It takes all of 15 minutes to prepare, it tastes better the second (third, fourth) day, and you can eat it straight out of the fridge. DECADENCE.
Ingredients:
8 oz penne pasta
0.5 cup pesto
8 oz baby spinach
2 cups kidney beans
juice of 2 lemons
0.75 cup toasted almonds
handful of chopped up sun-dried tomatoes
a healthy dash of red pepper flakes
While the pasta's cooking, prep and then dump the fresh spinach, beans, and sun-dried tomatoes into a large bowl. When the pasta's done and drained, quickly dump it on top of the spinach, legumes, and tomatoes and let it sit and steam for a bit. Toast your almonds (or buy a bag of pre-toasted almond slivers at Trader Joe's like I do and avoid all that), slice up and juice your lemons, measure out your pesto, and then dump all that in, too. Super excelente, you're all done.
We generally eat it at room temperature or cold, with some broiled chicken, as seen above. It's perfectly great on its own, but adding the chicken helps Jason feel like he's eating a real meal (eye-roll). It doesn't even need any grated cheese sprinkled on top (though I do add some generally because I'm a glutton) -- making it a great vegan dish! OOPS, wait, pesto sauce has cheese, right? I'm sure somebody's figured out how to make vegan pesto, probably Sarah Britton at My New Roots. Have you seen this shit? Vegan food has never looked (so) attractive. HA!
I originally adapted this recipe from theKitchn's Lemony Pesto Pasta with Edamame and Almonds (mouthful), and it changes slightly every time I make it. The "pasta, pesto, lemon, legumes, iron-rich dark greens" formula is super versatile. As long as it's light on the pasta/pesto and heavy on the greens/lemon juice/legumes,* I don't think it really matters what you use, it'll always come out perfect. Doodle around with it and let me know what you come up with!
Lastly, I want to mention that this stuff is super healthful. Don't be turned off by the pesto -- you're using a very small amount, so little that it isn't really "saucy" just "bindy" in a small-amount-of-salad-dressing kind of way. I calculated its caloric and nutritional information** on Sunday, and (with a light sprinkling of grated pecorino-romano and not including the broiled chicken) two heaping salad-tongs full is all of 450 calories and a swell balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc. AM I BORING YOU YET?
* Do be sure to "steam" the greens with the hot pasta a bit before stirring in the pesto and lemon juice, though. Especially if you're working with some gnarly fresh dino-kale or something.
** Can you tell that I'm trying to lose weight? I wouldn't be able to without this dish, life would be too awful.
3 comments:
Lovely. I will certainly attempt to cook the dish. Do you make the pesto yourself? If not, which kind do you buy and where? At any supermarket? I once tried to make pesto using the blender, and frankly it was nothing short of a disaster. This mass of unevenly chopped elements sat at the bottom of the blender making it virtually impossible for the blades to move, chop, or be in any useful. Have you made pesto using a blender? I wonder whether it is time to change our blender... Have been reluctant to buy a food processor because they demand too much counter space and seem very difficult to clean up. Can't wait to try out the dish, though.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
looks deeeeelicious!!!! and methodandthings, they sell smaller food processors that might work, i have also found that if you have a strong blender it can handle it, but you may need more liquid - if you don't want to put in a crapton of olive oil you can sub a bit with water.
wish the three of us could sit and have this together! soon!
Method and things, though I've long dreamed of making my own pesto, I'm incredibly lazy and the large batches of basil I buy always go bad before I get around to making it. You and someday on the avenue are right: older blenders generally aren't strong enough to handle blending it (or hummus or other speady dip-py thick things) unless you add a whole lot of liquid. I received a food processor as a gift last winter and, though I don't use it often, am super happy with it. The clean up is relatively painless (only really 3 parts to clean) and I hide mine in a cabinet so it doesn't take up too much space. It's only a little bit wider than my blender.
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