Pasta is an absolute favourite in our house hold and I personally can’t get enough of pesto pasta. Unfortunately pesto pasta can be very calorie dense, but I have created a healthy and light option with a modern twist. I start with using wholegrain pasta. Fresh is best but I usually don’t have time to make my own, and often the supermarket doesn’t stock the fresh pasta options in wholewheat/ wholegrain. If you can’t bring yourself to enjoy the wholegrain pasta option (the texture takes a bit of getting used to), then simply search the aisles for a high fibre pasta option. Most of the packets have the fibre content included.
Olive oil and in particular extra virgin olive oil is a staple in most Italian cooking and rightly so. It is a good, healthy fat that is high in antioxidants. On the down side, oil is a fat and it is therefore calorie dense. When you are trying to shrink that waistline, shredding the calories wherever possible means reducing the beautiful, flavoursome extra virgin olive oil in Chicken Pesto Pasta.
Of course you may choose to to add a protein to your pesto pasta. My protein of choice today is chicken, but I often use prawns as well. It doesn’t matter which protein you use. It comes down to personal preference. I often choose the vegetarian option as well. It reduces the calories by around 100 calories though this is not why I leave it out. Sometimes I simply enjoy having a meat free day.
I do however find that when I am eating a lower calorie diet that I am often unsatisfied, especially if I leave out the meat. Bulking up your pasta with colourful, fresh vegetables is the way to go when you want to feel full. Vegetables (especially watery vegetables) tend to be quite low in calories. For the chicken pesto pasta I can’t go past the combination of asparagus, pumpkin and cherry tomatoes. It doesn’t matter what you choose though. Fill up that pesto pasta with your vegetables of choice.
I like to include pine nuts, onions and garlic to the chicken pesto pasta. You might prefer a different nut such as cashews or almonds. You may also choose to leave the garlic if you find that it overpowers the aromatic basil. This is a versatile dish, and you can tweak it to suit your personal taste, however for me pesto has to have basil and lots of it. I grow my own basil and I am lucky enough to have the self proliferating kind in the garden that seems to produce leaves all year round, but if you don’t have it in your garden then most supermarkets stock basil when it is in season.
As you will see, the calories have been reduced in this pesto pasta dish in many ways from lean meats to less oil, but cheese is my weakness and I just couldn’t bring myself to scrimp on the parmesan cheese. But enough about my vices. Lets get busy cooking!
Recipe: Chicken Pesto Pasta (low fat)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 497 kcal per/serve
Ingredients
| 100.00 | g | Chicken, breast, lean, raw |
| 5.00 | ml | Oil, olive, pure |
| 5.00 | g | Nut, pine, raw, no added salt |
| 20.00 | g | Asparagus, raw |
| 50.00 | g | Tomato, cherry, raw |
| 25.00 | g | Basil, green, fresh, raw |
| 100.00 | g | Pumpkin, butternut, peeled, boiled, no added salt, drained |
| 20.00 | g | Cheese, parmesan, shaved |
| 60.00 | g | Pasta, wholemeal wheat flour based, dry |
Method
- To begin this simple chicken pesto pasta, I begin with getting my pasta on the boil. I don’t add salt to the water. We can all think of ways to reduce sodium from our diets and this is one way to do so.
- While the pasta is cooking, I spray a non-stick pan with extra virgin olive oil to slightly toast the pine nuts (and onion and garlic if you decide to add these ingredients). Remove from the pan and brown the diced chicken. This step will vary depending on the protein of choice.
- While you are lightly frying the chicken, boil the diced pumpkin and asparagus to your liking.
- Next, add the boiled vegetables, sliced cherry tomatoes, and basil to the pan as well as the pine nuts, garlic and onions. I tend to add a lot of basil. You might want to wait until the very end if you don’t want your basil to wilt at all. Gently mix these ingredients together.
- It is as simple as that. Serve 4 ways with pasta and a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top. I hope you enjoy!
Nutrition Information (per serve)
| Servings per package | 1 |
| Serving size | 360.46 g |
| Quantity per Serving: | |
| Energy | 2080 kJ |
| Protein | 38.0 g |
| Fat Total | 16.5 g |
| – Saturated | 5.0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 43.2 g |
| – Sugars | 6.8 g |
| Sodium | 298 mg |