Kale Jollof Spaghetti what?? Yep!! This Kale Jollof Spaghetti is yumminess redefined. A blend of Jollof Spaghetti goodness and some Kale. This is one ‘hot one pot recipe’ to try.
Have you tried my Jollof Spaghetti recipe yet? If you haven’t well what do I say? What are you waiting for?? If you have then you will understand why this one has a different flavor profile.
The Jollof Spaghetti is perfect but this Kale Jollof Spaghetti is perfetto lol. I had to find the Italian translation of the word perfect because that’s what this is all about. Perfection in my best Italian accent.
Why I am sharing a Jollof Spaghetti with one already in the blog?
- Well this Kale Jollof Spaghetti is with a little twist which makes it different from the other one.
- Secondly one of the main focus of my diaspora kitchen besides trying to cook my beloved Nigerian meals with ingredients and substitutes found in diaspora, I also want to help you create a variety in meals that will keep your family excited and guessing what’s for dinner, like would it be Party style Jollof or oven cooked Jollof with mixed veggies. Will it be blender moi moi today or moi moi pizza? Will it be Spaghetti and meatballs today or will it be mommy’s one pot creamy spaghetti. Will it be Okro vegetable soup or Easy Nigerian Okro Soup.
- Variety they say is the spice of life so there you go.
Now that we know why this Kale Jollof Spaghetti is being introduced to our menu, let’s talk a bit more on how delicious it is. The addition of the green vegetables in this recipe sums it up. It a nice way to sneak in green veggies into meals for the kiddos. They won’t even notice lol. Trust me the hubs and kiddos enjoyed it and so did my momma. Did I tell you my sweet momma is visiting? Well I just did ?.
Like I said you can use any green veggie of choice if spinach is your family favorite then use it. I decided to use meatballs in this recipe, you can skip that if you don’t have meatballs at home and use any protein you have available you can even make it vegetarian by using tofu or any vegan meat substitute. Just get creative with it. You can make some homemade meat balls too.
Hope you get to try this recipe and if you do I would love to hear all about it. Kindly rate it and drop your comments below. Thank you.
Love
PS: I would love to see your food photos so don’t be shy. You can take a picture of any recipe you make from the blog and tag @mydiasporakitchen and hashtag it with #mydiasporakitchen that way I can see it.
PPS: Want to stay up to date with this yumminess?? Then Sign up and Join our Cooking Club for FREE. Then follow along on Instagram |Pinterest| Facebook| Twitter
Kale Jollof Spaghetti and Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb Pasta of choice (I used Spaghetti)
- 4 – 6 oz (8-12 Tbsp) organic tomato paste (see recipe note 1 )
- 1 medium onion
- ½ medium red bell pepper chopped
- ½ medium green bell pepper chopped
- 130 g Kale vegetable chopped
- 25 Meatballs
- ¼ cup cooking oil of choice (except palm oil)
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ Tbsp ground ginger
- ½ Tbsp ground garlic
- 1 tsp ground dry pepper
- 1 Tbsp bouillon powder
Instructions
Prepare the sauce
- Heat up oil and sauté onions for about a minute.
- Add the tomato paste and allow fry till the paste dries out but not burnt. Takes about a minute of constant stirring. Alternatively you can dilute the paste with about a quarter cup of water and fry till all the moisture is absorbed.
- Stir in bay leaf and spices, add 1 cup of water to the mix and then add meatballs.
- Allow to simmer for a minute just to blend in flavors. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
- Add the chopped green peppers and red bell peppers. Stir to incorporate.
- Turn off heat, add the chopped kale and stir. Allow residual heat to soften the kale.
- Set aside. and prepare the pasta.
The pasta:
- Bring about 4 quarts (16 cups) of water to boil.
- Add about 1 Tbsp of salt to the water.
- Add the pasta into the boiling water and allow cook for 8 minutes I like mine al dente ( not soft ) if you like your pasta a little softer, then cook for about 10-12 mins
- Turn off heat and drain the pasta with a colander reserving about 1/2 a cup of pasta water.
The mix
- Transfer pasta back to pot. Add the the sauce and mix thoroughly. You may or may not need the the pasta water to add to the moisture of the Jollof.
- Serve and Enjoy
Notes
Kale Jollof Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe is just a unique easy to cook recipe for weekend dinner option for me. I have tried it many times but last night i tried ghee instead of vegetable oil and I was awestruck. Ghee and pasta was the pair made in heaven. Well I had used cow ghee for cooking the dish and it was just super yummy!
I prefer using Milkio grass-fed ghee for all my recipes.
Hey Sofia!
Yum yum! Ghee sounds so good! I’ll try it with ghee next time. Happy you enjoyed it!
Nice to know about this Nigerian recipe. Have never tried this. Looks delicious. Do they traditionally use special noodles? Are they available everywhere?
Thanks Roxana. We use regular pasta like spaghetti, linguine, penne etc for this recipe.
Going to have to try! May be the only way I could get my kids to eat kale! 🙂
You definitely have me wanting to try some Nigerian food! I love this fusion of Italian and Nigerian. So creative! The spice blend is so intriguing. Enjoy the visit with your mom 🙂
Jollof rice is one of my husband’s favorite dishes after he spent some time living in Ghana. I will have to surprise him with this, he will love it!
Peppers with pasta and tomato sauce is so good. Add the delicious meatballs with a healthy dose of kale and you have a great dinner any night of the week.