Crafty Pasta Dinner

After 2 months of no exciting recipes to post, tonight I had Crafty Pasta Dinner and wanted to share the recipe! To start the meal, I had my first harvest of fresh zesty mesclun mix greens from my garden (see top picture to the left of the greens in the garden and then the picture below it of the greens in the salad bowl)! They were delicious and it is such a treat to be able to eat food that has just been picked fresh from the garden!

Here is the recipe for the Crafty Pasta Dinner (see the bottom two pictures to the left):

Pasta: For the pasta, I used tinkyada organic brown rice elbows. The pasta cooked up very nicely in 15 minutes in a large pasta pot of boiling water. Once the pasta was finished, it was set aside until the stir fry and sauce were finished.

Stir fry: 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 medium onion, chopped, 3 garlic cloves, minced, 1/2 leek, chopped, 2 cups mushrooms, chopped (I used shitake and crimini mushrooms), 2 cups zucchini, chopped, 2 cups carrots, chopped, 2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tbsp wheat free tamari, 2 cups purple kale, finely chopped, 2 cups cooked chickpeas

Place olive oil in pan over low heat and add onion, garlic, and leek and saute for 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute for 3 minutes. Add zucchini, carrots, oregano and tamari and saute for 3 minutes. Add purple kale and saute for 1 minute. Stir in chickpeas, remove from heat and set aside.

Sauce: For the sauce, I used a recipe from a new cookbook I recently picked up called Ripe From Around Here by jae steele - it is a great cookbook with lots of very helpful suggestions on working towards eating more locally grown foods. The recipe is called Cheesy Sauce.

3/4 cup red lentils, 1 1/2 cup water, 1 medium garlic clove, minced, 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder, 1/4 tsp dried thyme (I used rosemary instead), 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk (I used rice milk), 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup tahini, 2 tbsp olive oil

Combine red lentils and water in pot and bring to a boil (skim off any excess white foam). Reduce to slightly lower heat, add garlic, mustard powder, thyme (rosemary), and sea salt. Simmer for 20 minutes and remove from heat. Place lentil mixture into food processor/blender and add non dairy milk, nutritional yeast, tahini and olive oil and blend until smooth.

Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Once the pasta, stir fry, and sauce are finished being prepared, lightly canola oil two casserole dishes and add pasta, stir fry, and sauce. Mix all ingredients together, cover casserole dishes, and place in oven for 20 minutes.

Once the meal was dished up, it was seasoned with sea salt and flax oil. This dish was a yummy and fun meal!