Verdant chicken and herb pasta
It’s the mint that really makes this heavenly chicken pasta recipe. I used mint sauce from a jar, as well as fresh mint. Although I did it on a whim it turned out to be a revelation. The verdancy of this dish makes you zing with phytonutrients and chicken makes it hugely satisfying, although you are free to leave it out if you are vegetarian.
- Prep: 10 mins
- Cook: 12-15 mins
- Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 400g of dried penne rigati or large tubular pasta
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion (not red) finely chopped
- 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 large leaves of cavolo nero, chopped small in a food processor but not liquidised
- a handful of green beans, topped, tailed and chopped into 30mm lengths
- a big handful of fresh large basil
- a handful of fresh mint
- 2-3 heaped dessert spoons of full fat creme fraiche
- 2-3 teaspoons of mint sauce from a jar
- juice of a small lemon
- some leftover cooked chicken, equivalent of 1.5-2 breasts, torn into bitesize pieces
- sea salt
- course-ground black pepper
- grated Parmesan to serve
Nuush clients: Please apply the portion sizes stated in your account and divide the recipe so that you make only as much you need.
Instructions
Boil the water for the pasta.
In a large high-sided frying pan heat enough olive oil to very liberally coat the base. Add the chopped onion and garlic, and soften. Now put the pasta in to cook. Back at the frying pan add the green beans and cavolo nero and cook for a couple of mins. Then add the fresh herbs, just very roughly chopped, along with some sea salt and a bit of black pepper (salt to your taste but it does need it). After a couple more minutes throw in the chicken and then stir in the mint sauce and creme fraiche and cook for another minute or two. Always taste what you are cooking to see if it needs a bit more of something.
When the pasta is cooked (al dente) spoon it into the sauce until it is coated, you can take a little of the pasta water with it, but not a lot. Now plate it up and give it a good squeeze of lemon, some more black pepper, a cloud of grated Parmesan and a few leftover herb leaves.
Nutrition Info
Chicken
Chicken is one of the best sources of vitamin B3, otherwise known as niacin. Niacin is vitally important for energy production, changing protein, fat and carbohydrate into usable energy. In particular niacin helps convert starches, stored in the liver and muscles, into energy. It also plays an antioxidant role, helping to stop damaging free radicals from doing their nasty cell-destroying deeds.
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Portion Guidelines
Instead of living with the bore of weighing food, counting points or calories and tapping everything you eat into a phone you can use nature’s custom-designed tool – your hands!
