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How about something completely different for you dinner tonight that you may never have even thought about putting together into a dish?
This creamy butterbean and spinach, Italian-style pasta just seems to work on every level. It’s creamy, even without the need for real cream, due to those hearty butter beans, so therefore low calorie too. Almost a cheat, as you’re getting a creamy pasta without the need for the actual cream.
So, if you’re in the mood for indulgent feeling comfort food made from just minimal store-cupboard ingredients, you’ve come to the right place.
What’ So Good About This Dish?
This butterbean and pasta dish is the perfect way to eat carb-heavy pasta in an extremely healthy way for the following reasons:
1. It’s Low Calorie
We do not use oils in our recipes, which automatically saves you at least 100 calories per serve on your average pasta dishes. This means you can have more if you want, all for the same amount of calories, but in a healthier way. Don’t ask how we came to that “science”; it just makes sense 😉
The use of oils in cooking should also be reduced dramatically for multiple health benefits (not just weight loss) especially oils that have been heat treated during the cooking process. This is the basic premise of eating a whole foods plant based diet, so this dish is fully compliant with that.
2. It’s Oil Free
As already mentioned, this delicious, butterbean pasta dish recipe is also whole foods plant based, which means there is no need for added oils that are not necessarily healthful. This makes this dish heart friendly as it contains only whole foods and nothing refined.
When it comes to the pasta you serve it with, be sure to also use a wholegrain, chickpea, or some other legume-style pasta to keep this dish as whole foods and heart-healthy as possible.
3. It’s High Protein
Those butterbeans are a great way to get more plant based protein into your diet in a tasty way. Butterbeans come in at 15g protein content per cup, and that’s before you consider all the other ingredients in this dish.
Eating whole foods plant based protein sources at every meal will ensure you feel satiated and full, help boost weight loss, and help keep your blood sugar on an even keel.
4. High In Vegetables
The good thing about this one pot pasta dish is the fact that you already have all your healthful veggies in there and do not need to trouble yourself making extra for the side.
It’s great to hit your veggies quota so easily by making sure all your meals already have them added, and this dish is no exception.
We have at least 3 portions of your daily vegetables in here – spinach, onions and tomatoes. All these veggies are high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fibre to help keep digestion healthy.
5. It’s Ready In Under So Minutes!
If you want a fast and easy meal, this is it! You can knock this tasty butterbean pasta dish up in quite literally under 30 minutes!
That fact alone makes it the perfect weeknight meal after a busy day at work. Why spend money on unhealthy and expensive take-aways when you can make quick and easy recipes that are also 100% HEALTHY for you and your family?
6. It’s Inexpensive
This creamy butterbean and spinach pasta also won’t break the bank. Most of the ingredients in this dish can be bought inexpensively at the supermarket and will probably come in at around $2 per head maximum.
You can lower this amount even more by preparing your own butterbeans from scratch by soaking and simmering until soft. Doing this also yields you a FAR more tastier butterbean, but it’s definitely not essential.
7. Minimal Ingredients
This dish comprises of only 5 main ingredients that are easy to source at any grocery store.
Excluding the store-cupboard staple spices and herbs, this dish comprises of only 5 main ingredients of spinach, tomatoes, onions, butterbeans, and pasta.
Minimal ingredients means minimal time spent chopping and prepping, allowing you more time to live your life WHILST also being healthy.
What To Serve With Spinach and Butterbean Pasta
This dish has pretty much all you could possibly want in one pot. You have your protein, veggies, and carbs in there, so you can feel free to serve it alone.
However, here are some ideas that you might want to use to jazz it up further, or add to the veggie count:-
- Serve with our delicious, homemade parmesan that you can knock up in under 2 minutes from some simple. store cupboard ingredients (this is a must try).
- Serve you pasta on a bed of yet more spinach, except this will be raw spinach that will wilt slightly under the heat of the pasta, but offer a lot more nutrition and fiber.
- You could eat your pasta with a side of crunchy chili-lemon asparagus.
- If you don’t like asparagus, try chili-lemon broccoli to add extra veggies to your dish.
- Serve with charred mixed vegetables.
- Add a huge, green side salad for lots of extra raw nutrition.
Creamy Butterbean & Spinach Italian-Style Pasta
Equipment
- Large, non-stick frying pan
- Large saucepan
- Chopping board
- Chopping knife
- Colander
Ingredients
- 1 400g can butterbeans Go for organic for supreme flavour.
- 1 400g can crushed tomatoes
- 1 large white onion Thickly sliced
- 2-3 cups vegetable stock U se some of this for sauteing.
- 3-4 large handfuls baby spinach
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp paprika
- 2-3 heaped Tbsp Italian herbs blend Or use separate herbs of oregano, rosemary, thyme, and parsley.
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- very large handful fresh basil
- Pasta for 2 servings Use a high protein, gluten free pasta such as chickpea, buckwheat, brown rice, or corn.
- Cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Get your pasta on to simmer and gauge how long it takes with how long it will take you to prepare the other part of your dish. Once you pasta is cooked you can leave it drained on the side until ready to add to your sauce, but this may not be ideal as it dries out quite fast, so be wary of this.
- Slice your onion up quite thickly and add to a hot, non-stick pan along with your crushed garlic.
- Dry fry for a couple of minutes until it begins to caramelise. Add splashes of your stock as you go to prevent sticking. Saute down for around 5 minutes before adding all your herbs and spices and cooking for a further minute in a dry pan to help activate the flavours.
- Next add all other ingredients except for your spinach and fresh basil and bring to a simmer. You may wish to hold back on some of the stock until the end and see how saucy you want the dish to be. Simmer for another 7-8 minutes to reduce down a little and concentrate the flavours.
- Next add your fresh, chopped spinach and basil. Stir and bring back to a simmer for a minute or so.
- Add your pre-cooked pasta. A little of the pasta cooking water will not harm, and may indeed be preferable, to the finished dish as it's starchy and adds some thickness and texture to the sauce.
- Stir everything very gently to prevent breaking up your delicate pasta. Add more stock if you need to to desired consistency. Check herbs and flavours.
- Serve topped with nutritional yeast flakes OR our delicious 2 minute parmesan (see link above this recipe block).
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We hope you have enjoyed our delicious and different, butterbean and spinach pasta recipe.
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