Spinach and Kale Pasta (or Fooling My AMD Parent into Eating What's Good For Her!)
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Easy Weeknight Meals
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 lb. organic lacinato kale
  • 1 lb. organic baby spinach
  • 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 plump garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed with a chef's knife
  • Hot red pepper flakes
  • Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
  • 1 lb. whole grain spaghetti
  • Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)
Instructions
  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, while you thoroughly wash the kale and spinach.
  2. Strip the kale leaves from the stems, and chop the kale and spinach.
  3. Using a steamer insert, cook the kale and spinach in the boiling salted water for about two minutes. Remove the steamer insert from the pasta pot, and put it in a colander in the sink. Cool the cooked kale and spinach down with a few cups of ice cubes to keep it bright green.
  4. Do not throw away the water that you cooked the kale and spinach it. It will be a dark, rich green, and that is what you are going to use to cook your pasta. Keep the pot of water at a low boil, because the next steps won't take long.
  5. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the garlic over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Add the hot red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and keep mashing them with the back of a wooden spoon so that the garlic begins to break up.
  6. Add the drained and cooled kale and spinach to the olive oil and garlic mixture, and turn down the heat. You'll keep cooking the kale and spinach while you make the pasta.
  7. Bring the dark green water in the pasta pot back up to a rolling boil, and add the whole grain spaghetti. Cook it about a minute or two less than it says on the package directions for al dente. Reserve about a cup of the dark green pasta water, and then drain the spaghetti in a colander.
  8. Add the cooked spaghetti to the large skillet with the sautéed garlic, kale, and spinach, and continue cooking over medium heat about 2 more minutes, as you add some of the dark green pasta water. The pasta will absorb the water, and the sauce will thicken and lightly coat the pasta.
  9. Add more red pepper flakes and black pepper, and serve in warm pasta bowls with the optional grated Parmesan.
Notes
© 2017 Nancy Olah – All Rights Reserved
Recipe by Fool a Carnivore at https://foolacarnivore.com/spinach-and-kale-pasta-or-how-to-fool-my-amd-parent-into-eating-whats-good-for-her/