Kale Pasta with Chickpeas {Sirt Food Diet}

Have you heard about the SIRT food diet? If yes, here is another example of a delicious dish you can enjoy while on the diet. {And if you haven't, you will still love this pasta!}
By 3 years ago

Kale Pasta with Chickpeas – Easy to Make, Delicious and Healthy

Kale Pasta with Chickpeas is a recipe I have meant to share for a long time. I have prepared it many times over the last few months as it is easy to make, delicious and healthy. I know I describe many of my recipes like that, but I am always honest when I do so. And this recipe fits this description even better than some other ones.

Easy recipes are my favourite. Yes, I love cooking and don’t mind spending many hours in the kitchen occasionally. However, on a daily basis, I prefer meals that I can prepare quickly. This one takes approximately half an hour.

However, quick preparation of a tasteless dish is out of the question. Obviously, not everything I cook is always great, especially if I am working on a new recipe. But I only post on my blog recipes that are tested, tasted and received positive if not enthusiastic feedback from my family and friends.

In the case of this Kale Pasta with Chickpeas, my family loved it. It is not a big surprise as we are big fans of pasta. But it was the combination of spicy and lemony kale with nutty chickpeas that worked exceptionally well and made this meal special. Plus, “vegan parmesan” prepared with walnuts added the umami taste.

I have already explained why this dish is easy to make and delicious; now it is time for why it is healthy. If you look at the list of ingredients below, you may already see it. But there is a bit more to it – this Kale Pasta with Chickpeas is an example of SIRT food diet dish.

 

Adele’s Diet

Some {many?} of you probably have heard about the SIRT food diet. It has become known after Adele’s dramatic weight loss, so people also refer to it as “Adele’s diet”. I read about it a bit earlier. But only after seeing photos of the singer’s transformation {and realising that the first lockdown slightly influenced my weight too ?}, I decided to learn more about it.

The SIRT food diet is based on consuming products containing particular polyphenols that activate sirtuins in our body. Sirtuins, in turn, are a group of proteins that play an essential role in our health. They regulate metabolism, prevent the development of diseases and delay the ageing process.

Many healthy foods include these polyphenols, but there is a group of 20 that are remarkably sirtuin-rich:

  • kale
  • red chicory
  • red onions
  • arugula (rocket)
  • parsley
  • celery
  • strawberries
  • soya and soya products
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • buckwheat
  • turmeric
  • bird’s eye chilli
  • lovage
  • capers
  • walnuts
  • Medjool dates
  • cocoa (including dark chocolate minimum 85% cocoa)
  • coffee
  • red wine
  • matcha green tea.

Sirt Food Diet and the Kale Pasta

As per its creators, the Sirt food diet is supposed to help lose weight without losing muscles. It also is to prevent chronic disease while helping to look and feel younger. However, its critics say it is just another fad diet as there is not enough research and evidence to prove it works.

I can say, though, that I was pleased with the results after I tried it out. I did lose my “lockdown weight gain” while I enjoyed the food that I ate. The only downside of Adele’s diet was the time I had to spend daily preparing all the dishes.

However, no one can argue that the products from the above list are healthy and should be incorporated into our diet. That’s why I still make many of the meals I had while on the diet and create my recipes with the SIRT food ingredients. And as many as five of them I used for the Kale Pasta recipe! That’s just another reason to enjoy this yummy meal.

 

Kale Pasta with Chickpeas

Agnieszka Weiner
Delicious and healthy pasta with five SIRT food ingredients.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Dish
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
 
 

Kale Pasta:

  • 150 g buckwheat pasta *
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic thinly chopped
  • 1 chilli thinly chopped
  • 0,5 lemon {zest only}
  • 1 tsp rosemary
  • 1 can chickpeas {weighing approx. 200g}
  • 100 g fresh kale cut into small pieces
  • salt
  • black pepper

Vegan Parmesan**:

  • 50 g walnuts
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 0,25 tsp salt
  • 4 pinches garlic powder

Instructions
 

  • Cook the buckwheat noodles in a pot of water as per the packet instruction. When cooked, drain but keep half a cup of the pasta cooking water.
  • Prepare the vegan parmesan: place all the ingredients in a small food processor and blitz until it becomes a coarse powder.***
  • In a big frying pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat: add the garlic, chilli, lemon zest and rosemary, fry gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring often.
  • Add the chickpeas, season well with salt and pepper, and fry for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the kale and fry for further 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked pasta and a quarter of the pasta water, season. If the dish is still too dry, add more water.
  • Serve with the vegan parmesan.

Notes

* If you are not a fan of buckwheat pasta, you can exchange it for a wholemeal one; it will be still healthy.
** From the above ingredients, you will get more vegan parmesan than you need for this dish. You can keep the rest in an airtight container and use it within a week.
*** Depending on your liking, you can make the vegan parmesan coarser or finer {on my photos, you can see both; I prefer the coarser option as it adds texture and crunch}.
Keyword Adele's diet, kale pasta, sirt food diet
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