Foodie Loves Fitness

Sharing my passion for living a healthy & happy life

Avocado, Spinach & Walnut Pesto Pasta

Good old St. Paddy’s Day is tomorrow, and while I didn’t make any Irish soda bread last weekend or have a blast celebrating at any parades, I wanted to share a green recipe in honor of the holiday.

avocado pesto pasta-1

My heritage is part Irish, and I have lots of St. Paddy’s Day memories: my family getting together at my grandma’s house (who was Italian, but loved any excuse to celebrate!) for corned beef & cabbage (hold the corned beef for me), potatoes and Irish soda bread; and day drinking at many Irish parades in Jersey as a college kid.

2009 St. Pats Day

Celebrating with my college roommates Marla & Meaghan

I kind of would like to be wearing green shamrock stickers on my face and day drinking with my girlfriends right about now actually, but any who… here’s a fun little holiday tidbit: The color green being associated with Ireland dates back to at least the 1600s.

A sign I saw at an Irish bar in Italy

A sign I saw at an Irish bar in Italy

And speaking of green… helloooo pesto – a veggie-packed, vegan pesto pasta dish to be precise.

pesto ingredients

I used to not be a huge fan of pesto, but a few years ago I all of a sudden started loving it. Since my tastebuds turned on to pesto, I’ve started playing around with different variations of it. This pesto recipe centers around a few of my favorite greens: avocado, basil and spinach. pesto-food processor

avocado pesto

I love including avocado in pesto because it adds an extra creaminess to the sauce. This pesto also includes walnuts for yummy nuttiness and nutritional yeast for some added vegan cheesiness.

avocado pesto pasta

This recipe can easily be adapted for your taste preference: You can use gluten-free pasta if that’s what works best for you; you can include grated parmesan cheese in the pesto if you don’t mind dairy and don’t have nutritional yeast on hand; you can even add in a piece of some sort of animal protein if desired. I’d bet that chicken or salmon would pair well with this pesto pasta for you meat eaters.

avocado pesto pasta-2

The night that we ate this pesto pasta for dinner in my household also happened to be the night that marked a week of me being dessert free after eating all the pastries in Solvang… so I broke my dessert fast by whipping up some peanut butter brownies:
PB browniesI have no recipe to share for it because it was one of those little-bit-of-this-spoonful-of-that kind of creations, but I can assure you that they were yummy!

Spinach Walnut Avocado Pesto Pasta [Vegan]

Foodie Loves Fitness
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • 1-1 lb box of farfalle or other short shaped pasta
  • 1 medium avocado pitted and quartered
  • 2 cups packed spinach
  • 1/2 cup packed fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup raw walnut pieces
  • Juice from 1/2 medium lemon
  • 2 TBSP nutritional yeast
  • 1 clove garlic halved
  • 1/4 TSP salt
  • 1/8 TSP pepper
  • Optional: extra nutritional yeast or grated parmesan cheese for topping if not vegan

Instructions
 

  • Cook pasta according to directions.
  • Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. You may need to scrape the pesto down from the sides of the food processor once, then pulse again.
  • Once the pasta is drained, return it to the pot. Add the pesto into the pasta, and mix together well. Add in additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve while hot.
  • Optional: Serve with more nutritional yeast or grated cheese to add on top of dish.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

Tell me… Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Are you a pesto fan?

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