Pastas are always kids’ favorites.
What if we add variety of veggies and greens to the pasta
and make it healthier and colorful? Isn’t it a Wow idea!
Here is Spinach pasta recipe Aps Kitchen way.
There are 4 important steps to this recipe –
1)Steam and puree the spinach.
2)Boil the pasta.
3)Make the bechamel/white sauce.
4)Sautee the veggies if adding in another pan.
Ingredients
measuring cup used ,1 cup = 250ml
1.5 cup Boiled whole wheat or multi grain Farfalle Pasta (1
Cup Raw Farfalle Pasta)
1 cup Spinach Puree (made from 3-4 cups of raw spinach (i
dint blanch spinach in this recipe)
2 Garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp All-purpose flour/wheat flour
1.5 cups milk
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tablespoon Olive oil or butter
2 tsp of mixed herbs
1/4 teaspoon Black pepper powder
salt to taste
Instructions
Bechamel Sauce:
Heat Olive oil in a pan on medium flame. Add a tsp of minced
garlic and sauté for 30 secs.
To this add the flour (I use wheat and Maida mix) . roast
the flour until you get a good aroma making sure the raw smell goes off but doesn’t
burn.
When it is done add milk and mix well add salt to this and
mix well. Switch off the flame and keep the sauce aside.
To make Paste:
Firstly, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add
some salt to the water and cook the pasta, according to the package
instructions.
While the pasta is cooking, make the spinach puree. I took
around 3-4 cups of raw spinach blanched and cooled it and pureed in a blender. Keep
this for later use
Cook pasta until Al dente. Drain the pasta and reserve 1/2
cup of water for later use.
Heat a pan add olive oil or butter add a tsp of minced
garlic and sauté. Do not roast it just needs to cook.
Next add spinach puree & sauté it for about 2-3 minutes
till raw smell of the spinach goes away.
Add in the prepared bechamel sauce, salt, black pepper
powder & mixed Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley) I have used
fresh ones you can use dried ones. . Give a quick stir and cook for a minute.
Add ½ cup(if not packing in tiffin and eating immediately
add just ¼ ths cup of water) of drained pasta water to this. Allow it to boil.
When done add in boiled Pasta. Give it a quick mix and stir
fry on high flame for another 1 minute and pasta is ready.
Serve in a plate or pack in your kids tiffin box (*check
notes) and sprinkle some parmesan cheese
over it for garnish.
Aps Notes:
If you don’t have olive oil, you can use butter or regular cooking oil as well.
You can use any kind of pasta’s or even Zucchini noodles for low carb option.
Try using Whole wheat, Lentils or Veggie pasta ( I use Durum wheat pasta)
If you don’t have cream at home you do not want to make bechamel sauce you can replace with same amount of mayonnaise or just full fat milk or 3tbsp full fat cream.
You can also add sweet corn or mushrooms (I use it most of the time)for this pasta. Goes well with spinach.
If you don’t have time prepare spinach puree, you can just use finely chopped spinach.
You can also add cheese in the Pasta while cooking.
Pasta sauce should not be too thick else after mixing pasta they become extremely dry when eaten later.
The sauce might look thin after adding water but its fine because while kids eat their tiffin it gets thick and is very creamy and not watery.
Happy Cooking,
Aps
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