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!
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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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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 & ½ cups fresh spinach
- 150g / 5 oz cream cheese
- 1 avocado
- 10 basil leaves
- 30g / ⅓ cup grated parmesan
- 50ml / ⅓ 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.
Danielle Forcier says
So dans good- but wondering if you can freeze it and use the leftovers at a later time?
Vicky says
Hi Danielle, So glad you like this recipe. I would advise not to freeze the leftovers, as it has avocado in it, it would just brown, always serve avocado fresh. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback.
Sam says
Didn’t have avocados so only made it with spinach, and I added garlic and cooked the paste later and umm let’s just say I made it for our 2 year old but but I ate 90% of it ! And now it’s my fav pasta !
★★★★★
Vicky says
Hi Sam, Thats fantastic! and a great idea. Thank you so much for coming back to us we love hearing your success stories. Please feel free to share your creations with us on Facebook and Instagram.
Alaina Anttila says
My 19 month old daughter who can sometimes be picky with eating LOVED this recipe!!!! And so easy to make! What a find! 😍
★★★★★
Vicky says
Absolutely fantastic! We are so glad your daughter enjoyed this recipe. Please let us know if your try anymore. Thank you for coming back to share your review. Happy cooking.
Sinead says
Fab pasta sauce for kids…I called it hulk pasta and my boys devoured it
★★★★★
poo says
such a great idea!
★★★★★
Sylvie says
My 3 and 6 yo love it!
★★★★★
Kbr says
Tweaked a few things as I didn’t have all the ingredients in! Used cream instead of cream cheese and milk. Used cheddar instead of Parmesan. And only had dried basil in! I half heartedly served this up to my toddler thinking he 100% wouldn’t like it as it smelt quite strongly of avocado still, I was so convinced I actually binned the leftover sauce as I was waiting for it to cool. Well he absolutely loved it and I am so shocked as he hates avocado!! Will definitely make this again. Thank you for the recipe
★★★★★
Katie says
My 10 month old loved this recipe, as did I! I liked how easy and quick it was to make too.
★★★★★
Fiona says
This is fantastic! So easy to make and has just gone down a treat! Bonus that you can freeze too. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Ross says
I 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?
★★★★
Vicky Lewis says
There’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
Thank you for this recipe! My extremely fussy 1 1/2 year old gobbled this up, so grateful!
★★★★★
Ciara Attwell says
Brilliant!! 🙂
George says
What can I use instead of parmesan to make it vegetarian?
Tia says
This is what I am thinking also as would like to try this recipe but dairy free for my allergic toddler
Ling says
I 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!
★★★★★
Ciara Attwell says
Thanks Ling! So glad you liked it!
Christina says
Can the sauce be made without the basil? Is it still tasty?
Ciara Attwell says
Yes it’s fine to leave it out
Johanna says
A huge success with our two fussy eaters! Thanks.
★★★★★
Eva says
I usually can’t get my kids to eat avocados but they loved this.
★★★★★
ela says
loved it, kid loved it, just the fussy husband immediately asked if i put spinach in it:) couldn’t trick him…
★★★★★
Michelle says
Any recommendations on how to make this sauce red rather than green while including all of your ingredients for my fussy toddler please!
Kristina says
You can pop some red pesto paste in there! It’s like a sundried tomato one 🙂
Kimberley says
Can I freeze the left overs?
Ciara Attwell says
Yes you can freeze the sauce!
Archana says
Shockingly simple and delicious. My 5 yr old who hates anything that is leafy in his food declared it was delicious. Thank you for this keeper!! My 1 yr old loved it as well.
★★★★★
Shannon says
Does the sauce color change if you make i ahead of time? I know avacadoa brown.
Ciara Attwell says
Yes a little. If you add some fresh lemon or lime juice that will help to stop it browning
Katie says
Can this sauce be frozen?
Ciara Attwell says
Yes it can!
Jenivi says
I 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.
★★★★★
Ciara Attwell says
Yay! Really pleased to hear that!
Jules says
This 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!!
★★★★★
Ciara Attwell says
I hope you like it Jules!