Baked Kale Pasta with Chickpeas and Feta

Who isn’t busy these days? As much as I love to cook, I find myself rushing to throw together meals during the week after work, after the gym, before some evening plans, etc. And as busy as the evenings seem now, they are about to get a hundred times crazier in a few short months when we welcome a new baby into the household. 

In order to not fall into the “let’s eat Chipotle again” or weekly pizza-ordering trap, I think it’s crucial to have a nice variety of super-fast, mostly-healthy meals that can be quickly pulled together from food that we often have around the house. It’s just as easy (easier, maybe!) to make tacos, or boil some tortellini and toss it with fresh arugula, diced tomatoes, parmesan, pine nuts, and Kenzoil as it is to get in the car, drive to a restaurant, wait in line, drive home, and eat semi-warm food from a take-out container.

On my blog (Tuesdays with Angela), I have written up a few “quick meals” that we turn to a lot during the week. The quickest of the quick are warm tortellini salad, burritos/tacos, and baked Parmesan shrimp. When we have a little more time (I’m talking 20-30 minutes, not an hour or anything), I will often make homemade “green” pizza with pesto pizza sauce, broccoli, spinach, and tomato, or homemade fried rice with a ton of veggies and tofu.

One of our absolute favorite quick meals, though, is this baked pasta dish with kale, feta, and chickpeas. It was born out of pulling apart the cupboard and throwing a bunch of things together, but I’ve refined and perfected it over the last year or so and can say that this version is the favored version in our house. It makes excellent leftovers, too, if you managed to have any left! 

Baked Kale Pasta with Chickpeas and Feta
(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:
6-8 oz. dried pasta
1 bunch of kale, rinsed, thick stems removed, and roughly chopped
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup feta cheese
2 cups pasta sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Sprinkling of parmesan cheese
Spices: I used a heaping tablespoon of Jamaican allspice blend, but this could be substituted with a mix of garlic powder, dried red pepper flakes, thyme, paprika, and salt and pepper, or any spicy southwestern or Italian spice blend.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 400-degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is pre-heating, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta, and when the pasta is almost done, add the chopped kale to the boiling water with the pasta for the remaining minute or two.

Drain the pasta and kale, and put it back in the pot. Add the chickpeas, feta, pasta sauce, and spices to the pot and stir it all together.

Pour the mix into a medium sized casserole dish. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. You can finish it under the broiler for a minute or two if you like your cheese browned and bubbly.