This page contains some affiliate links. Please review my disclosure policy.
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.
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!
PrintSun-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
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
- Add stemmed and chopped kale to a colander and place in the sink.
- Cook pasta according to instructions.
- When finished, pour pasta and water over kale to wilt kale.
- Add kale and pasta back to pot and top with artichoke hearts.
- Place all pesto ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until well combined.
- Add pesto to pot and stir so pasta, artichoke hearts and kale are coated.
- Top with salt and pepper.
- Store in refrigerator to cool and allow flavours to meld for at least 1 hour.
- Serve warm or cold.
Like this recipe? Here are a few others you might enjoy:
Approx how much kale should you add in grams?
I love pasta. I’m drooling over this pasta recipe. Gosh, I seriously want to eat this salad!
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.
Top marks for this recipe. Tastes superb. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
I luuuuuuuuuuuurve sun-dried tomato pesto, kale and artichokes! Will try this with some black bean pasta!
Fab! Enjoy, lovely 🙂
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.
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!
you will! you will! Okay now I’m craving spaghetti, ravioli and gnocchi at 8:00 AM. Well done lol
I’ve been pinning everything with artichokes recently but have yet to make a single thing. I think it’s time!
So funny, I’ve been eating artichokes with everything too! And weirdly radishes too…I don’t know what’s happening to me lol
HEYYYY for pasta Sunday! I’ve been using a quinoa brown rice pasta and you’d never know the diff. This is everything!
You are everything! If C can’t figure out its gluten-free, then it must be good. That’s the ultimate test!
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! 🙂
I hear ya!!! I’m the person who stuffs their mac and cheese with broccoli just so I can eat more 🙂