Avocado & Spinach Pesto Pasta

Name: Avocado & Spinach Pesto Pasta
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 180 g Pasta; 120 g Asparagus (6-7 spears); 1 Garlic Cloves; 1 tsp Olive Oil; 5 g Unsalted Butter (1 tsp); ½ Garlic Cloves; 120 g Spinach; 70 g Avocado ( 1 small avocado or ½ regular avocado); 25 ml Lemon Juice (almost all juice from 1 lemon, to taste); 30 g Pine Nuts

by Basque Spectrum

2 Servings

30 min

Whenever I’m in a rush or I can’t be bothered to cook, pasta is my go-to meal. And, whose isn’t? Minimum effort and maximum benefit, it’s a no-brainer! But if you think about it for a second, it’s not really about the pasta, but about the sauce. That’s what it is all about, cause who wants a plain pasta? The problem is, that pasta sauces aren’t exactly the healthiest and most nutritious food group. And yes, in my mind they are a food group.

Ok, let’s cut to the chase, this no-guilt avocado & spinach pesto sauce is all about keeping the creaminess and flavour of a pasta sauce while keeping the calories and fats down and the nutrients up. I know, I know… it is a bit of a stretch to call it “pesto” sauce since the only true pesto ingredients in the mix are pine nuts and garlic. But I am no wizard and transforming the original recipe into its 3rd or 4th cousin is what it took to make this recipe healthy, yet still pretty damn delicious. No shame here.

Avocado & Spinach Pesto Pasta

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Recipe details

Yield 2 Servings
Time spent: Prep time: 15 Minutes Cook time: 15 Minutes Total time: 30 min

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% Daily value

Ingredients

Pasta

180 g Pasta
120 g Asparagus (6-7 spears)
1 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp Olive Oil
5 g Unsalted Butter (1 tsp)

Pesto Sauce

½ Garlic Cloves
120 g Spinach
70 g Avocado ( 1 small avocado or ½ regular avocado)
25 ml Lemon Juice (almost all juice from 1 lemon, to taste)
30 g Pine Nuts

Instructions

Pesto Sauce

Start by pan-roasting your pine nuts on medium-high temperature. Simply put them onto a hot, dry pan and let them cook for about 6-7 minutes stirring frequently until they are golden/light brown. Meanwhile, prep the rest of your pesto ingredients: peel the avocado, juice the lemon, chop the spinach and peel the garlic clove.
Toss in the avocado flesh, lemon juice, spinach, pine nuts, ½ garlic clove and a generous pinch of salt and pepper into your food processor.
Blend it all together until you get a creamy sauce without any chunks. Taste your pesto and add salt or pepper if needed.

Pasta

Cut the asparagus into 2-3 cm pieces and chop the garlic roughly. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chopped garlic once the pan is hot and cook for 30 seconds. Toss in the asparagus and cook for about 4-5 minutes.
Boil the pasta for a minute less than what the package instructions recommend. Drain your pasta and mix with the pesto and asparagus and cook it all together for that last minute. Serve the pasta with a wedge of lemon and enjoy!

Comments

Eliza Cross on Dec 06, 2020

What a fantastic combination of flavors. Thank you for sharing this special and unique pasta recipe!

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Judith on Mar 07, 2022

when do you add butter

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