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.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
servings (2 cups)
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- 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
Ingredients
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
