Step into Spring with our Spring Vegetable Pasta with Kefir. The delicious dish spotlights the season’s fresh flavors and is easily doubled to feed a crowd. Feel free to increase the amount of veggies, or use whatever you have on hand. See notes for vegetarian substitutions.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Lifeway Organic Organic Plain Whole Milk Kefir
- ¼ lb angel hair pasta
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth*
- 1-2 cups cooked chicken (to your preference)**
- 2 leeks (white parts only), sliced into ½ inch rounds
- 2 medium yellow squash, sliced into diagonal rounds
- 3-4 stalks of asparagus, cut into 1-inch rods
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp flour
- 2 tsp dried spearmint or peppermint
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for sautéing
- Crushed red pepper, to taste
Directions
- In a medium/large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the leeks and squash and cook for about 10 minutes, flipping the squash and leeks to cook evenly.
- Add the chopped asparagus and cook an additional 5-6 minutes, until sides of leeks and squash are browned and the asparagus is heated through. Set aside.
- In a large stock pot, bring chicken broth to a low boil. Break pasta strands by hand into ½-inch pieces and add to the broth. Boil for 10 minutes, or until pasta is cooked through. Turn off heat and cover with a lid.
- In a medium bowl, combine kefir, flour, spearmint, egg yolk and a dash of crushed red pepper. Whisk until smooth and all ingredients are well combined.
- After the pasta is finished cooking and has the broth is no longer boiling hot, ladle about a cup of the liquid into the kefir mixture to temper. Whisk quickly until smooth, careful to make sure the egg yolk doesn’t solidify and the kefir doesn’t get too hot.
- Add kefir mixture to the pot of pasta and stir quickly to combine.
- Add the vegetables and chicken, and turn the heat back to low. Serve warm and garnish with additional chili pepper, spearmint or leek stalk.
- This recipe is great as a soup, too! Simply increase the chicken broth until the desired ratio of liquid to solid is reached.
- To make this dish vegetarian, leave out the chicken and replace the chicken broth with low-sodium vegetable stock. If more bulk is needed, add grilled tofu, seitan or tempeh.
