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Colorful and Healthy Beet Pasta

Madhuram — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:22:45 +0000

My son is in “pasta phase” now. For the past couple of days he has been eating pasta for lunch and dinner. Actually I have to prepare the same pasta dish everyday. So I was thrilled and relieved to see Bharti’s Pink Pasta. She uses roasted and finely chopped beets to make this attractive pasta dish. It’s an amazing beet recipe. It inspired me to create another version of the pink pasta.

My son doesn’t like to bite into pieces of veggies, with an exception to few vegetables. So instead of simply adding chopped beets and garlic to make the pink sauce, I pureed everything together including the ricotta cheese in my Magic Bullet blender. That’s the reason I chose to use garlic powder instead of whole garlic as well. Bharti has used heavy cream and I didn’t have it at home, so I went with the part skim ricotta cheese which was sitting in my fridge after using little for these breakfast cookies. The pink sauce tasted very good.

I was having my doubts whether he would eat it or not, because so far he has been eating pasta in white color. So I got him all excited as soon as got home from school. I told that I gave it to his friend R also and she liked it so much. To my surprise he ate it without any fuss and also told me he liked it very much. I really have to thank Bharti for inspiring me to create this beet recipe.

Ingredients

Any pasta of your choice, uncooked 1/2 cup

Beet, small 1

Ricotta cheese, part skim 2-3 tablespoons

Lemon pepper seasoning as per taste

Garlic powder as needed

Salt as needed

Olive oil 1/2 tablespoon

Yield: 2 child size servings

Procedure 1 Cook the beets. I use a pressure cooker to cook beets. I peel the beets, cut each beet into 4 pieces, add water just enough
to cover it and leave it for 1 whistle. Don’t pour the beets cooked water in the sink, instead prepare this beet soup in a jiffy.

2 Meanwhile cook the pasta also as per the package directions.

3 In a blender/food processor puree together the cooked beets, ricotta cheese, lemon pepper seasoning, garlic powder and salt.

4 Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the beet puree. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes and the pink sauce is ready.

5 Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and it’s ready to serve.

My Notes 1 For the lemon pepper seasoning I used McCormick’s Salt Free Lemon Pepper seasoning. Alternatively you can use lemon juice and black pepper powder.

2 My son eats only cauliflower, broccoli and sometimes carrots, baby corn in it’s original form. That’s why I blended everything together, you may choose to chop/grate the beets, add minced garlic etc.

3 Chances are you may have extra pink sauce for the above measurement of pasta and beet. So first transfer the pink sauce to another container and add sauce little by little to the pasta and refrigerate/freeze the remaining sauce for another serving.

4 I got this pasta from Trader’s Joe and forgot to note down the name of the shape. It’s easy and fun for kids to eat this pasta with a fork. My son had a nice time seeing how many rings he could get each time in the fork.

5 I can’t wait to substitute carrots in this beet recipe and surprise my son with orange pasta.

Curried Pasta and Vegetables – A Vegan Pasta Dish

Madhuram — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:55:40 +0000

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian/Indianized recipes in the Western cookbooks. The Curried Pasta and Vegetables is one such recipe from the book “1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes”. As the name suggests the book has 1001 low-fat vegetarian recipes; from appetizers to desserts the recipes are classified under 17 categories. I think I have to keep renewing this book in the library at least for 2-3 months.

Coming to this recipe, I adapted it from one of the recipes in the book. This is also a vegan pasta dish, without any cheese. Since the pasta gets it’s flavor from the curry sauce, the taste gets even better the next day. So you can prepare this on Sunday evening and have it for Monday’s dinner. The curry sauce can also be prepared ahead and it’s also versatile. Just throw in the vegetables you have at hand, the curry sauce and the pasta, you have a wholesome and nutritious meal ready in no time.

Ingredients

Vegetables of your choice – 2 cups (I used a combination of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots readily available in the frozen food section, 16oz pack)

Dry Pasta of your choice – 1 cup (I used Whole Wheat Penne)

Cilantro, chopped – 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper, to taste

Curry Sauce – Recipe follows

For the Curry Sauce

Olive Oil – 1 teaspoon

Onion, finely chopped – 1/4 cup

Garlic, minced – 4 cloves

All purpose flour – 2 tablespoons

Curry Powder – 2 teaspoons

Cayenne Pepper/Chilli Powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetable Broth – 2 cups

Cornstarch – 1 tablespoon

Dry white wine or Water – 1/4 cup (I used water)

Salt and pepper, to taste.

Step-by-Step Procedure For Curry Sauce

1. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to a medium saucepan; saute onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, curry powder and chilli powder. Cook 1 minute, stirring.

3. Add broth and heat to boiling.

4. In a small vessel combine the cornstarch and water, until the cornstarch dissolves without forming any lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling broth and bring it to a boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. (Actually it took more than a minute for the mixture to thicken.)

5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Pasta

1. Steam the vegetables for 8-10 minutes if using frozen vegetables. If using fresh ones 6-8 minutes should be fine. Sprinkle some salt and toss the vegetables once, while steaming.

2. Cook pasta as per the instructions in the package. Drain it, reserving around 1/4 to 1/2 of the pasta cooked water.

3. Combine together the steamed veggies, pasta and the curry sauce. Check for seasoning and sprinkle cilantro.

This is my entry for the following events
1. Suganya’s Vegan Ventures
2. Mansi’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Laksh’s Pasta Upma – Your Recipe Rocks

Madhuram — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:37:57 +0000

This week I was able to try only one recipe for this series. It’s my friend Laksh’s Pasta Upma. It’s a very simple recipe and a wholesome one. All you need is just any variety of pasta and some vegetables.

My Notes:
I used 1 cup of Barilla Plus Elbows. This is a multigrain pasta with 17gms protein and 7gms fiber per cup of uncooked pasta. It is also a good source of ALA Omega-3, which is an essential acid that promotes heart health and not found in traditional pasta. I have also used a handful of soya nuggets along with other veggies.

Thanks Laksh for sharing this recipe. It was very tasty and we all loved it.