dinner gluten-free salads

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad with Kale and Artichokes

April 26, 2015

Get ready for your next summer BBQ or dinner party with this Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad with Kale and Artichokes. Balance your carbs with veggies without sacrificing on flavor for a filling and wholesome meal the whole family will love.

For some reason pasta gets a bad rap (or rep? Urban dictionary failed me…). Especially in the healthy living world, pasta and any kind of carb-based meal tends to be viewed as evil. Unless of course you’re carb-loading for a marathon.

I really don’t get it though. Our bodies need carbs and you certainly won’t derail your health goals by eating a bowl full of pasta. Stuffing it full of kale doesn’t hurt either.

Pasta is another one of the foods that I eat all the time but never find myself posting on the blog. If I’m being honest, I was kind of scared of how you’d react. In the spiralized-veggie, give me ALL THE SALADS obsessed blog world (dear spiralizer- don’t take that personally, I still love you), I expect most of you aren’t looking for pasta dishes.

Well I hope this post changes your mind.

Get ready for your next summer BBQ or dinner party with this Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad with Kale and Artichokes. Balance your carbs with veggies without sacrificing on flavor. No one needs to know the recipe is gluten-free too!When C and I were living in NYC we started a tradition of “pasta Sundays”. The name is pretty straight-forward – every Sunday we’d throw together whatever we had into a big pasta dish. It was fun to play around in the kitchen and see what crazy concoctions we could come up with. Whatever veggies or leftovers we had in the fridge got dumped into a big old pasta dish. Serve it warm, serve it cold you cannot go wrong with a pasta salad!

This sun-dried tomato pesto pasta salad is no exception. It’s pretty much what all of our leftover sun-dried tomatoes get thrown into. It is the bane of my existence to open a can or jar of something that I don’t finish the ends up just siting in the fridge and never getting used. Thankfully that’s what Sundays are for! And that my friends is how sundried tomatoes became pesto and pesto became pasta salad. Perfect for Sunday…or any day of the week!

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Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad with Kale and Artichokes

  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale

For the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto:

  • 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (stored in OLIVE oil)
  • 1 cup fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup reserved olive oil from Sun-dried tomato jar (or any olive oil)
  • 2 tbsp pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup parmesan (or nutritional yeast if vegan)
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/4 cup of water

For the Pasta Salad:

  • 1 box of pasta (approx 4 cups)
  • 3 cups artichoke hearts (stored in water), chopped
  • 1/2 head of kale, stemmed and chopped into small pieces
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

  1. Add stemmed and chopped kale to a colander and place in the sink.
  2. Cook pasta according to instructions.
  3. When finished, pour pasta and water over kale to wilt kale.
  4. Add kale and pasta back to pot and top with artichoke hearts.
  5. Place all pesto ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until well combined.
  6. Add pesto to pot and stir so pasta, artichoke hearts and kale are coated.
  7. Top with salt and pepper.
  8. Store in refrigerator to cool and allow flavours to meld for at least 1 hour.
  9. Serve warm or cold.

Like this recipe? Here are a few others you might enjoy:

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  • Reply
    Becky
    April 7, 2022 at 12:43 am

    Hello, approx how much kale should you add in grams?

  • Reply
    Becky
    April 7, 2022 at 12:42 am

    Approx how much kale should you add in grams?

  • Reply
    Minal
    January 20, 2017 at 11:37 pm

    I love pasta. I’m drooling over this pasta recipe. Gosh, I seriously want to eat this salad!

  • Reply
    Sandra
    December 25, 2016 at 11:38 am

    Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe. It’ll be perfect for me to make for the upcoming family picnic. I’ll just use fresh homemade gluten-free pasta I can make using almond flour which I discovered last week since I normally feel that dry pasta doesn’t bring the flavors out as much as fresh pasta.

  • Reply
    bristol plasterers
    July 9, 2015 at 12:26 pm

    Top marks for this recipe. Tastes superb. Thanks for sharing.

    Simon

  • Reply
    Cassie
    April 27, 2015 at 11:11 am

    I luuuuuuuuuuuurve sun-dried tomato pesto, kale and artichokes! Will try this with some black bean pasta!

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      April 27, 2015 at 10:40 pm

      Fab! Enjoy, lovely 🙂

  • Reply
    Paula
    April 27, 2015 at 7:59 am

    This post makes me like you even more. Spiralizing everything is a lot of fun (and a nice way to shove more veggies into your face), but all the zoodles on blogs sometimes makes me feel like I should never eat the real thing. I feel vindicated.

  • Reply
    Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves
    April 26, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    PRO-PASTA! Seriously, nothing beats a hearty meal of spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, or gnocchi. Gahh. I added pasta salad to my veggie salad yesterday and it was a fantastic decision.
    I love pesto and artichokes and greens and pasta, so I know I will love this!

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      April 27, 2015 at 8:23 am

      you will! you will! Okay now I’m craving spaghetti, ravioli and gnocchi at 8:00 AM. Well done lol

  • Reply
    Dani @ DaniCaliforniaCooks
    April 26, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    I’ve been pinning everything with artichokes recently but have yet to make a single thing. I think it’s time!

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      April 27, 2015 at 8:21 am

      So funny, I’ve been eating artichokes with everything too! And weirdly radishes too…I don’t know what’s happening to me lol

  • Reply
    Alexis @ Hummusapien
    April 26, 2015 at 9:45 pm

    HEYYYY for pasta Sunday! I’ve been using a quinoa brown rice pasta and you’d never know the diff. This is everything!

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      April 27, 2015 at 8:20 am

      You are everything! If C can’t figure out its gluten-free, then it must be good. That’s the ultimate test!

  • Reply
    Ann
    April 26, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    This would be great for a BBQ evening with my family! I like that you fill the dish with veggies too. I like pasta and am not anit-carbs but pasta is so calorie-dense that I prefer other more high-volume carb sources. I need BIG meals! 🙂

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      April 27, 2015 at 8:19 am

      I hear ya!!! I’m the person who stuffs their mac and cheese with broccoli just so I can eat more 🙂

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