Pasta With Kale, Chickpeas and Olives

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes. It was adapted from a recipe in "Wild About Greens" by Nava Atlas. I made some changes to be more in line with a Nutritarian eating style. If you don't have pine nuts, sliced almonds or sunflower seeds will work as well. You can also substitute green olives if you don't have kalamata. When I freeze this, I omit the pasta and cook it fresh later.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 14  ounces kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1⁄4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted or 1⁄4 cup  chopped walnuts
• 8  ounces  whole wheat rotini
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  oil (to coat pan)
• 3  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  red bell pepper, chopped
• 4  mushrooms, halved and sliced
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can low-sodium chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1⁄2 cup kalamata olive, pitted and chopped
• 1  teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)

Directions

1. Remove the center stem from the kale and discard. Wash and chop kale leaves and set aside. If you don't know how to remove the stems from kale, Google: remove kale stems.
2. If desired, toast pine nuts in dry skillet. Stir constantly and watch carefully, they burn easily. Set aside.
3. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.
4. Coat large covered frying pan or dutch oven (at least 5 quarts) with oil and sauté garlic, pepper and mushrooms until soft, adding small amounts of water as needed to prevent sticking.
5. Add as much kale as will fit in the pan and small amount of water if needed. Cover and cook until wilted and soft. Continue adding kale, stirring frequently, until it is all in the pan, adding water as needed to prevent sticking. Continue cooking until kale is tender.
6. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, olives and oregano and cook until heated through.
7. Add nuts and pepper.
8. Mix with pasta and serve.