Yum. Doesn’t that look good? I woke up the morning realizing it’s not what you think. So, I thought I’d share The ‘dish’ on Pasta.
We now have pasta that’s quinoa, pasta that’s rice, pasta that’s red lentils. I’m sure you’ve seen more than that. I’d like to take away your ‘fear factor’. And that’s why this is my topic today.
Since going vegan just before Thanksgiving, I have relied on pasta as one of my dinner meals twice a week. One time I will eat Rao’s Pasta, my all time favorite, and one time another ‘pasta’ that sort of looks like pasta but isn’t, the second night.
The pasta to your left is rice pasta. I sautéed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and garlic. Then at the last minute, I cut up fresh tomatoes removing the seeds (has more flavor when you do that) and threw that in. And you know that the olive oil releases the lycopene in the tomatoes right?
YES CHEF!
Alrighty then. I’ve also started using beans in with the pasta. It reminds me of franks and beans and there’s a satisfaction factor there. I’m just careful to read the labels and make sure the beans are good, with less sugar than normal baked beans. Adding mustard to your baked beans pasta really does the trick for me.
Think back to your early 20’s. Mac n Cheese, and Tuna Casserole. Right? Well, that’s what my go to comfort foods were. Oh, yeah. And Chicken Pot Pies.
I can make a relatively healthy Mac n Cheese, by substituting coconut cream for cream, and creating a paste for the basis of the sauce with olive oil and flour instead of butter and flour (roux, pronounced ru). And there’s many things that have a cheesy nutty flavor you can fold in as well. But what I can’t do is duplicate a great Mac n Cheese that hits all the spots and satisfies every craving for that comfort food.
With pasta that isn’t pasta (if you know what I mean), I’ve found several craving stoppers. The quinoa pasta you find on the shelves can be cooked down with very little water and it turns into the gravy like interior of a chicken pot pie. Then you add veggies that have been lightly steamed, a light sprinkle of nutmeg, salt and pepper and you’re in business. I take pizza dough for the bottom, and sometimes do a lattice top. Very satisfying.
How about pasta and salad for dinner? Well two things about that: Rice pasta is what you see pictured above. If you cook it ‘al dente’ you barely notice the difference. (Finally a pasta that holds up). And my second thought is: Broccoli. Here’s the dealeo: Pasta and salad is not enough. You have to add a big, chunky vegetable to get that entire satisfaction of the experience.
I did a little experiment the other night. I cooked quinoa, one of those big boxes of spinach and some green beans. I made a quarter of the plate quinoa, half the plate spinach and a quarter of the plate green beans. I gave each item a different flavor profile: sweet, salty, bitter, sour. You pick the one’s you like. It was amazing. Very satisfying. And for me? Very surprising that I could eat mostly vegetables for dinner and be good with that.
Life moves on. Do your experimenting on Meatless Mondays and let me know what you come up with!
Happy Healthy Eating,
