulse repeatedly until both are well chopped, stirring a few times as needed.
- Add garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan and blend for 2-3 minutes until nuts are finely chopped and mixture is well combined.
- With lid on and processor running, drizzle olive oil in through the feed tube until mixture is the consistency you prefer. I don’t like my pesto to be too thick, but if you prefer a thicker texture, you won’t need as much oil.
Notes:
This is good as a sauce on pasta, used as lasagna sauce, or served over vegetables, chicken, or fish. The pesto will keep for about a week in the refrigerator. You can freeze it, but you probably won’t have any left!
This recipe created by Kalyn when she had fresh basil and spinach in the fridge and a craving for pesto!
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese are all high in fat, but you don’t eat pesto in huge amounts. Eaten over vegetables, chicken, or fish, this would be acceptable for low-carb or low-glycemic diets or any phase of the South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
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Looks good and wanna try it with your sautéed zucchini recipe but two cups of basil would cost me a fortune. What else can I replace it with? Would cilantro and spinach work together you think? Thanks.
I'm not sure about spinach and cilantro. You could cut the recipe in half, or just use more spinach and less basil and that will still be good.
Thanks. Will try that!
Finally made this tonight and used with the grilled zuchinni recipe as well as spread some on my grilled salmon. Yummy, yummy, yummy! The spinach taste gave a nice edge to everything. Never thought I'd see another pesto overthrow my beloved cilantro pesto. lolllllll
Abi, so glad to hear you liked it! And it sounds like cilantro pesto needs to go on my must-try list!
Oh my goodness me oh my! This was GREAT! I had a bag of spinach in the fridge begging to be used. Our basil in the garden is growing wonderfully right now, but I didn't want to sacrifice too much of the plant. This was the perfect pairing of the two, without using too much of my basil. I used my little 4 cup chopper to make this and it was perfect! The only thing I modified, at the request of my husband, was to add some lemon juice. I eyeballed it, but it was about 2 TBLS. According to him, it keeps the pesto a bright green. I liked the extra zing as well. I served this over GF noodles. Now I've got to decided what to use it on next.
Christin, so glad you enjoyed it. And I love the idea of adding lemon.
Brand new to the pesto world. But I love the starbucks tomato and mozzarella panini sandwich that calls for spinach basil pesto. So here i go, into the new world of pesto 🙂 wish me luck and thanks for all the advice
Debbie, there are so many fun variations; hope you enjoy this one!
Katrina, I agree. Love pesto on so many things.
Just made a half batch of this with my first harvest of basil for the summer. I used walnuts. Mmm! So happy for basil/pesto season!
Eileen, I love arugula, and I have tried it in pesto. I agree, it's a winner! Glad you like this idea too.
I haven't tried pesto with spinach, but I'm definitely going to! I find straight basil pesto to be too "basily"! My favorite is another variation, using arugula and basil. Arugula has a wonderful, nutty flavor and grows pretty easily in the garden. Give it a try!
Thanks Jeanette and Wanda; glad you like it!
I love pesto! and to combine basil with spinach sounds delectable. I will try it this weekend. Thanks, Kalyn.
I always look forward to summer pesto made with all sorts of veggies – spinach, kale, Swiss chard and garlic scapes I even tossed in some beet greens last summer. Recently, I blended some basil pesto w/ sundried tomatoes and garlic and spread some on chicken breasts before coating it in bread crumbs and baking it. The kids loved it.
This is my favorite pesto recipe! I use almonds for my nuts and make a pesto cream out of it using butter, cream, and more cheese. I freeze this pesto in an ice cube tray, then take out as many as I want about an hour before I want to use them. They thaw really quickly. I also use this pesto to make pesto meatballs. Yum!
Delight I try to thaw pesto overnight in the refrigerator. If I forget to plan ahead, I thaw in the sink in hot water. (Put the container in the sink and fill with just enough hot water that it won't leak into the container.)
For all of you 'freezers', how do you best suggest thawing your pesto? I froze my leftovers in regular-muffin-sized glass containers with lids. How should I defrost them? If I microwave, I assume that would cook the pesto and or melt the cheese in it… not ideal I assume. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. Thank you!
I've got to try this. Adding spinach makes it more nutritious anyway. I hope it doesn't dilute the basil taste too much though since I'm such a big basil fan.
great recipe! trying it today, and will somehow incorporate pomegranate in it for a POM recipe contest. thinking of a pasta salad with pomegrante. will freeze leftovers!
we freeze our homemade pesto in plastic containers saved from the soups that we order from the local Chinese takeouts. Just pour 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of olive oil on top of the pesto in the container,leaving about a 1/2 inch of headroom for expansion when it freezes and it will keep until next year.I once found an old container hidden in the back of the freezer that was several years old and it still tasted great with no loss of taste and no freezer burn at all!
Mike S. <:{{><
Anonymous, great idea.
Zoe, very glad to hear it!
Ok, I used walnuts in place of pine nuts and liked the result very much. I think cutting the amount of basil with spinach also helped me like it more than I usually like pesto. Hubby and I both approve!
I like to freeze pesto in a mini-muffin tin. This creates perfect portions of pesto to use throughout the year as needed. To do it, lightly grease your mini-muffin tin with Pam. Place a good tablespooon full of pesto in each muffin compartment. Place the filled tin in your freezer on a flat surface. Freeze overnight. Take the tin out of the frezer and let it thaw for just a minute or two. Remove pestos from the tins and transfer to a container with a sealed lid. Now you have individual sized frozen pesto portions to use as needed!
Thanks for the suggestions of walnuts and almonds to use. Both sound good. I’m in an almond kick right now, so I might try that first.
I love pine nuts but I actually like toasted walnuts in my pesto better.
Not sure if I would like them better with the spinach though.
Looks yummy Kalyn.
Wow! Great pesto recipe! I love adding the spinach. Pesto rules the world. :):)
Ari, have fun in that pesto phase. Sounds like a good phase to be in.
Katie, soon. Your pesto time will come.
Simona, sounds delicious on gnocchi.
Tanna, great idea, but it’s not cauliflower. I do think I’ll try that next though!
I’m always looking to add spinach to everything but I’ve not put it in pesto . . . why not . . . no early reason I can think of except I didn’t think of it. I’m thinking this would be heavenly on cauliflower among other veggies.
I use pesto on potato gnocchi as well as pasta. And yes, the fact that you can freeze it is just fantastic. I don’t have basil in my garden, so when I buy it I need to use it fast and making pesto is the ideal solution.
One of the best parts of summer is homemade pesto! Adding spinach sounds like a nice variation.
Now, to just wait for the basil glut. My garden is a slow starter this year due to cool rainy weather… but we’re finally getting sunshine so I have hope!
I’ve made one batch of pesto but way too little for the freezer…
Mmm mm mm! I’m in a bit of a pesto phase right now and I love spinach, so this sounds perfect!
Ari (Baking and Books)
Nicole, pesto is so great on pizza. (And *someday* I AM going to make a pizza.)
Zoe, I think the spinach makes this a lot milder than regular pizza. And agree, use a different type of nuts if you’re not hot on pine nuts. I think almonds are good in pesto. Pesto is all about changing the proportions to what you like.
Debbie, good idea about using different nuts. I actually have frozen pesto with cheese plenty of times. It’s the raw spinach that I was wondering how it would freeze. I should have tried it! Next time.
Kelly, this would be a lot cheaper,. I didn’t think of that since I have quite an abundance of basil.
I really appreciate these recipes. I love pesto, but it can get quite pricey to buy all the ingredients fresh. I imagine the spinach pesto would go quite a long ways and could be used on a variety of dishes.
Zoe, I’ve always made my mom’s walnut pesto. Maybe you’d like that.
Kalyn, this sounds like a great idea! I love spinach. I am going to try this as a pasta side dish, with pesto’s best friend, cherry tomatoes, thrown in.
As for freezing, all the cookbooks I’ve ever read on the subject say it freezes beautifully if you don’t add the cheese. (you add the cheese later when you thaw and use it)
This sounds like a pesto I might be willing to try. I’ve had pesto a few times at restaurants and have never liked it (I know, I’m strange). But I think if it has a lot of extra stuff in it to mask the pine nut taste, I’m ok. For instance, I buy a sun-dried tomato pesto that I like. How similar do you think this tastes to traditional pesto?
Sounds great! I’m dying to know what vegetable you ate with this! The last time I had pesto, it was on pizza :-)h