Super Green Pasta
A pasta packed with a nutritional punch. This dish is loaded with healthy greens and tastes amazing.
Stuffing green veggies into spaghetti isn’t just a gimick. This pasta is one of my favourites at the moment. It’s loaded with seasonal stars like green cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli. So not only is it delicious & healthy, it’s an amazing recipe to use to enjoy the best of the spring produce.
Feel free to experiment with other green leafy vegetables in the pesto base. I’ve had success in the past with courgette and green beans.
Green pasta for always!
When to eat
This is a truly spring pasta. Enjoy from March to May.
Super Green Pasta
This meal is around 91% less polluting than the average UK meal.
Eating this recipe will save around 2.69 KG CO2e per person.
That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 22.22 KM in a modern car.
How do I calculate this?Ingredients
- 300 g Cavolo Nero or Kale (de-stemmed and roughly chopped)
- 300 g Spring Greens (sliced into 1/2cm thick ribbons)
- 200 g Purple Sprouting Broccoli or Tenderstem Broccoli (sliced in half lengthways)
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 1 (400ml) Can Cannellini Beans (drained)
- 400 g Spaghetti or Linguine
- 20 g Pine Nuts (lightly toasted)
- 100 g Vegan Pesto ()
Instructions
- Fill a large saucepan with water until about 1 inch deep. Bring to the water to the boil. Toss in the 300g chopped cavolo nero and blanch for until just wilted. Drain and allow to cool. Then when cool enough to handle squeeze as much water from the leaves as you can.
- Combine the wilted cavolo nero, 100g vegan pesto and the 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a food processor and blitz until a smooth paste.
- Place the 300g of sliced spring greens and 200g of sliced broccoli into a steamer basket or colander and steam over vigorously boiling water for around minutes until the broccoli is aldente. Drain and reserve.
- Cook the 400g of spaghetti to packet instructions in a pan of heavily salted water. Drain the pasta once cooked, reserving a little of the pasta water.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the spaghetti, 1 can cannellini beans and cavolo nero pesto. Mix well to evenly coat the pasta, add a little of the pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.
- Gradually fold the cooked spring green ribbons into the pasta, and then the cooked broccoli, turning until the greens are evenly distributed.
- Serve the pasta with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of the 20g of lightly toasted pine nuts.