Here's a great quick and easy weeknight dinner that even if you or your family isn't a fan of mushrooms, you might be surprised. This Mushroom and Kale Pasta is so tasty and pairs well with a simple side salad.
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This is one of those dishes where my 6-year-old will yell from upstairs, “Mommy, what are you making?!? It smells sooooo good down there!” That girl loves to eat good food, and I love to make it, which makes us a perfect match. This recipe is also the only time I’ve ever seen my 8-year-old actually eat mushrooms and somewhat enjoy them.
See, even though I know she “doesn’t like” mushrooms, I make them anyway and just try to serve them different ways in different dishes. And once in a blue moon, all that hard work pays off when they eat (and enjoy) something new – score!
Weeknight Mushroom and Kale Pasta
Here's a great quick and easy weeknight dinner that even if you or your family isn't a fan of mushrooms, you might be surprised. This Mushroom and Kale Pasta is so tasty and pairs well with a simple side salad.
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Servings: 4 people
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Ingredients
- 8 ounces whole-wheat pasta (boiled and drained according to pasta directions)
- 1 ounce mushrooms (dried)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 shallots (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 cups kale (with big stems removed and cut into strips)
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- pepper (to taste)
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
Instructions
- In a small pot, add the dried mushrooms and cover with water (minimum of 1 ½ cups). Bring to a boil and cook until the mushrooms have softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain while reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Dice the cooked mushrooms (I do this by using culinary scissors).
- In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots, mushrooms, and garlic to the pan and cook while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour in the white wine and turn up the heat so the mixture comes to a boil. Cook until the wine almost completely boils off, about 3 to 4 minutes (if you are doubling this recipe, it will take longer).
- Pour in the 1 cup of the reserved mushroom cooking liquid and cook until reduced by half.
- Turn the heat back down to medium and add the heavy cream, kale, salt, and pepper to the pan. Cook until the sauce thickens, 2 to 3 more minutes. Fold in the noodles, garnish with Parmesan, and serve.
Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Facts
Weeknight Mushroom and Kale Pasta
Amount Per Serving
Calories 492
Calories from Fat 234
% Daily Value*
Fat 26g40%
Saturated Fat 16g100%
Cholesterol 84mg28%
Sodium 361mg16%
Potassium 425mg12%
Carbohydrates 51g17%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 2g2%
Protein 15g30%
Vitamin A 4250IU85%
Vitamin C 42.2mg51%
Calcium 206mg21%
Iron 2.9mg16%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Hello! Making this tonight using fresh mushrooms. I’m guessing I’d skip step 1 and just cook the fresh mushrooms with the onions in Step 2? Thanks! :)
Sorry that we can rarely answer recipe questions in real time. How did it turn out?
This is incredible! Best easy creamy pasta recipe ever. I couldn’t find dried, so I used fresh mushrooms and Mushroom stock! I recommend adding some shredded deli ham or pre cooked salmon on top.
HI,
Can i use fresh mushrroms instead of dried.? I have some on hand and have been using them for omelets and stuff.
Hi. You can. Another reader above added vegetable stock since you wouldn’t be adding the reserved mushroom stock.
Made this last night and I was a little worry because it looked like it wasn’t turning out right. It turned out great! So Good! Ran out of kale this week but still had some spinach and used that instead. I’m currently participating in pledge and want to say thank you for all these awesome meal recipes!
I modified slightly but this is a big hit at our house!
This is absolutely delicious…..my husband, who is a meat lover, could not stop eating it!!! I used fresh mushrooms so used vegetable stock.
Loved this. Made it tonight. Served to 8 year old daughter and 10 year old son. My son asked if he could take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Husband wasn’t a fan, but only because he tends not to favor most creamy pasta dishes.
This was delicious!!!! Thank you for posting on FB this week. It was my grocery shopping day so I was able to grab the dried mushrooms. YAY for a new recipe in my pocket!
This is one of my favorite recipes from this blog! My extremely picky 4 year old even loves it! i will definitely be adding this into the rotation.
I really wanted to love this, but we didn’t :( I wanted to have a weeknight dinner that didn’t have any meat and I thought this would satisfy my creamy craving for pasta which I never make. I don’t know if I didn’t let the wine evaporate enough, but the wine taste was too strong for me, my husband, and kids. They just ate the pasta. I even added bacon, hoping the bacon would add that yummy flavor. The mushrooms soaked up too much wine :( Maybe next time, I’ll just omit.
This was delicious! I used fresh crimini mushrooms and vegetable broth. Also substituted white onion for shallots (all I had).
Is it okay to substitute frozen Kale for the fresh? Fresh Kale is virtually impossible to find here, however, our commissary has the frozen.
Hi Jamie. Frozen will work, too.
This was amazing!! I used frozen kale, fresh mushrooms, and chickpea pasta. Everything else was exactly the same. And it was easy too. This recipe is a keeper!!
Awesome. Glad you enjoyed it. – Nicole
I’m curious why your recipes call for dried mushrooms so often? They are very expensive in Canada ($8 for 25 grams!)
Hi Chantelle. Lisa likes both, actually and you can always use fresh mushrooms. :)
I assume there is an easy way to adjust this recipe so i can use fresh mushrooms instead. Can i try adding some chicken broth? if so, how much would you add?
Hi Meg. We’ve not tried so it would be an experiment but I think it would turn out fine.
I have been wanting to try this, I had some leftover BEET GREENS that needed to be used, and this was just perfect!!! The whole family honestly LOVED it, and my littlest carnivore kept asking for more!!!
I only had a little bit of dried mushrooms, so I used those along with baby portabellas. I also didn’t have heavy cream, so I made a roux with flour and added milk/halfnhalf. This was amazing really!
This recipe is missing from the recipe index. Good thing Bing found it, this one of our favorites!
Thanks for adding it back in!
I just made this with fresh mushrooms and chicken broth for the liquid…it is so good! My 4 year old likes the mushrooms and kale! Thanks for the recipe..its one of the best things I’ve ever made!
I have to preface by saying my entire family sort of dislikes kale, but somehow this dish has been made (and devoured!) over and over again in my house! A real winner!
This was really good and easy to make! My 5-year old requested the leftovers be sent to school for lunch. I used fresh white mushrooms since our local stores’ dried selection scares me. I followed someone’s advice and added a cup of vegetable broth in place of the mushroom juice. Very tasty! Will definitely make again!
Made this tonight for the first time and wow it was delicious! I also made a few substitutions; b/c I used button mushrooms (they were on sale and organic – had to have them!) I used a mushroom based stock (also organic) since there was no mushroom liquid to use; plain goat yogurt and some almond milk for the cream as I am dairy free(did end up thickening it a bit with brown rice flour and potato starch – am also gluten free); organic kale, but also used up some spinach I had in the fridge and some of the really large mustard greens leaves and chives out of my garden, so it became a “Mushroom and Assorted Greens Pasta” :) I didn’t want to open a full bottle of wine so used a smaller bottle of apple cider (that my husband makes) which worked out great! No subs for the garlic, just used extra. I did add in some leftover chicken to stem the complaints of the males in the house hold, altho it was negligable. I will definitely make this again!
Oh and you can sub chicken broth (I use chicken bone broth) for white wine.
For the wine? Yep, that should work just fine. ~Amy
Add a can of tuna – WOWZA!
Wonder if substittuting Marsala wine would be good in it, too! I think I would like fresh mushrooms and maybe add some onions as well. Lots of good ideas coming from seeing this! Thanks.
So I always love all of Lisa’s recipes, but I was skeptical to say the least that my girls would even touch this. I made a big deal about all of the hard work (not true it’s super easy) I put into making this special white sauce and that I’d like them to try it. So they did and they ate it. They weren’t jumping up or down but they ate enough to satisfy me and they each had a bite or two of kale! Yipee! I subbed veg broth for the mushrooms and ran out of heavy cream so I used about 1/4 c and added some greek yogurt. I also only had sweet white wine. Worked anyhow! I’m excited to try it as written too. But nice to have such a flexible recipe!
@Ashley. If you go to Food.com and enter the information, it will calulate the nutritional info for you ;). I too am following WW, so it’s nice to have the option.
I noticed that the kale doesn’t get blanched or sa
I made this tonight and yum! But I’d like to know the nutrition facts if anyone has them? (I’m doing WW and need to calculate my points. : / )
Hi Ashley. We do not provide nutrition information on our recipes. Our focus is on helping people cut out processed food while replacing them with real/whole foods. These posts help explain our philosophy: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/04/healthy-eating-defined/, https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/23/portion-size-matters/, and https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/10-reasons-to-cut-out-processed-food/. ~Amy