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You are here: Home / Recipes / Lemon-Spinach Pesto

Lemon-Spinach Pesto

April 6, 2018 by Linda Watson Leave a Comment

Lemon-Spinach Pesto

Lemon-Spinach Pesto with Whole Wheat Rotini is bright, flavorful, and costs only $1.53 for a main-dish serving using organic ingredients. The sauce alone costs just $1.42 a serving. It’s good on hot baked potatoes, crackers, green beans, peas, and more.

Adding lemon makes this spinach pesto almost as good as the queen of summer sauces: basil pesto. This recipe is easy, quick, and healthy as well as being mouth-wateringly good. It freezes well, so you can make it now and enjoy it during busy times ahead.

That cost includes a small container of Organic Girl spinach. You can cut the price further by getting a larger box of spinach, buying spinach at the farmers’ market, or growing your own.

Print Recipe
Craveable Lemon-Spinach Pesto
This bright, healthy spinach pesto will keep you energized through the cold months until summer, when the basil pesto rules. Spinach is 50% protein by calorie, one of the many unsung plant sources of "lean protein." Fresh lemon juice transforms this cool-weather pesto into a silver-medal winner. Using "nooch" instead of Parmesan cheese makes this pesto vegan, low-fat, and cholesterol-free.
Lemon Spinach Pesto in a bowl
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Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Servings
servings (2 cups)
Ingredients
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 6 cups fresh spinach 180 grams
  • 1 cup walnuts 100 grams
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast also called nooch
  • 1 medium lemon zest and juice, or two tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • freshly ground black pepper optional
  • 6 cups dry whole wheat rotini cooked and drained
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Servings
servings (2 cups)
Ingredients
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 6 cups fresh spinach 180 grams
  • 1 cup walnuts 100 grams
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast also called nooch
  • 1 medium lemon zest and juice, or two tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • freshly ground black pepper optional
  • 6 cups dry whole wheat rotini cooked and drained
Lemon Spinach Pesto in a bowl
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Drop garlic into a food processor set up with the stainless steel blade and the blade spinning at top speed. Turn the machine off when garlic quits bouncing, after about 10 seconds.
  2. Put roughly half the spinach into the food processor, then add walnuts, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, water, and salt. (If you have a large food processor, you can add all the spinach at once.) Process on high, pouring in olive oil as the blade spins. Scrape down the processor's sides with a spatula as needed. Add remaining spinach and poke it down a bit into the pesto, then process until almost smooth. Taste, then add a few grinds of pepper or adjust other seasonings if desired, processing to combine.
    lemon spinach pesto in food processor with bag of organic walnuts
  3. Toss lemon-spinach pesto with hot pasta or use as a spread on crackers or sandwiches. Pesto keeps refrigerated for four days or frozen for a year.
Recipe Notes

I usually make a batch or two of pesto at a time, but just enough pasta for a meal or two.

The nutritional analysis below includes lemon-spinach pesto and whole-wheat rotini.

Nutrition Facts
Craveable Lemon-Spinach Pesto
Amount Per Serving
Calories 576 Calories from Fat 333
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 37g 57%
Saturated Fat 4g 20%
Polyunsaturated Fat 16g
Monounsaturated Fat 14g
Cholesterol 56mg 19%
Sodium 424mg 18%
Potassium 515mg 15%
Total Carbohydrates 50g 17%
Dietary Fiber 11g 44%
Sugars 2g
Protein 18g 36%
Vitamin A 42%
Vitamin C 15%
Calcium 9%
Iron 26%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Filed Under: Entree, Recipe, Sauce Tagged With: lemon, pasta, quick, spinach, spring

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