Cottage cheese pesto pasta with peas
15 min · 32 g protein · 476 cals / serving
Pasta, sweet peas and broccoli in a creamy, bright green sauce of cottage cheese blitzed smooth with fresh basil, baby spinach, a spoonful of pesto, lemon and parmesan. Everything cooks in the one pasta pot, so it is on the table in 15 minutes, and it is just as good cold the next day.
Ingredients
- 7 oz pasta, short shapes such as fusilli or penne
Pesto cream
- 2 cups cottage cheese (1%)
- 1 large handful (about 2 cups) fresh basil, a few leaves kept back to serve
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 3 1/2 tbsp pesto, basil pesto from a jar (choose a vegetarian one if you avoid animal rennet)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan, or a vegetarian hard cheese
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 2/3 cups cooked frozen green peas
- 4 cups frozen chopped broccoli, frozen florets
- 1/3 cup water, pasta cooking water
Steps
- Boil a full kettle and pour it into your largest pot (at least 3 litres/quarts) over high heat with a good pinch of salt. Add the pasta and cook for the time on the pack, usually 9–10 minutes.
- While it cooks, blend the cottage cheese, most of the basil, the spinach, pesto, parmesan, lemon juice and zest, garlic and pepper in a blender or with a stick blender until completely smooth and green.
- Four minutes before the pasta is done, tip the frozen peas and broccoli into the pot, put the lid on and let it come back to the boil.
- Scoop out a mug of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and vegetables and return them to the pot off the heat. Let it stand 1 minute so the pasta is not scalding (very hot pasta can make cottage cheese grainy), then stir in the pesto cream with a splash of the cooking water until glossy.
- Scatter with the last basil leaves and serve. Keeps 3 days in the fridge: eat it cold as a pasta salad or warm it gently with a splash of water.
Good to know
Can I use lentil or chickpea pasta?
Yes, a red lentil or chickpea pasta nearly doubles the pasta's protein, at about 66 instead of 61. Cook it a minute less than the pack says; it softens fast.
I do not like the texture of cottage cheese.
Once blended it is just a creamy sauce with no curds left. Blend it on its own first until it looks like sour cream, then add the basil, spinach and pesto.
Per
- Calories
- 94
- Protein
- (28%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (23%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (49%)
- 12 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 187 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1902 kcal goes into the pot and 1761 g of ingredients comes out as about 2030 g of food: 94 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.