Spinach Pesto Spaghetti with Chicken
Note: Food processor required
- Milk
- Tree Nuts
- Wheat
This extra-green spin on traditional pesto doesn’t require any basil! Using a food processor (or blender), you’ll blitz spinach, Parmesan, pistachios, garlic, lemon, and olive oil into a tangy-savory-umami flavor explosion. Toss with spaghetti and juicy seared chicken, add a pinch of chili flakes if you like, and boom! It’s pesto pasta perfection!
Ingredients
1 clove
Garlic
1 unit
Lemon
5 ounce
Spinach
6 tablespoon
Parmesan Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
1 ounce
Pistachios
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
½ ounce
Vidalia Onion Paste
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
6 ounce
Spaghetti
(Contains: Wheat)
10 ounce
Chopped Chicken Breast
1 teaspoon
Chili Flakes
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
3 tablespoon
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
½ teaspoon
Sugar
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Wash and dry produce. • Peel garlic. Zest and quarter lemon (for 4 servings, zest one lemon and quarter both).
• Place spinach, garlic, lemon zest, Parmesan, pistachios, Vidalia onion paste, stock concentrate, 3 TBSP olive oil (6 TBSP for 4 servings), 1⁄2 tsp sugar (1 tsp for 4), juice from half the lemon, and pepper in a food processor (or blender). • Pulse, scraping down the sides as needed, until mostly smooth and no large pieces remain, 60-90 seconds.
• Once water is boiling, add spaghetti to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, 9-11 minutes. • Reserve 1⁄2 cup pasta cooking water (1 cup for 4 servings), then turn off heat and drain. Wipe out pot.
• Open package of chicken* and drain off any excess liquid. • Heat a drizzle of oil in pot used for spaghetti over medium-high heat. Add chicken in a single layer and season with salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes.
• Add drained spaghetti, 1 cup pesto, and 1⁄4 cup reserved pasta cooking water to pot with chicken (2 cups pesto and 1⁄2 cup pasta cooking water for 4 servings). (Be sure to measure the pesto—this recipe yields more!) Stir until everything is coated, 30-60 seconds. Taste and season with salt and pepper. TIP: If you prefer saucier pasta, stir in more pesto and pasta cooking water.
• Divide pasta between bowls and garnish with chili flakes to taste. Serve with remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Chicken is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 165°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The spinach-pistachio pesto delivers a fresh, tangy flavor that surprised many fans of traditional basil pesto. Some found it mild or bland; adding extra garlic, more lemon juice, or a handful of fresh basil helped boost the flavor.
- Ease of prep: A food processor or full-size blender is essential — many who tried a small or weak blender struggled to get a smooth consistency. Once you have the right tool, the pesto comes together quickly and the one-pot chicken-and-pasta step keeps cleanup manageable.
- Suggestions: Add extra garlic (some used up to 4 cloves) for a more pungent pesto, and use all the pasta water gradually to reach your preferred sauce consistency rather than adding plain water, which dilutes flavor. A few customers stirred in cream or extra olive oil to loosen a thick pesto and found it improved the texture significantly. Adding sun-dried tomatoes or sautéed grape tomatoes to the pasta was a popular upgrade.
- Leftovers: The extra pesto keeps well and works beautifully as a sandwich spread or dipping sauce for garlic bread 🎉.
- Portions: The recipe yields more pesto than needed for the pasta — measure out the recommended cup rather than adding it all, or save the rest for another use during the week.
Reviews from our home cooks
One suggestion is specifying the size of food processor required. Mine ended up being way too small and I had to make the pesto in batches, which was very time consuming. The finished product was very dry, I think it needed either more lemon or more olive oil. It also didn't have a lot of taste, using spinach instead of basil and pine nuts really lessened the flavor. I couldn't taste the pistachios at all, which was disappointing.
Delicious spinach "pesto." Easy to prepare using a food processor.
We liked this meal, although it took a while to make. I think we should have used 2 pans, we could have been cooking the chicken while the pasta cooked, and the chicken steamed in the smaller pan. A larger surface area fry pan would have cooked it better, I think. I think the recipe should have used 2 cloves of garlic for the 4 portion meal. And I did make it too thick, I should have thinned the sauce out more. And I could have probably added more olive oil to the pesto, it was really thick. Overall a very tasty recipe. I would do a few things differently next time. I really liked the spinach pesto, and am excited we have sauce left over. Not a lot of prep, which was nice, the blender did all the work. I appreciate the 1 pan meal, but I think 2 pans would have worked better here.
I loved this, first time making pesto from scratch, my food processor broke but it was a cheapie one, I'll make sure I have a processor of worth next time I get this meal. But the pesto was great and the pasta and chicken were so tender that I couldn't wait for dinner at work
There was no least. So easy to prepare..all pesto ingredients went in the food processor, you sautéed the already diced chicken and put it all together.
It was very hard to make the pesto in a food processor. Maybe, if the spinach was been diced or minced before being put into the food processor, this would have improved the overall experience.
Vibrantly green! Loved that it didn't include cream cheese. Liked cooking the chicken in the same pot for less clean up. Next time I would try not making pesto, but wilting the spinach with the pasta, then adding all the sauce components into the chicken/pasta at the end topping with crushed pistachios.
Am not a big pesto (basil) fan but this spinach/pistachio version was the best; will plan on using it as a go to from now on for other pasta or recipes calling for it.
Really liked this recipe! I'm a fan of regular pesto, my boyfriend is not (the basil/pine nuts are too strong flavor wise.) But he devoured this! Amazing idea to use spinach and pistachios. Definitely incorporating this recipe into our lives.
Wow. I am not much of a pesto fan, but this homemade spinach pesto was delicious, fresh and perfection. I will definitely use that again.
