Super Greens Pasta

Wednesday 29 May 2013

























I’m enjoying a few days off work at the moment.  We are currently holidaying at home, well sort of.  There have a been a couple of day trips, the house is looking the cleanest we’ve achieved in months, I’ve successfully had my hair cut for the first time in too long to share here and our old car has struggled through its MOT.  Not exactly like holidaying in Tuscany but we are enjoying ourselves.  It feels good to have time to do simple things.  I’ve also been having a chard moment so brace yourselves for a few recipes featuring chard in the coming weeks.  In the absence of my beloved kale, chard is in season at the moment and it’s so pretty.  I love the multicoloured stems.  I treat it much like kale in that it only needs a couple of minutes to wilt and it’s done. 

I was inspired to make this pasta dish after spying a recipe for pasta with greens, garlic and chilli in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book River Cottage Veg Everyday!  This is a great way to get your quota of healthy greens while enjoying a plateful of comforting carbs.  It also comes together quickly which is much appreciated in this house after work.  I decided to add lemon zest here as I love my greens spiked with a little lemon, it makes the flavours zing.  You can use any greens here, just go for what’s in season for the best flavour.



Adapted from River Cottage Veg Everyday! by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Serves 2
Large handful of chard roughly chopped. Remove the stems, chop them up and set aside.
Purple sprouting broccoli roughly chopped.
½ onion or 1 shallots finely sliced.
Pinch of dried chilli flakes.
1 garlic clove finely sliced.
Grated zest ½ lemon.
150g gluten free pasta
To serve: extra virgin olive oil, toasted flaked almonds and hard goat cheese or parmesan.

Set a large pan of water to boil and cook your pasta according to the pack instructions.  Warm a skillet with a little olive oil.  Add the onion and chard stems if using and cook for a few minutes until soft.  Next add the chilli flakes and garlic and continue to cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes.  Just before the pasta is cooked add the broccoli to the pasta water and the chard to the skillet.  Cook for a couple of minutes until the chard is wilted and the broccoli is blanched.  Drain the pasta and broccoli, rinse and return to the pan.  Add in the chard mixture and toss together.  Add the lemon zest and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.  Grate in the cheese and mix in.  You might want to add a little pasta water or hot water from the kettle to loosen the final mixture.  Season and serve the pasta with extra cheese grated on top and toasted flaked almonds.





1 comment:

  1. This is very much what I make when I want lunch NOW and just have a drawerful of random veg. Pasta forever! :)

    ReplyDelete