This is an adaptation of a wonderful-looking recipe for Spaghetti with Spinach-Avocado Sauce.

In my case, I didn’t have the requisite amount of spaghetti and on top of that my family is a fan of pasta, so to fix the former I enlisted all the unfinished pasta bags I had around the house and for the latter I doubled the quantities of everything.

That was a mistake.

The sauce is good, however it tends to over-power the dish.

If I were to do it again, I’d double the pasta of the original recipe, and only 1.5x the ingredients, and even then, instead of mixing the sauce with the pasta before serving, I’d allow each person to mix to their own taste.

The recipe below follows this advice.

Recipe

Recipe is quick to make - maybe 10 minutes tops of hands-on time, 15-20 total.

That is provided you have a food processor - not even sure how to make the sauce without one.

The original recipe also calls for cannellini beans, however I had a hard time finding them. Good news, according to Cook’s Illustrated Great Northern beans is a reasonable substitute.

Ingredients

• 16oz whole-grain spaghetti
• 1 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cups cannellini beans
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 1/2 ripe avocado, peeled
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

Preparation

1. Prepare the pasta according to the package.
   Save 1/2 cup of cooking liquid before draining;
   drain pasta.
2. In a food processor combine the 1/2 cup liquid from cooking the pasta and the next 8 ingredients through avocado.
   Process untile smooth.
3. Combine the pasta with 2/3 - 3/4 of the sauce, toss to coat.
4. Serve sprinkled with tomatoes and almonds and additional sauce to taste.

Serves: 8 (4 if they really like it)

• Calories 374
• Fat 15.2g Satfat 2g Monofat 10.1g Polyfat 2.1g
• Protein 10g
• Carbohydrate 50g
• Fiber 6g
• Cholesterol 0.0mg
• Iron 3mg Sodium 502mg Calcium 46mg
• Sugars 2g