A quick and easy recipe perfect for picky eaters; Creamy Avocado & Spinach Pasta with a no-cook sauce!
We all know that spinach is one of those foods that is fantastic for growing children. Rich in iron, along with Vitamins A, C and K and some B Vitamins too, there was clearly a reason it was Popeye’s favourite food! But despite it being a nutritional powerhouse, it can be near on impossible to get kids to eat it. That is, until I made this sneaky pasta recipe!
My kids absolutely love pasta and I’m always trying to come up with new and easy sauce recipes to go with it which of course sneak in the veggies! This recipe is perfect as it takes just a minute to whizz up in a food processor and requires no cooking at all. This also keeps the sauce highly nutritious as none of the nutrients are lost as they might be during the normal cooking process.
The spinach is blended together with avocado (another highly nutritious food!), cream cheese, parmesan and basil to make a really delicious creamy pesto sauce. My daughter is always highly sceptical of any kind of “green” food so the first time I made this she looked at it rather suspiciously! But after trying it she declared it was delicious and I now make it once a week for a really quick and easy dinner. Success!
I’ve made a video to go along with this recipe as a collaboration with my lovely friend Rebecca aka Mrs Meldrum. She is a fantastic mummy and lifestyle vlogger, a joy to watch and listen to and one of the most down-to-earth people I watch on You Tube.
Go check out her Blog and You Tube Channel and I promise you won’t be disappointed! She also has a beautiful Instagram account if you’d like to follow along there!
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Creamy Avocado & Spinach Pasta
Prep Time: 2 mins- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 12 minutes
Yield: 4 1x
Category: Main Meal
Cuisine: Italian
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Pin RecipeDescription
A quick and easy recipe perfect for picky eaters; Creamy Avocado & Spinach Pasta with a no-cook sauce!
Ingredients
- 250g / 9 oz pasta
- 100g / 2 & 1/2 cups fresh spinach
- 150g / 5 oz cream cheese
- 1 avocado
- 10 basil leaves
- 30g / 1/3 cup grated parmesan
- 50ml / 1/3 cup milk
- 100g / 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in boiling water on the hob according to the package instructions.
- Add the spinach to a food processor and blitz to reduce it in size.
- Add in the cream cheese, avocado, basil and parmesan and blitz again until all the ingredients have broken down and are combined.
- Add a little of the milk until the mixture reaches your preferred sauce consistency.
- Drain the pasta and mix in the spinach and avocado sauce. Finally add the cherry tomatoes.
- Serve immediately.
Ross says
January 15, 2019 at 3:41 pmI am doing a project in school to create a meal for young children of nursery/preschool age, does anyone possibly know a way to hide the colour as it may be unappealing to their young minds?
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Vicky Lewis says
April 13, 2019 at 1:24 pmThere’s no way to remove the colour, but you could in theory serve it with a layer of grated cheese or breadcrumbs initially obscuring it. Most children love basil pesto though, and that’s green. Alternatively you can give it a kid friendly name ‘Dinosaur swamp pasta!’ for example, or arrange the dish in such a way, using other foods if necessary, to make an ‘alien’ face shape or whatever that will appeal to them. Involving children in the process of buying the ingredients and preparing the meal also makes it far more likely they’ll give it a try.
Anonymous says
January 4, 2019 at 1:49 amThank you for this recipe! My extremely fussy 1 1/2 year old gobbled this up, so grateful!
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Ciara Attwell says
January 4, 2019 at 4:21 pmBrilliant!! 🙂
George says
July 27, 2018 at 6:17 pmWhat can I use instead of parmesan to make it vegetarian?
Ling says
May 21, 2018 at 5:18 pmI loved this non cook recipe! The kids ate most of it all up. I added lemon juice and next time I’ll leave the milk out as it was really nice and creamy. My kids don’t like avocado but they had no clue they were eating it and the spinach! I also added some pan fried chicken thighs which works really well.
Will definitely make again!
Thanks Ciara for all your amazing recipes!
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Ciara Attwell says
May 21, 2018 at 6:38 pmThanks Ling! So glad you liked it!
Christina says
April 17, 2018 at 6:55 pmCan the sauce be made without the basil? Is it still tasty?
Ciara Attwell says
April 18, 2018 at 9:11 amYes it’s fine to leave it out
Johanna says
March 19, 2018 at 5:39 pmA huge success with our two fussy eaters! Thanks.
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Eva says
March 8, 2018 at 11:03 amI usually can’t get my kids to eat avocados but they loved this.
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ela says
January 18, 2018 at 7:49 pmloved it, kid loved it, just the fussy husband immediately asked if i put spinach in it:) couldn’t trick him…
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Michelle says
November 12, 2017 at 2:05 pmAny recommendations on how to make this sauce red rather than green while including all of your ingredients for my fussy toddler please!
Kristina says
May 5, 2018 at 5:19 amYou can pop some red pesto paste in there! It’s like a sundried tomato one 🙂
Kimberley says
November 9, 2017 at 9:59 amCan I freeze the left overs?
Ciara Attwell says
November 9, 2017 at 9:12 pmYes you can freeze the sauce!
Shannon says
September 16, 2017 at 8:13 pmDoes the sauce color change if you make i ahead of time? I know avacadoa brown.
Ciara Attwell says
September 18, 2017 at 11:37 amYes a little. If you add some fresh lemon or lime juice that will help to stop it browning
Katie says
May 24, 2017 at 4:51 pmCan this sauce be frozen?
Ciara Attwell says
May 24, 2017 at 8:05 pmYes it can!
Jenivi says
March 15, 2017 at 4:08 amI made this today and my 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old ate it!! My husband and I enjoyed it as well. Great recipe! Thank you.
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Ciara Attwell says
March 15, 2017 at 9:19 pmYay! Really pleased to hear that!
Jules says
March 7, 2017 at 12:15 pmThis is great! I have a son with nut allergies. Sometimes it is hard to find meatless options that don’t include nuts!! Can’t wait to try!!
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Ciara Attwell says
March 8, 2017 at 8:23 amI hope you like it Jules!