When I ate meat (red meat) one of my favorite dishes with Orchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage. Occasionally, when I eat out (especially when I go with my husband to Rao’s here in Manhattan), I will order this dish without the sausage. However, I was determined to make a healthy homemade alternative and I have to admit and not to toot my own horn, but beep beep, I did it. This Chickpea Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Organic Chicken Sausage is out of this world delicious. Of course, if you are vegetarian, just leave out the chicken. I leave this out 99% of the time.
One of my favorite pastas to make is from Banza pasta as it is LOADED and I mean loaded with fiber, protein and gluten free. I have this pasta in every shape, I love it so much. This pasta has 25 grams of protein, 13 grams of fiber and 40% less carbs than regular pasta. Every night can be pasta night now, yippee!
For this particular dish, I added another extra flavor of yummy pesto. I am a pesto lover and add it to almost everything to give a dish just a lil’ something extra.
This is the perfect recipe after a long day and you just want a filling, hearty bowl of pasta but minus the gluten.
Ingredients:
- Banza Pasta
- Broccoli Rabe
- Organic, Hormone Free Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage (you can totally leave this out for a vegan version)
- Garlic
- Ghee
- Salt
- Pepper
- Pesto (this is also optional. You can use a tomato sauce as well here. My husband loves it was Rao’s marinara).
Instructions:
- Boil water for the pasta
- Chop up and sauté the broccoli rabe. I like to saute in ghee. Adds a rich flavor and adds healthy fats and CLA’s.
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Slice your organic chicken sausage thinly and throw in with the broccoli rabe
- Drain your pasta and give it a rinse. I like to rinse the chickpea pasta to get off any extra chickpea taste, not that I mind a chickpea taste but for this dish, I want to taste as much like the real deal as possible.
- Dump the pasta in the saute pan with the broccoli rabe and sausage.
- Add two heaping tablespoons of pesto.
- Fold in together. Let it mingle all together for 2-3 minutes
- Serve and enjoy.
This tastes like a dream, just as good as anything you could possibly order at a restaurant and is super simple to make, clean and healthy plus a ton of fiber and we know how I feel about fiber. If you font know about fiber being a disease preventative and a major weightless aid, get on it and read this article.
Trust me, try this.
