MEAL PREP: Sup(h)erb Green Pasta (vegan, high-protein)
The perfect meal prep idea for yourself or your kid who most likely hates vegetables. This recipe comes together in 30 minutes or less and tastes absolutely delicious. To really elevate the dish, I added preserved lemons but if you don’t have this on hand, lemon juice will work just fine. Enjoy :)
Makes: 5 servings | Cook time: 30 minutes
ingredients
2 packs of gnocchi or 1 box of pasta noodles of your choice
1/2 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
1 bag of frozen peas
2 cups of spinach
1.4 rind of preserved lemon with 2 tbsp of the juice OR the juice of one lemon
2 sprigs of mint leaves
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced
1 can of full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup of hemp seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 cup of nutritional yeast
1 tsp of salt (more to taste if needed)
red pepper flakes to taste
instructions
Prep your vegetables first by washing and chopping your parsley, picking off your mint leaves, mincing your garlic, dicing the onion, preparing your preserved lemon if you’re using this.
In a large pot on medium heat, add the oil then saute the garlic, preserved lemon (if you have), and onions until they’re softened and fragrant.
Once they’re caramelized, add the coconut milk, parsley, mint, and lemon juice (if you’re using this instead) then stir everything together. This will also help to deglaze the bottom of the pot for any crispy bits.
Prepare a large ice bath. In another pot, boil 4 cups of water. Once the water is at a rolling boil, add your peas for 1 minute then remove quickly and dump into the ice bath. Add your spinach for 30 seconds or until it’s slightly wilted and also dump into the ice bath. Then in that same pot, add the gnocchi and allow them to cook until they float to the top, a key indicator that they’re ready. Fish out the gnocchi with a spoon and place into a separate bowl for later.
Back to the sauce - the coconut milk should’ve soaked up all the herbaceous flavor by now. If you don’t have an emulsifier/immersion blender, you can transfer all the sauce into a blender with the peas, spinach, and hemp seeds then pulverize until it’s smooth. If you do have a hand blender, add the blanched spinach, peas, and hemp seeds to the pot then blend until it’s smooth and creamy. If your sauce is looking a little clumpy or not a smooth texture, add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water at a time to help.
Lastly, add the nutritional yeast and salt. Then you just need to add the cooked gnocchi or pasta into your sauce and you now have super green pasta to eat for days.