This chicken and veggie pasta recipe is packed with flavor, yet unsuspecting kids or apprehensive adults won’t even know how many veggies are snuck in! Use whole wheat pasta, lentil pasta or chickpea pasta for an extra protein and fiber boost. It’s a quick and heart pasta dinner everyone will love.

Keys to success with Chicken and Veggie Pasta

• Use the long eggplant (sometimes called Japanese eggplant), as they have thinner skins so they don’t have to be peeled and adds to your fiber intake. Sprinkle salt on the eggplant after dicing as it helps pull the water out and flavor the inside.
• Use Chicken Sausage for great flavor, but a little lighter dish.
• Don’t forget the Parmesan cheese, it adds loads of savory flavor to this dish!

How Long to Cook Pasta in the Oven

When the pasta and sauce is already pre-cooked, it’s really just about melting the mozzarella in the oven. This can be achieved in 4-6 minutes on the Broil – High setting. Ensuring your oven rack is low enough for your oven safe pot to fit and setting your pasta dish under it for until the cheese is browned to your liking. Be careful to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn!

How to speed up Chicken and Veggie Pasta

• Use a food processor to dice the onion, carrot, garlic and spinach. It speeds up the process immensely!
• As mentioned, using the long eggplant (sometimes called Asian eggplant) will allow you to skip the peeling process as they have thinner skins. If you have regular globe eggplant, you can skin every other inch or leave it, it’s still eatable just a little more chewing might be involved.
• This recipe does call for a lot of garlic, so it’s a great opportunity to use a frozen garlic cube! This is a time saving hack I use often.
• If you have leftovers that survive the next day, this is a great dish to freeze in a glass container and then pop in the oven to de-thaw next time you need a quick meal!

How to get kids to eat Chicken and Veggie Pasta

My secret to getting kids to eat vegetables is to hide it in the dish. Finely dice the onion and spinach so the kids won’t even know it’s in there. The eggplant can be cut into 1/2 inch cubes and it will also disappear into the dish as it’s cooked through. My daughter ate this up without a word about the extra veggies in it!

Chicken and Veggie Pasta

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• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 8 1x

Ingredients

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Meat

• 1 lb italian chicken sausage

Vegetables

• 2 medium long eggplants (or zucchini)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium carrot (finely diced)
• 2–3 oz baby spinach (or kale)
• 6 cloves garlic (or one frozen garlic cube)

Sauce & herbs

• 2 jars red pasta sauce
• 1/2 tsp oregano (dried)
• 1 bay leaf
• Fresh parsley (basil or oregano for garnish (optional))

Cheese

• 1/2 c. parmesan cheese (shredded)
• 1 small fresh mozzarella ball (sliced)

Pasta

• 1 package rigatoni or penne pasta (whole wheat, lentil or chickpea pasta)

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Instructions

Prep the Vegetables

1. If using long eggplant, it doesn’t have to be peeled. If using globe eggplant, consider peeling all or every other inch as the skins can be thicker. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch pieces. Sprinkle with salt to pull out the water and flavor the inside.
2. Finely dice the onion, carrot and garlic. Use a food processor to make quick work of this.
3. Finely chop the baby spinach. This can also be done in a food processor.
4. Chop the fresh parsley, basil or oregano if using.

Cook the pasta

1. In a large pot, add 1/4 c. salt to water and boil over high heat.
2. Once boiling, the pasta can be added and cooked to al dente according to the package. The pasta should go in around the same time the veggies are being cooked or slightly after the veggies go in.

Brown the chicken sausage

1. Use a seperate large oven safe pot and pre-heat over high heat.
2. Once the pan gives a strong sizzle, fully coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil to create a barrier between the food and the pot.
3. Put in the chicken sausage and let it cook untouched for 2-3 minutes to get nice browning on one side. Scrape off the bottom and flip to the other side. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes to get a nice brown sear on that side as well.
4. Break the sausage up into small pieces.

Cook the vegetables

1. Move the cooked sausage to the side of the pot and add the onion, carrot, garlic and eggplant.
2. Let it cook down for 7-10 minutes until the onions and translucent and a little brown and the eggplant is soft.
3. Add the chopped baby spinach.

Sauce, herbs & cheese

1. Add the bay leaf, dried oregano and pasta sauce to the veggies and meat. Let it come to a boil.
2. Turn off the heat on the stove.
3. Add the grated parmesan cheese and cooked, drained pasta.
4. Stir to combine well and top with the sliced, fresh mozzarella.

Melt the cheese

1. Set your oven to broil-high, making sure there’s enough room for the oven safe pot. If you don’t have an oven safe pot, the pasta can be added to a cassarole dish. No need to wait for it to pre-heat, it will just start to melt the cheese while pre-heating.
2. Broil the pasta dish until the cheese is melted and slightly browned, around 4 to 6 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn!
3. Serve with fresh parsley, basil or oregano sprinkled on top.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Category: Main Course

Variations

Zucchini can be used instead of or in addition to eggplant. Kale is a great substitute for spinach. Different cheeses can be swapped out as well, it’s fun to get creative with it!

Let us know how it turned out and if you tried any variations in the comments!