Day 29 | Pasta with Lentils, Kale, and Spinach {YUM!}

I must have been hiding under a rock all my life, because until this fall I had never {ever} had kale.  Or lentils.  And now I love both.  I just about died when I came across this recipe on Epicurious.

I only made a couple of changes to the recipe - adding spinach and parmesean.  This recipe is definitely going into rotation at my house.  This serves 4 and it didn't even last 5 hours in my house.  Hubster had 2 servings at dinner and I couldn't resist making a midnight snack of the remaining serving.  ;)

Pasta with Lentils, Kale, and Spinach {based off of this recipe}

Ingredients:
1/2 cup lentils, cooked and ready to go
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 lb kale
1/4 lb baby spinach
1/4 cup shredded parmesean
3/4 lb short dried pasta
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, then add onions, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.  Saute for about a minute over medium high, then reduce heat and continue to cook for about 20 minutes or until golden.

While your onions are cooking, remove the center stems from the kale and cut kale into bite sized pieces.  Boil kale in a 6-8 quart pot of salted water for 5-8 minutes, or until cooked through. 

 Remove the kale with tongs and strain in a colander.  Add your dried pasta to the already boiling pot of water and cook until al dente.  Add lentils, kale, and baby spinach to the skillet with the onions and simmer for about a minute.  Check for seasoning and add salt/pepper as needed.

Once pasta is al dente, add pasta to skillet, plus about 1/3 cup of pasta water.  Toss to coat and simmer for another minute or so. 

Transfer to serving dish and add parmesean and a drizzle of olive oil.  Toss one last time and serve immediately.

Seriously, this is my new fav.  :)

 
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