Add to: Recipe Box | Grocery List | Meal PlannerRecipe submitted by
starjen42, 03/19/09
Spinach Pesto Pasta with Roasted VegetablesIngredients (use vegan versions): 2 cups fresh spinach
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
pasta of choice
veggies of choice - I used golden beets, tomatoes, and asparagus
pine nuts
Directions:This would be great with all sorts of roasted vegetables, I used what I had on hand: beets, asparagus, and tomatoes. Other good things would be red peppers, garlic cloves, red onion, broccoli, eggplant, fennel, or zucchini. Go wild! To be honest, the veggies were good, but the spinach pesto really stole the show!
Spinach pesto: Blend spinach in a food processor with about a 1/4 cup olive oil until fairly smooth. Add chopped or crushed garlic, walnuts, yeast, salt, and pepper and blend until smooth, adding more olive oil if necessary.
Roast beets: wash and peel beets, cut in quarters, and toss with oil. Roast 45 minutes at 400 F.
Pasta: cook while beets are roasting, drain, rinse with cold water, and toss with pesto. Let sit until needed. This will allow the pesto to soak into the pasta.
Asparagus and Tomatoes: cut ends off asparagus and cut tomatoes into eighths. Roast with the beets during the last 15 minutes.
After all the veggies are done roasting, remove and cut into small pieces. The beets I cut into slivers, the asparagus into 1-inch pieces.
After veggies are removed, roast pine nuts for 2-3 minutes.
Assemble roasted veggies on top of pasta. Sprinkle roasted pine nuts on top.
Source of recipe: Dreamed this up while procrastinating at work
Makes: 2 servings, Preparation time: 15 minutes, Cooking time: 45 minutes
