Friday, September 6; Vegan Mofo Day 6

Pasta with Pesto and Veggies, Salad and Garlic Bread

Rating: 4.25

I had planned to make Indian food today, but the tomatoes I’d bought earlier in the week, thinking I needed more than I did for lunch salads, were really an just inch this side of going bad.  I had a few other odds and ends veggies, too so we decided to do one of our favorite dinners – pasta and veggies. This is so simple and so good. I like the pesto recipe in The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, but really any one will do. I usually make a half batch of it because we prefer it fresh, but I do sometimes make a full batch and freeze what we don’t use. The veggies I used this time were broccoli, orange bell pepper, onion, garlic, spinach and of course, the aforementioned tomatoes. Zucchini is also delicious here, but we didn’t have any on hand, and this was one of my “clean out the fridge” dinners. Just use whatever veggies you like and/or have kicking around and you’re good to go. Another way we like to have this is by making extra grilled vegetables, say on Sunday when you cook out with your friends, and using reheating them gently in a skillet before mixing with the pasta and pesto. It adds a nice, smoky grilled flavor to the dish, which is delish. Some marinated and grilled tofu is always good missed in, too. Not having any grilled veggies around, I steam fried them in a non-stick pan until they were tender, but still crisp. Once the pasta was done, I mixed it in with the veggies and added the pesto. We chopped the tomatoes and added them along with the spinach at the same time as the pesto so they didn’t cook down too much. Voila! Delicious and simple. I made a quick salad to go with it and Seth made his 8^th Deadly Sin Garlic Bread (see the Sept 1 post for the how-to). We were happy and full and in a blissful carb coma.