As much as I enjoy cooking, I do like the process to be easy but healthy and this healthy pasta dinner recipe is my definition of quick but healthy. Using very few and easy to find ingredients, am sharing with you my broccoli pesto and pasta recipe.
Before I dive into the recipe, I must say, if you have a child that doesn’t like broccoli, try all you can to let him or her love it. You can do this by presenting it in different ways and there must be at least one that he/she will like or better still love. The reason is that; Broccoli contains iron, potassium, fibre, protein, calcium, vitamins including folic acid and so much more. So you see, this is why you should be letting your child eat broccoli, at least once a week. The one thing that this whole Covid-19 pandemic has thought me is the power of having a good immune system and that is achieved by living a healthy lifestyle including making the right choice when it come’s to food.
Now of course broccoli isn’t the only food out there that contains all these good vitamins and minerals. There are lots of healthy foods out there but since my healthy pasta dinner recipe that am sharing in this post will not be complete without the broccoli, that is why am high lighting all the good stuff that comes with it.
So with all that out of the way, let’s start with ;
Ingredient :
- I Cup Pasta ( I used spiral pasta)
- 1 Cup Broccoli
- 3 Tablespoons Ground Almond nuts
- 3 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese (mild)
- 5 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- Pinch Salt/Pepper
Process :
Cook pasta until soft, depending on what pasta you decide to use, for spiral pasta, between 10-15 minutes. Also keep your little one in mind, Pasta should be cooked soft enough to make it easy for him/her to eat. When pasta is done, save a bit of the pasta liquid, drain with cold water and set aside .
In a small pot, bring water to a boil, wash broccoli and blanch between 3 -5 minutes depending on how big or small you cut them. When done, dry it off with some kitchen towel .
In a food processor or a blender, add broccoli, ground almond nuts ( you can toast the nuts a bit if you prefer), grated parmesan cheese, a pinch of salt and pepper and 3 Tablespoons olive oil.
Give it a good blend, while still blending/processing, add remaining 2 Tablespoons olive oil, pause and scrape the sides if necessary and when smooth to your personal preference, transfer broccoli pesto into a pan/pot. Add a few Tablespoons of pasta liquid and heat it up thoroughly. Stir in the pasta, coating each piece with that delicious broccoli pesto. Top with a bit of freshly grated parmesan and for the mom, I porched an egg and sprinkled red paprika powder on top (optional). You can also do chicken with this recipe. Simple sauté small slices of chicken breast in a pan or bake it and serve with your pasta and enjoy.
And if you haven’t already, check out similar recipes like my Spaghetti Bolognese recipe that is also baby friendly. Thank you for clicking to read this post and I hope you do give this recipe a try as well as my other ones.
