Pasta is one of my weaknesses, I have to admit it. I love to prepare it at home, as it is always  a delicious and filling meal that takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

I have been experimenting a lot with different types of pasta, as well as different sauces that would go with it. In the end I always try to add nutritious vegetables in the dish, I do not like to have a simple white pasta with tomato sauce, as it just does not give me the satisfaction of enjoying the various flavours of the ingredients I would otherwise put in the sauce.

That being said, I recently discovered a pasta made out of mung beans! I was so curious, and as you can imagine, I grabbed it quickly and got excited about the dinner I was about to prepare. Mung beans are in the same family as lentils and peas, so that means they are a great source of protein, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients. They also contain lots of other nutrients such as manganese, potassium, magnesium, folate, copper, zinc and various B vitamins. So as you can guess by now, this pasta gives you a whole other nutritional profile than the standard white pasta. 🙂

The sauce is also super easy to make and will fuel your body with nutrients. I love making variations of the traditional green pesto, and for this recipe I used avocado, for some healthy fat and creaminess. You will need about 10 -15 minutes to prepare this meal.

Below is the recipe and the ingredients you will need.

Ingredients 

• 1 package of mung bean pasta (you can find it in the local organic / health food store)
• 1/2 package of frozen spinach
• 1/2 package of frozen peas
• 2-3 cloves garlic, mashed
• 4-5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 avocado
• handful of pine nuts
•  2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2-3 handfuls of fresh basil
• the juice of one lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method 

1. Boil some water for the pasta and boil the pasta according to package instructions
2. In a pan, put some olive oil and half of the mashed garlic and fry the garlic until it releases it’s scent. Add the frozen spinach and peas and mix well. Sauté them until the water from the spinach has evaporated.
3. Place the avocado, the rest of the olive oil and garlic, nutritional yeast, pine nuts, fresh basil and lime juice in a food processor. Blend well until you get a nice creamy sauce. Flavour with some salt and pepper.
4. When the pasta is cooked, rinse the water off and mix it with the pesto sauce and the spinach and peas. Serve while it is warm.

Enjoy!