Pasta with Lemony Spinach Pesto and Veggies

A quick and easy veggie-packed meal that's fresh-tasting, nourishing and delicious! Tender-crisp Broccoli & Asparagus tossed with a dairy-free Lemony Spinach Pesto, sun dried tomatoes and your favorite gluten-free pasta.

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com
Pasta with Lemony Spinach Pesto and Veggies

A quick and easy Spring-y pasta dinner!

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New! I added a cooking video to this page so you could see just how quick and easy it is to make this gluten-free (and vegan!) Lemony Spinach Pesto Pasta!

If you’re new to this website, at the bottom of every recipe page is a printable recipe with exact measurements and directions.

Hope you love it!

Easy Lemony Spinach Pesto Pasta gluten-free www.healthygffamily.com

Original post…

This super quick and easy pasta dish is a new Spring and Summer favorite!

It’s gluten-free, vegan, packed with fresh veggies and soooo yummy!

It’s simply:

quickly boiled broccoli and asparagus

tossed with a Lemony Spinach Pesto,

your favorite gluten-free pasta (here I use Banza Rigatoni, in the video I use Banza Rotini)

and sun dried tomatoes.

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

This simple dish comes together in less than 30 minutes and is packed with flavor and goodness!

First, using the same boiling water that you’ll use to cook the pasta, you quickly boil the broccoli and asparagus for 1-2 minutes.

This will both warm the veggies and cook them so they are tender but still crisp.

Easy Lemony Spinach Pesto Pasta gluten-free www.healthygffamily.com

 

Remove them with a slotted spoon, set aside and cook the pasta in the same water. (Don’t you love when you can reuse a pan?!)

While the pasta cooks, make the Lemony Spinach Pesto.  This simple pesto is fresh tasting and so yummy!

All you need is:

fresh baby spinach

lemon juice and lemon zest

extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

lightly toasted pine nuts

plus salt and pepper.

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

First you toast the pine nuts, which takes just 1-2 minutes.

You toast nuts on a hot pan and keep an eye on them because they toast quickly and can burn easily!

Easy Lemony Spinach Pesto Pasta gluten-free www.healthygffamily.comThen pulse is all the ingredients together in a food processor, streaming the olive oil, and that’s it!

Creamy, fresh, zesty and delicious!

Plus isn’t the color great?

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

Pro Tip: The pesto can be made ahead if you want this to be extra speedy at dinner time!

Then simply add the cooked hot pasta back to the sauce pan and mix with the pesto, broccoli, asparagus and sun dried tomatoes.

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

That’s it! And dinner is served!

Enjoy as is or add sauteed chicken or Parmesan cheese, feta or goat cheese depending on your tastes.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

PIN it!

Easy Lemony Spinach Pesto Pasta gluten-free www.healthygffamily.com

Scroll down for recipe and leave a comment if you try.

Recipe

 

pasta lemony spinach pesto gluten free #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com
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5 from 2 votes

Pasta with Lemony Spinach Pesto and Veggies

An easy veggie-packed pasta dish that's both nourishing and delicious! Comes together in less than 30 minutes for a super quick meal. Enjoy as is or add sauteed chicken and serve with Parmesan, feta or goat cheese according to tastes.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time12 minutes
Total Time27 minutes
Course: Sides, Dinner, Veggies
Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan
Servings: 3 -4 servings
Author: Healthy Gluten-free Family

Ingredients

  • 1 8-12 oz container gluten-free pasta here we used Le Veneziane Gluten-Free Rigatoni
  • 2 heaping cups broccoli florets
  • 1 cup asparagus cut into 1 1/2 -2 inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in olive oil cut into pieces

Lemony Spinach Pesto

  • 2 cups lightly packed fresh spinach
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts to toast, heat in a dry skillet over medium high heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently so as not to burn
  • 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1-2 teaspoons lemon zest I always prefer more zest to less but if you're unsure start with 1 teaspoon and add more
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/8 -1/4 teaspoon salt according to taste
  • pinch black pepper

Optional for serving

  • Parmesan cheese feta or goat cheese

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (I tend to not use a ton of salt and only use about ¼ teaspoon, especially with this dish because the sun dried tomatoes are salty. Feel free to add more to taste)

  • While water boils, cut the broccoli and asparagus is you haven't already and toast the pine nuts for the pesto if you haven't already.

Quickly boil Broccoli and Asparagus

  • Before cooking the pasta, add broccoli florets and asparagus pieces to the boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes until color brightens and tender crisp (they can be pierced easily but still a bit of crunch to them). Cook longer for softer vegetables.
  • Using a slotted spoon, remove broccoli and asparagus from boiling water and place in a strainer. (Do not drainer water; use the same water to cook the pasta)
  • Set aside.

Cook pasta

  • Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente, generally on the low end of the recommended cooking time on the pasta package.
  • Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water before draining into colander.
  • While pasta cooks, make the pesto

Lemony Spinach Pesto

  • Place spinach, pine nuts, lemon juice and lemon zest in a food processor and pulse several times to combine.
  • With the food processor running, stream olive oil into the top of the food processor. Scrape down the sides as needed and run food processor until well combined and mixture is smooth.
  • Add salt and pepper. Pulse to combine.
  • Can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Just bring back to room temperature before using.

Combine

  • Add cooked hot pasta back to the sauce pan, add blanched broccoli and asparagus, and pesto. Toss to combine adding any reserved water as desired. (I have not needed to add the reserved water to this dish but always a good idea to have it just in case!)
  • Add sun dried tomatoes and toss to combine.
  • Serve as is or top with Parmesan, goat cheese or feta. Enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Mention @HealthyGFFamily or tag #HealthyGFFamily!

 

4 thoughts on “Pasta with Lemony Spinach Pesto and Veggies

  1. 5 stars
    This recipe is so good! I used black bean pasta and I also added garlic to my pesto, but it was delicious without as well! I added some lentils because I had them in the fridge. This recipe will definitely be a repeat!

  2. 5 stars
    Thank you so much for your recipes. I suffer from GERD along with Celiac so I always have to eliminate my trigger foods from recipes. But you really help when it comes to ideas of what to put together. Pesto is my go to sauce since I can’t eat any tomato based sauces. This dish helped me make a yummy pesto pasta with apple sausage and broccoli using your ideas and technique. Love your page!!

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