Spaghetti Squash with Kale Walnut Sauce – serves 2
Health Benefits: This meal is a great way to get some greens in your diet without having to chow down on a salad for dinner. (I have a moderate to intense dislike of salads, and much prefer my greens in smoothies, sauteed with garlic or lemon, or made into a pesto style sauce.) We probably all realize that kale is good for you, and spaghetti squash clearly wins over the refined carbs you’d be eating if you served this sauce on pasta… but did you know that walnuts are one of the best cancer fighting nuts out there? (First off, I didn’t realize that nuts even fought cancer, I thought that was broccoli’s job.) I recently discovered www.nutritionfacts.org, a great website that highlights up-to-date findings on nutrition in easy to follow videos jam packed with references to the scientific studies supporting the claims. Nutrition info you can TRUST, because you can see for yourself where the findings are coming from. Neat. Many of the videos are just 3-5 minutes long, and they make me really excited about the food choices we’re making in our home. Here’s the video about the potential cancer reducing benefits of walnuts: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-nut-fights-cancer-better/
This is great news, because walnuts are the key ingredient in this amazing pesto-style (but NOT flavor) walnut kale sauce. It’s so good, you’ll freak out a little when you eat it for the first time. It feels like you’re cheating the world, because you’re eating something so healthy, and it tastes SO GOOD.
Walnut Kale Sauce*:
1/2 cup water
1 crushed garlic clove
1 cup walnuts (lightly toasted if desired) – reserve some extra walnuts for topping squash
2 cups baby kale
3 T chopped onion (optional)
3 T tamari or braggs liquid aminos
Pulse in a vitamix or food processor until mostly smooth, but leave some texture.
Spaghetti Squash:
Pierce the spaghetti squash, place it whole in a pan. Roast in a 375 degree oven until soft, rotating every ten to fifteen minutes. Most spaghetti squashes take about an hour to roast. Rotate or remove before the outside gets soft. Slightly brown from being on the bottom is fine, once it starts to cave in, it’s becoming over done. Scoop out the seeds and scrape the squash onto plates. Top with Walnut Kale Sauce and extra walnuts. Eat. Thrive.
*This sauce was inspired by a recipe for Miraculous Walnut Sauce by Ann Esselstyn, found in the Forks Over Knives book. She serves it over kale. I decided to adjust the recipe to INCLUDE the Kale to make a pesto style sauce that I could serve over other things.
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Pesto over Pasta with Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes and White Bean Avocado Salad for 2
Health Benefits: Avocados are high in healthy fats, pesto is a great way to get a leafy green into your diet, white beans have protein and fiber, and this meal tastes like junk food because there’s pasta in it and the textures are creamy. I love this meal because I enjoy serving pasta occasionally, but struggle to incorporate enough protein and calories to feel full. Adding heart healthy, calorie dense sides like avocado and protein packed white beans does the trick.
Pesto:
2 cups basil leaves
2 T lemon juice
3/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
1 t salt
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 cup water
3 T olive oil (added last, while pulsing other ingredients)
Pulse in a food processor or vitamix until it reaches the desired pesto consistency, drizzling the olive oil in while you’re pulsing.
Tomatoes:
I like to sautee them lightly in olive oil just until the skins start to separate. It’s healthier to avoid the oil, though, so you can put a little water in the bottom of the pan to keep them from burning and use that to sautee them instead.
White Bean Salad:
1 T lemon juice
2 cups white cannelini beans
2 T veganaise
3 T chopped red onion
1 chopped avocado
Mix all the ingredients together except the avocado, then sprinkle the avocado on top. Yes, it’s got veganaise on it, which doesn’t win huge health awards, but the taste awards are TREMENDOUS and this is still packed with healthy fats, fiber and protein.
Serve: Toss the pesto with some pasta (you can use whole wheat or a spelt/quinoa blend if you’re going for extra credit) and top with the tomatoes. Serve next to the white bean salad.