Chicken in Green Sauce with Penne

This is such a fresh, vibrant dish to cook. When you blend the peppers, spinach and coriander, the smell is just like walking through an English summer garden. And the vibrancy of the green sauce makes you feel you are eating health in a bowl. That happens to tastes amazing. I was actually excited cooking this, as it has to be my personal favourite flavour combination and I think you will love it!

There seem to be so many red sauces with pasta; occasionally white. Tomato, red pepper or cream sauce. Never had I had a decent, fresh green sauce unless it was just herbs. This is my Chicken in Green Sauce with Penne.

Ingredients:

2 large green peppers
260g spinach
25g coriander
3 cloves garlic,
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 tsp. oil
2 large chicken breasts, skin removed, chopped
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
120ml double cream
200g penne pasta
2 tbsp. natural low fat yoghurt
Handful walnuts, toasted in a dry pan & chopped


Method:

Cut one of the green peppers in half and reserve half for later. Then, either over a naked flame, or under the grill blacken the skin of the one and a half peppers and put into a freezer bag to steam for a moment. Peel away as much of the blackened skin as you can and discard the stem & seeds. Put the peppers into a food processor and add to it, the coriander, spinach, 2 cloves of the garlic and 1/2 onion. Process until fine. Add enough water (50-100ml) to make a loose paste.

Slice the remaining 1/2 pepper and chop the remaining 1/2 onion and finely chop the garlic clove. In a large frying pan, heat 1 tsp oil and gently cook the onion and pepper and garlic until tender. Add the pepper/spinach paste and cook on a low heat, adding a further 100ml water, the nutmeg, sugar and seasoning. Add more water if needed; you need a loose sauce, but not watery.

In a separate frying pan, heat the other tsp oil and fry the chicken on a high heat for 5 minutes or until beginning to brown. Add the chicken and juices to the pepper sauce. Stir through and add the cream. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt if needed.

Boil the pasta in a large pan, until just cooked (al dente) and combine with the chicken and sauce. Cook gently for 2 minutes and then serve with a spoon of yoghurt on top and a sprinkle of the walnuts. Delicious!

This is a sauce I used to make back in the days of being a vegetarian, so it also makes a great vegetarian pasta sauce (omitting the chicken) which is packed with flavour and also good with crumbled feta cheese over the top. Enjoy!