Sometimes you need a nice creamy pasta for those days when you just have to have a comfort food.  Unfortunately eating a pasta with cream sauce will make me look like I’m in my second trimester.  There is nothing good in that dish for your body.  It will spike your blood sugar (see last week’s post for more on that), and make you feel like crap.

This sweet green alfredo pasta will give you the same comforting feeling as eating that creamy pasta, but unlike the conventional alfredo, this one is packed with nutrients, and tastes absolutely delicious.

Let’s talk about the benefits of the whole food ingredients in this cream sauce:

Coconut:

Coconuts are highly nutritious.  It is high in saturated fat, which means that it is a very stable and not harmed by heat.  This makes it one of the best fats to cook with.

Fun fact: about half the fat found in coconut milk is a medium chain fatty acid called lauric acid, which is otherwise only found in breast milk.  This fat is antiviral, and antibacterial.  This makes it a necessary addition to the diet for anyone suffering from candida or an H. Pylori infection.

Coconut also protects against heart disease and promotes weight loss.  Medium chain fats have a higher thermogenic effect than long chain fats, meaning it boosts the metabolism.

Vitamins and minerals: Manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc

Kale:

Kale is part of the cruciferous family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc). Being rich in many vitamins and minerals, as well as a great source of fibre, it has become very popular as a health food.  The reality is, any dark green leafy vegetable is fantastic for your health, so make sure to switch it up to get a wide variety of vitamins and minerals in your diet.

Vitamins and minerals: Vitamin C, B6, manganese, potassium, copper, iron, calcium, B1, B2, vitamin E and of course FIBRE!

Sweet Potato:

Sweet potatoes are a fantastic source of antioxidants.  Remember, we need antioxidants to neutralize free radical damage in the body for optimal health, and prevention of things like atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Vitamins and minerals: Vitamin C, B6, manganese, copper, biotin, pantothenic acid, B2, fibre, folic acid

The only other thing you need for this dish is a gluten free and corn free pasta!  My favourites include: brown rice pasta, quinoa pasta, and lentil pasta.  You will follow the cooking directions on the package and that’s that!

Prep for this dish: bake whole sweet potato with skin, brushed with olive oil and wrapped in foil, for an hour at 350.

Tip: I like to batch cook a bunch of sweet potatoes to use for recipes and to use as side dishes.  See my sweet potato pancakes for another recipe using sweet potato.

 
Method: 

• While the pasta is boiling:
  • de-stem, wash, and steam the kale
  • place 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk, 2 sweet potatoes and 1 head of steamed kale into the blender with a dash of sea salt and black pepper
  • blend until smooth
• pour creamy sauce over cooked pasta
• top with nutritional yeast (or parmesan cheese)
• voila!

Nutritional yeast is fantastic for vegetarians as it has some B12, which is lacking in a diet free from animal products.  This is not enough B12 to make up for what we need, so I would also recommend a sublingual B12 tablet daily for as long as you don’t consume animal products.