I don’t even remember how I stumbled on this recipe from sheknows.com, but, with a few modifications it became one I know we’ll make over and over again for Cooking Club.  The sauce is reminiscent of some of the pestos we’ve made in the past and all the beautiful green ingredients just scream SUMMER!  But I also feel that since it relies on spinach rather than basil we’ll make this year-round.

Because we like our protein, I added chicken to the original recipe as well as (unsurprisingly ;)) using high-protein Mung Bean Fettucine instead of fresh pasta.

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken breast cooked and cut into bite sized pieces
3 cups fresh spinach
1 pounds asparagus cut into 1-inch pieces, tips reserved
1.5 cup peas
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1 bags mung bean fettucine
1.5 cup 2% milk
1.5 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 cups reserved pasta water
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Drop in the spinach and sliced asparagus stalks (reserve the tips for later). Cook for about 1 minute, just to blanch the asparagus stalks. Using a slotted spoon, retrieve the asparagus and spinach, drain them and put into a blender or food processor.

In the same pot of water, cook the asparagus tips and peas for about 1 minute, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

In the blender/food processor with your asparagus stalks and spinach, add olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese and blend until smooth.

Bring the pot of water back to a boil again and cook the fettuccine according to the package instructions.

Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta, rinse under cool water and return to the empty pot.

Stir in the spinach mixture, butter and milk into the pasta, adding the pasta water about 1/4 cup at a time. You may or may not use all the pasta water, depending on the thickness of the sauce.

Add the cooked peas, asparagus tips and chicken. Cook over low heat, until the sauce comes together and is creamy.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with more grated Parmesan cheese.

For each of 6 servings: 491 calories, 19 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs (10 grams of fiber), 60 grams of protein.

Note: This post contains affiliate links… so if you use my link to buy something, I’ll make a few bucks to help me buy more cool stuff to try out and tell you about!