Spiralized kale pesto pasta is a delicious and easy 30 minute meal combining all the goodness of kale with spiralized courgettes. It’s low carb, budget and vegetarian too!
Well folks, if you thought that budget healthy meals couldn’t get any easier than those Quick Healthy Chickpea Cakes I published last Tuesday, how about this tasty spiralized kale pesto pasta offering?
Similarly, like those chickpea cakes, this is another brilliant, time saving recipe whereby everything (except the courgettes) goes straight into your blender and is blitzed into a perfect meal. In this case its blitzed into a perfect pesto pasta paste.
Of course you can serve the kale pesto with traditional pasta if you want, no problems, but I just love this served with spiralized courgette. It’s a perfect low carb, low calorie wheat pasta alternative if you’re looking to try and eat a few less carbs after Christmas!
Now folks let’s talk a little about carbs (carbohydrates) here.
First of all carbs are absolutely essential and necessary for our everyday functioning. Carbs are important to our health because in a healthy balanced diet, they are the body’s main source of energy and they are also what our brains use to function.
So, when in a recipe, like this kale pesto pasta, I advocate that it can help you eat a few less carbs I’m not talking about removing the carbs from your diet in any way at all. No, it’s a case of substituting those other sources of carbs, such as wheat pasta, with a healthier source of carbs like courgettes here which can provide all the essential benefits you need but with less overall calories.
The veggies used here courgettes and kale, are two excellent sources of fibre too!
Read my section on carbohydrates and fibre to learn more.
Also, if you’re not a fan of kale, no problems I’ve got you covered with my other simple healthy pesto dishes :-
Baked Aubergine With Red Pesto And Cheese – this is a fantastic mid-week cheesy meal that’s packed full of flavour but also quick and cheap to make!
Butternut Squash Noodles with Spring Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes – this is again a fantastic low carb alternative to pasta with a spring pesto sauce.
Baked Salmon Pesto – this simple and tasty oven baked salmon pesto is ready in just 30 minutes and comes with a fantastic creamy cauliflower mash too!
There’s sure to be one of those recipes above that will help you swap to a more healthier carbohydrate!
- 85 g kale chopped with stalks removed
- 50 ml olive oil
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 garlic cloves
- 85 g pine nuts
- 25 g Parmesan grated
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 4 medium sized zucchini / courgettes spiralized
- Wash the kale in a colander and rinse with cool water.
- Place the kale in a food processor and add the olive oil, juice from the lemon, garlic cloves, pine nuts and Parmesan. Purée the mixture until smooth. Add more oil if required. Season to taste and set aside.
- Gently heat a wok / frying pan, add the spiralized courgette / zucchini and heat through for about 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add 1 – 2 tablespoons of kale pesto and stir in until the courgette / zucchini is sufficiently coated.
- Divide the pasta equally between bowls and serve.
Add some cooked chopped chicken if you want to “bulk” the meal up a little. There will be plenty of kale pesto left over which is perfect for freezing.
Cost wise, I can make this kale pesto pasta for literally a couple of pounds with plenty to freeze for future meals as well. So hopefully wherever you are in the world you can take advantage of that low cost factor too.
Right, so looking forward to Thursday we’ve not had a seafood recipe for a while. So, I think you’re just going to love the new Healthy Mussel Chowder recipe that I’ll be publishing then. I hope you can join me and as always thanks for taking your time to read, click and enjoy my recipes!
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Shashi at SavorySpin
Neil, this spiralized courgettes with kale pesto looks and sounds delicious – and am willing to bet that kale pesto would even go well slathered on some salmon or chicken!
I don’t mess with mussels often so am looking forward to your creation on Thursday! Happy Tuesday to you and Lady Lynne!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Yes definitely Shashi. We often “bulk” up this meal by adding chunks of cooked chicken breast or turkey breast meat and so I think salmon would go great with this recipe.
Looking forward to bringing you my new mussels creation on Thursday too!
Deborah Brooks
I am loving your version of pesto! This looks fantastic. Pinning! We would love to have you join our meatless Monday linkup sometime
Deborah Brooks recently posted…Vegetable Enchilada Lasagna Meatless Monday
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Hi Deborah, thanks so much for taking the time to comment and to Pin too!
I’ll certainly check out your meatless Monday linkup, thanks for letting me know about it! 🙂
David @ Spiced
You know, I’m not a huge fan of kale. I’ve tried it a couple of times, and I’m just not a fan. But with that said, I’ve never thought about putting it into a blender and turning it into a pesto…this is a great idea, Neil! I’m definitely going to try this…talk about one heck of an awesome (and healthy!) meal right here. I hope your week is off to a great start so far!
David @ Spiced recently posted…Buffalo Chicken Breadsticks
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
This recipe totally “revolutionizes” Kale David, you honestly would not know that any Kale had actually been used in making it!
Our week has been one of snow so far, still we’ve nothing to compare here to the extremes of your weather there!
Agness of Run Agness Run
Exceptional pasta recipe, Neil! I love a good pasta recipe and this one simply rocks.
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks very much Agnes. 🙂
Ashika | Gardening Foodie
OH YUM this looks so good Neil, I absolutely love the idea of a kale pesto. And served with spiralized courgettes, a really genius recipe. Seriously you make healthy eating absolutely delicious. Thank you for all the great recipes and ideas.🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Your comment about me making healthy eating absolutely delicious made my day Ashika. Thank you! 😀
Christina
YUM! This is the first time visiting your blog and I’m LOVING your creations! This Kale pesto pasta looks amazeballs! I hardly ever use my spiralizer but you’ve inspired me to give it another go!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Glad you like my recipes Christina and thanks for visiting!
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
I will never give up on pasta, but I’m trying not to consume it as often as I would do in the past. Also, few years ago I discovered zucchini noodles, and although it’s not the same, this is a good way to spice up the diet. Like this nutty and hearthy version too!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I couldn’t give up on normal pasta either Ben. Not only because it’s so tasty but because its one of the budget meal ingredients we always turn too. Especially in January when we’re skint after Christmas. Ha ha! But yes, zucchini noodles are great as a substitute to pasta being healthier and often just as cheap too! Thanks for your comment. 🙂