Pasta with Baby Kale, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, and Pesto
Literally, just six ingredients in this awesome pasta bowl.
Last week, on Instagram, I posted an on-the-fly, super-quick pasta dish I made for lunch. It was cute, little, elbow pasta tossed with the last of a jar of pesto, a few handfuls of baby kale, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a shower of lemon zest. So good! So easy! A number of you requested the recipe, and I've included it down below. If you're blessed with the good fortune of having access to a Meyer lemon tree, by all means, use those. Otherwise, regular lemons will do the job just fine. Enjoy! -h
Premium Ad-Free membership includes:
-Ad-free content
-Print-friendly recipes
-Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest recipe collection PDF
-Weeknight Express recipe collection PDF
-Surprise bonuses throughout the year
Pasta with Baby Kale, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, and Pesto
To make this gluten-free, use a GF pasta. The pasta you see here is a chickpea pasta (Banza) I like, made from chickpea flour - a nice way to get an extra serving or two of legumes into your diet.
- 8 ounce box of short pasta
- 1 cup pesto, or more or less (to taste)
- 2-3 cups of baby kale, well washed
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds (or pepitas)
- Zest of 1-2 lemons
-
In a large pot of well-salted water, boil your pasta per package instructions. Reserve 1/3 cup of the pasta water, and drain the rest.
-
In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the pesto (adjusting with more or less depending on your preference), adding a splash of the reserved pasta water. Add the kale and green onions, toss well, and season with salt and pepper. Serve topped generously with toasted pumpkin seeds, and lots and lots of lemon zest.
Serves 2 - 4. Two if you're hungry w/ a sizeable appetite, more if its part of a larger offering.
Related Recipes
17 of the Easiest Dinners on 101 Cookbooks
A collection of the easiest dinners in one list. The ones that are super weeknight-friendly. The ones with reasonable ingredient lists. The ones that are simple and delicious.
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds: Three Ways
Toasted pumpkin seeds are the tiny, edible trophies you get for carving pumpkins. There are a couple of tricks to roasting perfect pumpkin seeds.
10 Fantastic Pumpkin Recipes Worth Making this Fall
The best pumpkin recipes currently on my radar for this fall. A curated list of recipes to have in rotation for peak pumpkin (and winter squash) season. Emphasis on dinner, emphasis on savory.
Ten+ Most Popular Noodle Recipes
I've posted a lot of noodle recipes in the past decade. This is an ongoing list of the most popular.
Post Your Comment
Comments
You can make even the simplest of meals look so inviting and beautiful. The little finishing touches that you add make such a difference. Tucking the idea of adding toasted pumpkin seeds into my head for our next pasta night- bet it adds such a nice little crunch!
I've started making my own tofu from chickpea flour, but hadn't considered it for pasta. Brilliant idea! This whole dish looks fresh and tasty :-)
I actually DO have access to a Meyer Lemon tree! My Dad who lives just up the street from me has one, as well as limes, oranges, grapefruit and passion fruit - it's HEAVEN.