Tonight’s Pasta & Roasted Vegetables with a Creamy Kale Sauce dish was totally inspired by the in-season, local, organic vegetables that I had on hand. I got a huge bunch of organic Lacinato Kale from the farm and wanted to use it tonight for dinner.
I love the texture of this kale (also known as “dinosaur” kale). It makes beautiful kale chips as well as is a great addition to green smoothies. I love kale, and it is super healthy! That said, I don’t always like to eat it raw as it has a thick chewy texture. So I wanted to come up with a recipe that included my kale but wasn’t too overpowering.
I’ve made pesto sauce before using spinach and basil and so I thought, why not kale? In addition to kale, I got a vegetable from the organic farm that I had never tried before. Kohlrabi. What???
I’ve never seen nor tasted this before in my life! Supposedly kohlrabi has a mild broccoli flavor and can be used in similar dishes and stir-fries that you would use broccoli in. As I was pondering what to do with this new vegetable, I had a flash of inspiration. Roasted. I LOVE roasted vegetables. Pretty soon the idea for the entire dish came together and I busily began baking.
First, I gathered together and washed the vegetables I wanted to be in the dish. I put in kohlrabi (peeled and diced), red, yellow, and orange peppers, summer squash, zucchini, onion, carrots, and broccoli. After largely chopping them up, I placed them on a cookie sheet and drizzled them with olive oil.
I stirred them until they were lightly coated with the olive oil and then I sprinkled Himalayan Pink salt over the top and roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. I then increased the temperature to 450 degrees F and roasted them for an additional 10 minutes.
While the vegetables were roasting, I started some salted water boiling to cook my whole wheat penne pasta in. I then started working on the creamy kale sauce. I started by making a white faux sauce. I did this by melting 2 T of real butter in a sauce pan and whisking in 2 T of flour. I then added 2 c of milk slowly and whisked it until the butter/flour mixture was dissolved. I reduced the heat to medium and stirred constantly until it was a thickened to a thin sauce. I added 1 tsp of chicken bouillon powder and 1/2 tsp. of salt. I then sprinkled in some pepper, to taste.
I removed the sauce from the burner and poured it into my Vitamix. I added five large kale leaves and one clove of garlic and blended it until the sauce reached the desired consistency. I drained the cooked pasta, poured the roasted vegetables on top and drizzled the entire mixture with the creamy kale sauce. I served it warm. The kids loved it, I loved it, and there were no leftovers! This is a great way to get in your vegetables! In the future, I would consider adding diced, cooked chicken and sprinkling the top with Parmesan cheese. Yum!
Here is the recipe:
- 1 pkg. whole wheat penne pasta, cooked according to package directions
- 1 red bell pepper, largely chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper, largely chopped
- 1 orange bell pepper, largely chopped
- 1 yellow onion, largely chopped
- 1 head broccoli, largely chopped
- 3 kohlrabi, largely chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and largely chopped
- 1 small zucchini, largely chopped
- 1 small yellow summer squash, largely chopped
- olive oil
- Himalayan pink salt
- 5 leaves Lacinato kale (or kale of choice)
- 2 T real butter
- 2 T flour
- 2 c milk
- 1 tsp. chicken bouillon
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ tsp pepper (or to taste)
- ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
- Wash and loosely chop all of the vegetables. Place on a baking sheet.
- Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and stir to coat.
- Salt with Himalayan Pink Salt (or salt of choice) and place in oven. Roast for 30 min. Then increase temperature to 400 degrees F and roast for an additional 10-15 minutes or until done.
- While vegetables are roasting, start some salted water and cook penne paste according to package directions.
- While pasta is cooking, melt 2 T of butter into a sauce pan. Add 2 T of flour and whisk together. Slowly add milk, whisking while pouring, and whisk together until the flour/butter mixture is dissolved. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring the entire time and cook until desired thickness is achieved.
- Pour creamy sauce into a Vitamix or blender. Add 5 large leaves of kale and one clove of garlic. Blend together until desired consistency is achieved.
- Pour creamy kale sauce over pasta.
- Add roasted vegetables.
- Toss and serve.
Sounds yummy! Tonight I’ll try something similar with the veggies I have on hand.
My kids loved it. Great way to use spinach or kale:)