Healthy Pasta Recipe: Pasta with Salmon and Kale

We all know how healthy it is to include salmon and dark green leafy such as kale in our daily diet.

Today, let me share with you one of the healthiest pasta recipes – pasta with salmon and kale.

This recipe is actually quite easy to do and it can be served either as a warm pasta dish or a cold pasta salad.

Every time I make it, I usually do a relatively big portion so that I can have it for 3-4 different meals.

We will need 4 ingredients: mushroom, kale, salmon, dried or fresh pasta.

The quantity of each ingredient isn’t very strict. For example, you can increase the amount of salmon if you want to have more protein. Or it’s totally fine to put more mushroom and less kale.

First, let’s deal with the Kale. Many people don’t eat the stem of the Kale because it’s a bit bitter and it’s tough to chew, but this part actually is full of good nutrients and fibers. So, I prefer to consume as much stem as possible in my diet.

The bottom part of the kale has thicker and more fibrous stem while the upper part is mainly with juicy leaves. So, I usually separate them and cook the stem parts longer later so that it can be softened.

Next, mushroom.

You can use any type of mushroom. I am using Paris mushroom here because this is one of the most affordable ones and they are very tasty and easy to use. Simply cut the mushroom into slices or cubes. It’s all up to you.

As for the salmon, there are a few things you must do to make sure it has the best taste. After cleaning the salmon in the water, make sure you dry it well. For this recipe, I like to cut the salmon into small cubes.

After cutting the salmon, sprinkle some salt on it and leave it in the fridge for at least 15 mins. Salt not only can remove some unwanted fishy smell, but also can enrich the flavor.

If you happened to have some leftover cooked or uncooked salmon at hand, you can also use these instead.

I am using lentil pasta for this recipe because I am trying to take less gluten these days, but it’s totally fine to use regular pasta.

There are hundreds of different types of pasta thanks to the Italians. You can use any type of them. But I usually use penne or fusilli for this recipe because the shape makes it easier to cook and it can absorb more taste.

How to Cook the Kale?

I usually start by cooking the kale because it takes the longest time to do and doesn’t really require constant care during the process. 

For this recipe, I will boil the kale, but how to and how long to boil the kale?

Turn the heat to medium and pull some boiled water in a pot. You would need enough amount of water that can cover all the kale later.

Add 1-2 teaspoons of salt in the water so that the kale can take the flavor during this step.

Put the stem parts we preferred first because it takes more time to boil them in order to make it soft enough. Boil the stem part for 5 minutes.

Then add the leafy part of the kale and continue to boil for another 5-6 minutes. This is usually how long I boil the kale, but the time range can change depending on how big your kale is and how soft you want it to be.

Note:
Don’t put the cap when boiling the vegetable (e.g. kale), otherwise, the greens can turn yellow easily.

Cooking is all about tests and trials anyway. So, you can bite a bit of of the stem part to taste, seeing whether it’s soft enough. If it’s still too fibrous to chew, just leave it to boil for another 3-5 minutes.

Once the kale reaches your preferred softness, take it out and put it directly in the cold water to cool down.

Onced the kale is cooled down. Wring out the majority of the water as if you are wringing out a towel. Then, just dice them. Cut the stem parts first and remember to chop them into very small pieces so that it won’t be too chewy. As for the leaves, it’s quite casual to cut because it should be quite soft by now.

How to Cooking the Mushroom?

Mushroom is the easiest to cook. Spread 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and put the heat to medium. Once the pan gets a bit warm, pull in all the mushroom and make sure they are evenly spread.

If your pan is too small, you can put in some mushroom first, cook a bit until it shrinks, then put the rest of the mushroom.

When the bottom side of the mushroom gets a bit golden, you can stir and flip them. It takes around 5 minutes to cook the mushroom.

You can cook the paste at the same time. Different pasta requires a different amount of time to cook. So, just read your package instruction to know how long it takes to cook your pasta.

Go back to the mushroom. Once the mushroom is cooked, it will shrink significantly. Also, it will get a lot softer.

How to Cook the Salmon Cubes?

Take out the cooked mushroom. You don’t have to wash the pan. Just put in all the salmon cubes.

Cook them also with medium heat. Salmon usually contains plenty of fat, so I usually don’t add more oil and it shouldn’t stick especially if you are using a non-stick pan.

(If the salmon you got is lean, you can add a half tablespoon of olive oil first)

You can see all the salmon fat is cooked out in just a few minutes. Once the bottom part turns golden, you can stir and flip the salmon to make sure it’s fully cooked everywhere.

It won’t take too long to fully cook the salmon and it smells really good.

The good thing about this dish is that we cook each ingredient separately and assemble them at the end. So, if you find you’ve put in a bit too much of one ingredient, you can just take some out.

I usually leave the heat on when combining all the ingredients. The pasta and the kale were water-boiled, so the heat can take away some excess water. Also, it allows all the flavors to start to interact with each other. 

The only flavor we added before this step is a bit of salt. So, this is the time to enrich the flavor of this pasta dish. You can add more salt if you want, along with all the herbs and spices.

I like to add dried basil and mixed Italian herbs to my pasta. It’s all up to your preference, you can also add garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, etc. Any of those will go very well with this dish.

Make sure you well-mixed the herbs before serving the dish.

That’s it. A healthy and tasty kale salmon mushroom pasta.

This dish contains a very low number of calories and you will feel full quite easily because of the kale.

Try it! 🙂