Recently we had been to Olive Garden for the first time. I think they should rename it as “Salt Garden” instead. Right from the appetizer bread sticks to the main entree, every dish was very very salty. Even though I have to agree that we as a family have restricted our intake of salt and chillies/spicy stuff, the amount of salt used by the restaurant was way too high. The bread sticks, minestrone soup and the salad had the highest sodium content. When enquired the waitress about this, she told us that this is how it’s prepared everyday and it made us feel like we were from a strange planet. It really made us wonder if the average American is eating so much salt? But on the good side, the prices were definitely reasonable. With so much awareness about health in general and specific issues too, I cannot understand why they would use so much salt?

I don’t think that we will be going there again anytime soon for 2 reasons. a) it’s too far away from our place and b) we don’t want to consume so much salt. So in the meantime to satisfy my husband’s “pasta cravings”, I have to find pasta recipes which are easy to prepare, tasty and healthy as well. On the mission, I borrowed Betty Crocker’s Easy Everyday Vegetarian book from the library. This “Lemon Pepper Pasta” recipe caught my eye because it used very less ingredients and no cheese at all.

Since Divya’s Diet Foods event came to my mind, I decided to make it even more healthy by using whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta and also reduced the amount of oil mentioned in the original recipe. Whole wheat pasta, asparagus and navy beans are rich in fiber, so we felt full very soon, ended up eating less. This dish is also protein rich, which again is key, when it comes to “diet food”. Whole wheat pasta does taste good, nothing like I dreaded and we also didn’t miss the cheese.

I saw this recipe in Parents magazine.  The original recipe was not completely vegetarian, so I changed it a little bit.

Ingredients:
Asparagus, sliced – 1 cup (approximately 10-12 spears)
Yellow Peeper, diced – 1 cup (1 medium size)
Plum Tomatoes, seeded and chopped – 2 (I used 1/4 cup of crushed tomatoes instead)
Garlic, minced – 1 clove (I used 2 cloves)
Olive oil – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Italian seasoning
Pepper – 1/4 teaspoon (not mentioned in the original recipe)
Refrigerated Pizza tube – 1 (I used Pillsburry Pizza Crust)
Italian blend Cheese, shredded – 1 cup (I used part skim pizza blend cheese)

Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. In a glass bowl, combine asparagus, peepers, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper.

3. Mix them well and here is how it looks:

4. Cover and microwave for 4 minutes, stirring once in the middle. Let cool 5 minutes. Drain off excess liquid. (But I did not have any excess liquid)

5. Unroll pizza dough onto baking sheet and shape into a rectangle.

6. Place half of cheese onto bottom third of dough along its length.

7. Spread veegie filling onto cheese.

8. Top with remaining cheese.

9. Roll up to shape stromboli (into a log).

10. Bake for 25 minutes.

11. Let cool 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

I got around 23 pieces for this measurement. My husband and I loved it. A different twist to the regular pizza.

My Notes:
1. This was a bit salty, so you may want to increase the amount of pepper if you want it spicy.

2. I suggest to cool the baked stromboli even for 10 minutes, so that slicing will not be difficult and you will also get neat slices.

This is my entry for Mansi’s Monthly Mingle originally started by Meeta.