I've been lurking around on Veggie Mama's blog every Monday enjoying the cache of vegetarian recipes. We are far from being vegetarian at our house, but I do love vegetables of all varieties, and we have a number of vegetarian friends and relatives, so a good veggie-friendly recipe is always handy.
I'm not going to commit to eating vegetarian every Monday as we probably manage meat free meals about twice a week anyway, but I will try to post a meat free recipe each Monday even if it was consumed some other day. Here is my first attempt - creamy pumpkin pasta. It's not particularly decorative, but it creates an instant party in your mouth. Promise.
Creamy pumpkin pasta
The amounts here are very approximate as I didn't measure. I googled a few different versions of similar recipes, and then just used what we had.
500gm butternut pumpkin
1 tbspn olive oil
1/2 cup of cream
2/3 cup of full fat milk
A clove of garlic
The leaves from three or four sprigs of thyme
Grated parmesan cheese
A handful of chopped parsley
1. Cut the pumpkin into chunks, toss them in the olive oil and put them on an oven tray. Mine were probably about 2.5x1.5cm but it doesn't really matter how big they are, except that bigger bits will take longer to cook. Bake them in the oven at 200C for about 20 minutes, or longer if necessary, until very soft and a bit brown.
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3. Whizz the pumpkin into mush using a hand blender or food processor.
4. Put the cream, milk, garlic and thyme in a saucepan on low heat. You want it to boil but not crust over or curdle, so stir it frequently. Let it boil for maybe one minute then turn the heat right down.
5. Add the mushed pumpkin to the saucepan and stir it all together. Then blend it again so it makes a smooth sauce.
6. That's it. Serve it on pasta, with some grated parmesan and parsley. If I were writing a real chef-ly recipe I would have told you at some appropriate point to boil the water and cook the pasta, but you can figure that out, can't you?
7. Eat it for dinner. Yum! If you are game you can try serving it to your toddler, but mine sent it straight back and demanded cheesy pasta for about the tenth time this week. I wasn't entirely unhappy with that as it meant there were leftovers. Yum!
1 comment:
Yum! I made something similar once, but didn't roast the pumpkin. I bet yours tastes better! And you definitely don't have to make a meatless meal on Mondays, it can be whenever... I just post the recipes on Monday because it's easier to remember! No need to commit to anything :-)
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