Spinach-Basil Pesto Recipe (2024)

I use a microwave to cook spinach. It does a really terrific job. I allow ±4 minutes for a big pile of spinach in a glass bowl, not covered. No water, no oil. For this recipe, after I'd processed all the spinach I gave the basil 45 seconds in the microwave and added it to the spinach, added some oil, sea salt and minced garlic and pureed everything. The result was terrific!

A tip to make like easier - don’t bother doing the boil/shock method for the greens only to have to spend forever squeezing them out. Just steam them you get so much less liquid and you don’t even have to shock them in the ice bath. It takes so much less time, effort and mess.

This has a more delicate flavor than regular pesto and I didn't think I would like it as much without the garlic but it's wonderful. Didn't cook the spinach or the basil, just dropped them into the food processor and blitzed them with olive oil before adding toasted nuts (some sliced almonds and chopped pecans because that's what I had on hand and basil waits for no one) and cheese. It's a gorgeous green color and almost tastes...buttery? Wonderful slathered on bread.

We love this pesto. Great, very smart, recipe. Both healthy and delicious. We grew tired of the same old, same old pesto, and we decided to give this a try. It's now a regular staple in our house, and we like it far better than the more "familiar" recipes for pesto (i.e. garlic, pine nuts, etc. which for us is ho-hum). Parker-Pope is a terrific health writer, and obviously an excellent cook as well...

This was interesting. Did not bother cooking spinach; instead I just processed it along with the basil and walnuts. For 1 Lbs spaghetti, I used all designated amounts except I used 1/3 c EVOO and 1/2 c finely grated Parmesan. Added 2 cloves garlic too. The spinach was warmed by the hot pasta. Beautiful color and a more subtle taste than traditional basil pesto.

Put fresh spinach and basil in the food processor without blanching or microwaving. Added a bit of garlic (old habits die hard) along with the walnuts. Then added some warm half and half with the parmesan. It was delicious!

1 tsp was way too much salt. Recommend adding half that amount and then adding more to taste. The ultimate taste was fairly bland so I added 2 cloves of garlic, which helped a bit.

Used nutritional yeast in place of parmesean and it worked well! That made the recipe vegan! 😳Steamed as recommended in comments and turned out well. Will make again!

This makes about a cup, not 4 as indicated

I felt teaspoon of salt was too much and used 3/4 but felt that even was too much. Next time I’ll salt to taste

Lovely recipe! Easy and healthy. I ended up using some lemon infused olive oil and a bit of chili infused olive oil. SO good on toast!

The New Zealand spinach in my garden was out of control so I quadrupled this recipe (my basil is pretty healthy, too). I didn’t add the Parmesan since I’m freezing it. After one cup of oil, the flavor and texture were delightful, so I didn’t add any more. Despite copious amounts (4x!) of basil, spinach, and walnuts, I only got shy of 5 cups of pesto. It’s delicious, but I was hoping for more.

I did what the recipe said, boiled the greens for less than 1 min. The pesto turned out to have no strong aroma of basil.

After I boiled the greens, there had no taste of the basil at all. Is it just me?

This has a more delicate flavor than regular pesto and I didn't think I would like it as much without the garlic but it's wonderful. Didn't cook the spinach or the basil, just dropped them into the food processor and blitzed them with olive oil before adding toasted nuts (some sliced almonds and chopped pecans because that's what I had on hand and basil waits for no one) and cheese. It's a gorgeous green color and almost tastes...buttery? Wonderful slathered on bread.

I make this and don’t bother to cook the spinach. Just process with the basil. Since I have a ton of garlic scapes will add a few this time.

Great as written, but next time will add garlic.

Really good. Used the microwave method to wilt spinach and basil (and will use it elsewhere!). Made 1 cup. No salt to start, but added a generous pinch later. Added one fat garlic clove. Hardest part was to avoid demolishing it all with the spoon as I transferred it to a container!

I threw this together using some of the notes from the comments. I steamed my spinach instead, and then gently squeezed out the excess water in a mesh sieve over the sink before adding the spinach to my blender. I also made some garlic confit (garlic in oil on a low temp for an hour +) to add since the recipe notes how sharp raw garlic can be. Bonus, you can use the garlicy oil in the pesto. It turned out beautifully!! Smooth and verdant. Yum.

Can you freeze this?