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Heidi Swanson’s Asparagus spinach pesto with zucchini noodles

Julita Baker

I’ve been making this recipe for over a decade now from Heidi Swanson’s book “Super Natural Cooking” (her website is: “101 Cookbooks,” which I highly recommend) and still love it to this day. You can mix the pesto with essentially any vegetable or starch, or even eat it straight from the food processor, as I oftentimes do :). It’s not too oily/heavy like a traditional basil pesto recipe would be, where you would only use a couple of tablespoons as a topping to pasta. This pesto is rich, nutrient dense, and almost “dip” like. It’s packed with nutrients such as Folate, Vitamin K, Beta-carotene, and minerals such as Iron, Manganese, and Copper from the asparagus and spinach, and healthy polyphenols from the olive oil.

Asparagus is a GREAT source of prebiotic fuel for our gut microbiome, which is extremely important in almost every part of our physiology, metabolism, and behavior (the type of microbes we have in our digestive system go as far as influencing our mood!). If you want to see a short science breakdown of Prebiotics, head over to this post on SoFC’s Instagram page. Similarly, this one on non-polysaccharide dietary components that nourish and influence our gut microbes (which in this recipe, would be the olive oil).

Recipe:

Bake asparagus with some olive oil, salt, and pepper at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs asparagus spears

  • Large bunch fresh spinach (I use a whole Costco container of organic spinach AND asparagus!)

  • 1/2c. pine nuts (optional: toasted)

  • 1/2c. parmesan cheese

  • 2-3 teaspoons of chopped garlic

  • ~1/2 cup (or more depending on your taste) good quality olive oil

  • Salt & pepper to taste

  • Fresh or frozen zucchini noodles

  • Pecorino cheese

The final asparagus spinach pesto consistency should look something like this.

preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

  2. Break or cut the inedible part of the asparagus spears end, and line up on a baking sheet. Spray or sprinkle with olive oil, salt, & pepper, and bake until soft ~20-25 minutes.

  3. Once asparagus has cooled, add to food processor and process until chunky.

  4. Add in spinach, a handful at a time and pulse until integrated, followed by the parmesan cheese.

  5. With machine on, drizzle in olive oil.

  6. Add salt & pepper to taste, and enjoy over cooked vegetable of your choice, or:

  7. Sauté zucchini noodles (from fresh or frozen) in a little olive oil, or water/broth.

  8. Once heated through, add enough pesto to suit your tastebuds. ENJOY!

The final product:

The final product: Heidi Swanson’s Asparagus spinach pesto, with zucchini noodles and pecorino cheese.

We hope you enjoy this recipe. Please send us a note with what you thought, if you made any changes/substitutions, and tag @sofc44 so we can share in your yummy joy!

P.S. I must confess, I have a hard time measuring ingredients for recipes. I used to bake a lot when I was younger, and would have to measure, but nowadays I just eyeball everything. So these amounts are approximate. You might actually enjoy a bit more or less parmesan! Or a bit more olive oil! Experiment, and see what works best for your tastebuds.

To your health and happy tastebuds,

Julita