Pasta And Veggies

There must be some Italian buried in my genes!  It would at least explain why I love pasta so much!  When David found out he was gluten intolerant I was pretty sure my life was over.  No more pasta??

Fortunately there are a lot of great gluten-free pastas on the market.  After trying brown and wild rice, corn and quinoa, we decided we like brown rice best.  But if you haven’t experiment with the kinds, you owe it to yourself to try.

This is my own version of veggie pasta based very loosely on a similar dish I once ate at California Pizza Kitchen.


PASTA AND VEGGIES

  1. Start heating water in a large pot for boiling pasta
  2. In Dutch oven or big frying pan heat a liberal amount of oil and when hot add
    • 1 chopped onion
    • Garlic to taste
    • 1/2 cupmirepoix
    • 2 Tablespoons fresh basil or 2 Teaspoons dried
    • 2 Tablespoons fresh thyme or 2 Teaspoons dried
  3. Stir well and cook until the onions are clear.  Then add:
    • One large diced fresh tomato (if you do not have fresh tomatoes you can used canned diced tomatoes)
    • 2 lbs asparagus cut into approx. inch long pieces
    • Optional for non-vegans – add ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (nice flavor but not necessary!)
    • 1 c water
  4. Cover Dutch oven/frying pan turn to low and cook about 7 minutes
  5. Put pasta (fuselli, shells and penne all work well as does spaghetti)  in water and bring back to a boil to let cook as indicated by manufacturer
  6. Back to the Dutch oven; after 7 minutes or when asparagus is cooked uncover and turn heat the heat back up to high and add
    • One large diced fresh tomato (if you do not have fresh tomatoes you can used canned diced tomatoes)
    • 3 big handfuls of spinach
    • Salt (to taste)
  7. Cook on high stirring constantly until spinach is totally wilted and cooked; cover and turn burner off
  8. Drain pasta when done and then combine pasta and veggies and EXTRA Parmesan cheese which is optional Optional for non-vegans (nice flavor but not necessary! )

I have used this basic recipe a lot of different ways:

  • Substitute spaghetti squash for pasta
  • Use pre-roasted veggies instead of fresh ones; in which case you eliminate step 4
  • Change the veggies — I personally like to substitute broccoli, summer squash or green beans for the asparagus.  But there are as many ways to change this up as there are veggies you like

Let me know what you try!

About Genene Cote

Genene Coté -- Nutrition Advocate, Counselor and Coach who is also a Whole Food Plant Based Eater (vegetarian/vegan), cook and gardener.
This entry was posted in additive-free food, diary-free food, entrée, fresh veggies, gluten-free food, Italian, Pasta, sugar-free food, vegan, vegetarian, Whole Food Plant-Based recipes and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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