This is a bold claim to make. But Baariki truly believes this pasta is the greenest pasta you will ever eat. It features a creamy pesto sauce made with (surprise!) avocado and peas as its base, and lots of basil for flavor. You can add some vegetarian Parmesan cheese on top if you’d like, but it’s really not necessary. Toss everything in a blender to make the sauce, add cooked pasta and some spinach, and you’ve got yourself a healthy meal.
The Greenest Pasta Ever
Course: MainsCuisine: American4
servings30
minutes15
minutesIngredients
- Pesto Ingredients
1 1/2 cups peas, soaked in hot water for at least 5 min
1 large ripe avocado, cut into pieces
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup packed basil leaves, washed
1/2 tsp salt
- Other Ingredients
8 oz rotini (or any medium-size) pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
few shakes of black pepper
10 oz package spinach, chopped
Directions
- Make the pesto by combining all ingredients in a blender. It should be fairly thick; it’ll get thinner when you combine it with the pasta. Adjust lemon and salt as desired for taste.
- Cook pasta in boiling water according to package directions.
- In a large pan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic and onion when it is warm. Add the salt and black pepper after a few seconds. When most of the onions have turned translucent, turn the flame off. Add the pasta from the pot it was boiled in and stir so that it is coated in the oil.
- Add the pesto sauce and spinach and stir everything so that the sauce has coated all the pasta. Let the spinach cook for a few seconds in the heat of the pan so that it wilts a bit (turn the flame back on briefly if needed, but don’t stir too much or else the pasta will start to break apart).
- Serve with additional salt, black pepper and lemon juice to taste. You can also add some parmesan cheese if you’d like for additional flavor.
Notes
- Add as much spinach as you like; our family would always rather overdo the spinach than underdo it, but I recommend using at least 4 cups.
The pesto part of this recipe was adapted from Earth of Maria’s Easy Pea and Avocado Pesto.
