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Pasta that’s as vibrant as a summer garden! Fresh, green, and bursting with seasonal kale goodness. Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta is fresh take on a classic, and utterly delicious.
Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta
Warning: May cause spontaneous cravings for all things green and delicious. This Kale Pesto Pasta is seasonal, fresh, flavorful, and seriously craveable with a twist on classic pesto.
When I saw the recipe for Vegan Kale Pesto Pasta in the New York Times, I was extremely excited! Another amazing pesto recipe with different but awesome flavors.
Count me in.
Vegan Kale Pesto Pasta from the New York Times Cooking Site. I’m not sure why mine didn’t look like that but it was really really good anyway lol.
The Original Garden Fresh Pesto Recipe and we love Pesto.
In our family we love the summer flavors of pesto. In my Garden Fresh Pesto recipe, I use fresh ingredients from my Optimistic Garden – like aromatic basil, juicy ripe tomatoes, mint and very green Italian parsley. It’s nutrient packed, and has that fresh picked taste.
Penne with Garden Fresh Pesto
What I love about the original Garden Fresh Pesto recipe is that I literally have almost all the ingredients on hand throughout the summer. The other thing that I really like about the pesto recipe is that it’s Pareve – there is no cheese in it, so it can be eaten with any gender meal…dairy or meat.
Garden Fresh Pesto – it smells amazing! (We need smell-o-vision!!)
It’s also one of the healthiest things I make – processed vegetables with a little bit of heart healthy olive oil.
Making Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta
I made the Kale Pesto Pasta several times. The first time I made it I didn’t really follow the recipe instructions as closely as I probably should have (uh oh!). While the results were good, they weren’t quite as great as when I actually followed the recipe (shocking I know). The last time I made it I didn’t blend it quite as smoothly as they did in the New York Times. We kind of like a less smooth pesto with more visible herbs here at our house.
The choice is yours.
I also made mine using gluten-free pasta. You may notice a slight difference in how the pesto is absorbed with the gluten-free vs. glutenous.
Here’s the Recipe for Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta
In my version of the Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta I follow the original NYT recipe pretty closely. I did make a few changes/additions though:
- Substituting 1 tablespoon of garlic oil for the garlic clove (as I always personally do), but you can use the fresh garlic.
- I also added a little more salt to the recipe, and a little more basil.
- Dear Husband added some of the Trader Joe’s Green Goddess seasoning and he said it was outstanding.
- Rather than freshly grated parmesan I topped the Kale Pesto Pasta with plant based parmesan – we were having homemade corn dogs for dinner ;-).
Dear Daughter-In-Law Lucy gave it two thumbs up!
Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: Plant Based
- Diet: Kosher
Description
Pasta that’s as vibrant as a summer garden! Fresh, green, and bursting with seasonal kale goodness. Plant Based Kale Pesto Pasta is fresh take on a classic, and utterly delicious.
This recipe is based upon the New York Times Vegan Kale-Pesto Pasta recipe by Ali Slagle.
Ingredients
For the Pesto
- Kosher Salt
- 1 pound kale (about 2 bunches), leaves stripped and coarsely chopped, ribs and stems thinly sliced
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 3/4 cup basil leaves, stems reserved
- 1/2 cup reserved cooking liquid
For the Pasta
- Reserved Kale/Basil cooking liquid
- 1 pound long or ridged noodles, like linguine, rigatoni or fettuccine (I used Trader Joe's gluten free)
To Finish
- 1 tablespoon garlic oil or 1 large clove garlic peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- grated parmesan (plant based)
- additional basil for garnish
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
For the Pesto
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the kale ribs and stems, cashews and basil stems. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Add the kale leaves and cook until tender but not mushy, another 5 minutes.
- Add the basil leaves and stir just to submerge. Turn off the heat, then use a slotted spoon to transfer everything but the cooking liquid to a blender. If using an immersion blender transfer to a large bowl. RESERVE THE COOKING LIQUID.
- Allow it to cool slightly.
For the Pasta
- Return the reserved cooking liquid to a boil; add more hot water if a lot evaporated while cooking the pesto ingredients.
- Add the pasta and cook according to box directions. Used the shorter cooking time.
- Reserve 1 1/2 cups of pasta water, then drain.
To Finish
- To the blender/bowl, add 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water, the garlic (oil) and the red pepper flakes. Blend on high until very smooth*.
- Return the pasta to the pot and add the pesto. Stir vigorously to combine, adding pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce and help it cling to the noodles (the sauce will thicken as it cools).
- Add the lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle with (plant based) grated parmesan and garnish with additional basil.
- Serve and eat right away.
Equipment
4P Modern Knife Set by Hast – Use code KED15 for 15% off
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7″ Bunka Chef Knife – Forge To Table CODE: KOSHEREVERYDAY for 10% off
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Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Nonstick Hard-Anodized 8-Quart Stockpot with Lid,Black
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Follow Your Heart Dairy Free Grated Parmesan
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HexClad 8QT Hybrid Stock Pot with Lid
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When blending the pesto/green sauce the original recipe specifies to blend until very smooth. I prepared it smooth and with a little “pesto-ish” texture. The choice is up to you.
I made the pesto using an immersion blender as well as a traditional one. The traditional blender lends itself to making a smoother sauce.
Dear Husband added some Trader Joe’s Green Goddess seasoning to his portion and said it was very tasty.
The original recipe called for 1/2 cup basil. I added at least 3/4 cups of basil. I felt it added more flavor to the pesto. You can never add too much basil.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 451
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 553.9 mg
- Fat: 12.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 71 g
- Fiber: 5.9 g
- Protein: 16.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
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Kosher Everyday Brand of the Week: Caraway!
I used my incredibly fabulous Caraway Baking Sheets for these awesome Stuffed Eggplant Cups. They required no greasing and enabled the eggplant to roast to absolute perfection. I’m a crazy huge fan of these. I own four of them and had a minor issue with them and the Caraway Customer Service sent me four brand new pans. These are truly remarkable and I have them for Pareve, Meat and Dairy. I love them that much. They are the go-to for any kind of roasting/baking and clean like a dream.
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HexClad 14 Inch Hybrid Stainless Steel Frying Pan with Lid, Stay-Cool Handle – PFOA Free, Dishwasher and Oven Safe, Non Stick
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I’d love to hear what you think!
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