About the recipe
In my opinion, pasta is the best vehicle for vegetables. Get plenty of greens with these Alfredo spinach and broccoli stuffed pasta shells. I also share with you my quick, easy and foolproof Alfredo sauce recipe!
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The steps
These Alfredo spinach and broccoli stuffed pasta shells are ready in 5 steps:
- Cook your pasta
- Make your filling
- Make your Alfredo sauce
- Assembly
- Bake!
Recipe variations
All these variations are cooking shortcuts you could use to make this meal faster.
- Use leftover chicken. If you cook multiple chicken breasts at the start of your week or have leftover rotisserie chicken, this is a great way to use it and save some cooking time.
- Make it meatless. Skip the meat altogether and add more vegetables to these stuffed pasta shells
- Use frozen spinach. Not only will it save you time, but also money! Frozen spinach can be found in the form of cubes in the frozen aisle at the grocery store. They can be used in soups or in other dishes where cooked spinach is used.
- Use another type of pasta and make it a casserole dish. Filling up the pasta shells can be time-consuming for some. Use another type of pasta and make this a casserole dish. Mix the ingredients for the pasta filling with the cooked pasta and top it with cheese.
- Use ready-made Alfredo sauce. My recipe gives you a really quick way to make a homemade one, but if you really want a shortcut, you can use a ready-made sauce from a jar. However, their salt content can be very high. Using less sauce or diluting it with milk can be a good way to reduce the salt content from the overall recipe.
- Make it a freezer meal. Prepare this dish in advance, all the way until it needs to be baked. Freeze it and cook it another time!
Alfredo spinach and broccoli stuffed pasta shells
In my opinion, pasta is the best vehicle for vegetables. Get plenty of greens with these Alfredo spinach and broccoli stuffed pasta shells. I also share with you my quick, easy and foolproof Alfredo sauce recipe!
Ingredients
Pasta and filling
- 15-18 big pasta shells
- 3 cups fresh spinach roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup chopped broccoli florets
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 227 g ricotta cheese
- ⅓ cup parmesan cheese
- ½ cup shredded cheese and more for topping
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper to taste
Alfredo sauce
- 2 cups milk
- 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp cream cheese
- ⅓ cup parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cook the pasta shells – 2 mins less than what the packaging instructs.
- Steam the broccoli by covering it with water and heating it in the microwave for 3-5 minutes.
- In a pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Saute the spinach with 2 cloves of minced garlic until wilted. Remove the spinach from the pan and set it aside.
- In the same pan, cook the chicken breast. Season with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Set aside to cool down.
- Mix all the ingredients for the filling together.
- Whisk all the ingredients for the Alfredo sauce in a saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and keep whisking until it thickens.
- Pour a layer of Alfredo sauce at the bottom of a baking dish.
- Stuff pasta shells and place them in the baking dish.
- Pour Alfredo sauce over shells, top with extra shredded cheese.
- Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Uncover and set the oven to broil for 5 minutes.
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[…] Sauces: tomato-based or cream-based sauce (check out my homemade Alfredo sauce recipe) […]