Saucy Tricks: Easy Spinach Pesto

ingredient

A beautiful pesto sauce adds both a nutritional and presentation punch to your dishes. Making it is about as easy as it gets. Here’s my setup.

/2012/10/spinach-pesto/images/sppestosetup.jpg

Equipment

blender

squeeze bottle (optional)

Ingredients

1 cup raw pine nuts, soaked 2 to 4 hours

2 cups fresh organic spinach, packed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon white Balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon dried basil, or the equivalent fresh

salt and pepper

Method

Put all of the ingredients in the blender.

/2012/10/spinach-pesto/images/sppestoblendering.jpg

Blend until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape the sides of the blender jar as necessary.

/2012/10/spinach-pesto/images/sppestoblenderdone.jpg

That’s about it! See, I told you it was easy!

Yield: 1 cup of pesto.

Notes

I like to put this in a squeeze bottle so I can drizzle it over whatever I am making.

/2012/10/spinach-pesto/images/sppestobottle.jpg

Fresh basil is better than dried.

You can actually add any seasonings you like. A clove of garlic will give it a bite, oregano will add more of a pizza flavor, or add a roasted green chili and serve with tacos!

Conclusion

I drizzled this on pizza before I baked it to add more color and more flavor. As you can see below, it gets a bit darker when cooked.

/2012/10/spinach-pesto/images/sppestoserving.jpg

It was really yummy!

It’s also good on Baked Falafel , crackers and grilled portabella burgers!

Enjoy!

Spinach Pesto

Spinach Pesto

Yield

1 cup

Equipment Required

  • blender
  • squeeze bottle (optional)

Ingredients

1 cup pine nuts, raw, soaked 2 to 4 hours

2 cups spinach, fresh, organic, packed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon white Balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon basil, dried (or the equivalent fresh)

salt

pepper

Directions

Put all of the ingredients in the blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape the sides of the blender jar as necessary.

Put blended mixture into a squeeze bottle.

Images

Spinach Pesto
Spinach Pesto
Spinach Pesto
Spinach Pesto
Spinach Pesto