This spinach pesto is simple and delicious, it gets a bright green color from lots of spinach, and nothing completes the meal like chicken and pasta. This will be making its way onto your meal rotation in no time.

This spinach pesto is full of flavor with basil, garlic, cheese, and nuts. It’s creamy and delicious and this recipe is special enough to serve to company.

Make a double batch, it’s great for large dinners, makes for perfect meal prep, and freezes well too.

This spinach pesto pasta has all the great taste of traditional pesto, but it’s much lighter while using less oil. This creamy version has a great punch of flavor with the addition of fresh lemon juice.

Ingredients:

pasta
cooked chicken
chicken broth
heavy cream
fresh baby spinach
chicken bouillon
garlic
green onions
capers
toasted pine nuts or walnuts
basil
Romano/Parmesan Cheese
fresh lemon

For quick weeknight meals, I typically cook chicken ahead of time, or chopped rotisserie chicken is another option.

If I’m making the meal for company, I add garlic seasoning to the chicken and grill the chicken or cook it on the Blackstone, it can also be baked.

Bowtie pasta holds a nice amount of sauce in the crevices which I really like with this sauce.

This spinach pesto all starts with… lots of fresh baby spinach and is made delicious with garlic and basil. It’s made thick with a roux and has an added creaminess that is irresistible.

I just love the fresh lemon flavor added at the end, that gives this dish a fresh taste.

What else can be added to this pesto:

Add toasted pine nuts, or chopped walnuts for added crunch.
Add some crushed red pepper for a bit of spice.
Another great protein option is sausage or meatballs.

More pasta recipes you might like:

Print Recipe

Spinach Pesto

Power packed with spinach to increase the vegetables in this delicious pasta recipe with chicken

Prep Time15

Total Time30

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: chicken, pasta,, sauce, vegetable

Author: Diane Schmidt – createdbydiane.com

Ingredients

1 lb pasta, bow tie or desired shape
1 lb cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups fresh baby spinach
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 green onions
1/3 cup capers
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts
6 leaves fresh basil
1 oz Romano Cheese, grated additional cheese for topping dishes
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon oil (avocado)
1 tablespoon butter
1 fresh lemon, juiced

Instructions

Cook pasta according to directions.
Meanwhile, make the sauce, in a 4 cup measuring cup or similar add spinach, basil, chicken broth, chicken bouillon, garlic, onion, and cheese, blend with an immersion blender or place ingredients into a blender or food processor until smooth and well blended.
In a saucepan (or the pot you cooked pasta in) add the oil and butter, saute over medium heat the garlic, add in the flour and combine. Slowly pour in the spinach sauce, and stir until thick. Add in the cream and stir.
Heat chicken or allow it to heat in the sauce.
Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and stir well.
Pour the sauce over the pasta with the chicken, top with nuts, capers, salt and pepper and add additional cheese.