This post can now be found on Springpad’s new blog.
Nothing beats pesto made from fresh-picked basil. But, in the winter I often need to improvise with other green vegetables. It turns out that I like spinach pesto so much, I’m going to make it year round. Plus, spinach doesn’t go brown like basil, so you can make a big batch & keep it in your fridge for up to a week.
Spring the recipe!Ingredients
3 cups of raw spinach, packed tight
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts (walnuts are fine, too)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp honey
juice from 1/2 lemon (optional)
fresh ground salt & pepper, to taste
Directions:
In a food processor, combine nuts, cheese, garlic & honey. Pulse until they make a paste. Add spinach, pulse a few times. Then slowly add olive oil until it’s a creamy consistency – but small chunks of spinach are fine. Lastly, add salt & pepper and lemon juice to taste.
Serve over your favorite pasta. I usually cook the pasta, then toss the pesto in at the mast minute.
Does making pesto with spinach simplify my life? Sure does.
Tags: dinner, easy, healthy, italian, recipe, spinach, spinach pesto, springit!
In the picture of this recipe, it seems to have whole pine nuts in the dish. I don’t see that in the recipe. What’s happening there? Thanks. Janet
Janet – After making the pesto, you can serve it anyway you like. It’s perfectly great alone on pasta, but sometimes I mix in tomatoes, or raw pine nuts & feta cheese (like in the photo).
try adding pesto to a pizza shell. cover with artichokes, tomatoes and cheese, yummy.
also good with eggs in omelet or scrambled.
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hi…i made the recipe above (i added some basil tho) and what i didnt expect was the sweetness of the outcome…it was not what i wanted…:( i guess i should have thought this out carefully…honey is sweet.
other than that, it tasted good. 
@jennifer
Yeah, sorry about that. I usually don’t add any basil, so the I think the honey is pretty important to break up the bitterness of the spinach…
just found this recipe and made it for lunch today…delicious! thanks!
Had a whole bunch of spinach that was going to go bad. Thanks for the recipe!