The tastiest yet still healthy way to eat kale.
These are my recipes for homemade scissor cut pasta and kale pesto. I love this pasta sauce because it's so full of flavour, so vibrant and so full of nutrients and good stuff. Scissor cutting pasta dough is such a cheat to make delicious homemade fresh pasta in the time it would take to cook shop bought pasta.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
Homemade scissor cut pasta:
4 eggs
400g flour, 00 type
Kale pesto:
400g kale (curly or cavolo nero or mix)
30g parsley
2 garlic cloves
50mL EVOO
30g Grana Padano cheese
1 lemon, juiced
30g almonds, toasted
500g canned cannellini beans
200g frozen edamame beans
Method: (see photos below)
Start by making the pasta dough at least 4 hours before you want to eat. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl. Pour the flour onto a clear worktop, make a well in the middle using a fork, then slowly pour in the eggs while whisking some of the flour into it to make a paste. Once all the eggs are added, keep whisking in flour until it's too difficult to do with a fork. At that point, start kneading by hand slowly adding all the flour, this bit is quite hard so use all your arm muscles, keep going and it will get there. Knead until the dough is nice and smooth, you should be able to tap it with a finger without leaving a mark. Wrap up the dough and leave it to rest in the fridge (you can even do this the night before).
For the kale pesto, start by removing the thicker cores of your kale (keep those for a stir fry). You can use any dark leafy veg for this, mix and match as you please with spinach, radish tops, etc. I've gone for curly kale and cavolo nero here.
Cook the leaves in salted boiling water with 2 peeled garlic cloves for 5 minutes, add the parsley for 10 seconds then drain and move to an ice bath or keep under cold running water until cold (this stops it from cooking further and makes sure the sauce stays vibrant green).
Toast the almonds in a hot dry pan for 1 minute.
In a food processor, blend together the almonds, cheese (or 1 Tbs nutritional yeast), cooked garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Then add the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and blend again until nice and smooth.
Take the pasta dough out of the fridge and cut up using scissors into small 1inch pieces onto a floured surface.
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water with the frozen edamame beans for 5 minutes then transfer to a pan and fry off on a gentle heat with the drained cannellini beans, the sauce and some pasta water until it's all coated evenly and warmed through.
Serve up and optionally top off with salt, pepper, EVOO, a little grating of grana padano and a tsp of low fat cottage cheese.
Bon appétit!
Full Video:
More about this recipe:
Kale is in season so it's the perfect time to try out this recipe.
I've added cannellini and edamame beans for extra protein and fibre, they pair really nicely with the kale pesto and homemade pasta recipes. Kale is also full of vitamins and minerals including vitamin C which will help your body absorb iron from the pulses too.
As guidance, this recipe contains per portion: 29g protein, 24% fat GDA, 14% sat fat GDA, 36% carbohydrates GDA, 71% fibre GDA (18g). It's a good source of potassium, zinc, vit A and Niacin. And it is high in Vit C, Biotin, Pantothenate, Folate, Vit B6, Vit B1, Vit E, Carotene, Manganese, Iron, Phosphorous, Magnesium and Calcium.
You can just use this pesto on shop bought pasta, but this fresh scissor cut pasta is very quick and easy to make so I recommend giving it a try.
Make the sauce vegan by replacing the cheese for 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast.
Leave me a comment if you have any questions.
Comments