PASTA

cupcakegirl645

I love pasta and use it in many of my meals. i’ve realized i need to limit it more and am
trying but i want to incorporate veggies into
my pasta dishes. anyone have any heathy recipes with pasta they are willing to
share?

neanderthin

You don't really need a recipe for pasta. In the context of vegetables think of the dish as a vegetable dish that pasta is added. As a simple illustration, a combination of different veg sauteed in olive oil would be the base, adding garlic, herbs, spices, in various combinations will lead to endless examples. Don't complicate it.

snowflake954

I live in Italy and make pasta or risotto everyday for my family. My husband has been pescatarian since he was a child and I use a lot of vegetables or seafood in my recipes.

SafariGalNYC

Pasta primavera! Throw in any veggies you like with some olio, salt, pepper and a lil Parm reggiano and toss!

Greek salad with cool pasta is nice. Feta, onion, olives, cucumber, greens and pasta..

penguinmama87

You can really add pretty much any vegetable to a pasta dish; it just depends on what you like. Many will absorb the taste of whatever sauce or spices you are using. My favorites to add are mushrooms, greens (any kind), summer squashes, peppers, and onions, but I also use pasta dishes as a "clean out the fridge" type of meal. For extra bulk and a little protein boost I often add drained and rinsed chickpeas.

AnnPT77

I agree with "don't need a recipe" and "experiment".

I don't do recipes generally (except for things with structural ingredients, as in baked goods). I just cook.

The dumb TikTok thing where you throw some cherry tomatoes and a hunk of feta cheese in an oven-safe dish with a little olive oil over (spray works), maybe some minced garlic/onion, then bake until it's all roasty and soft - that's tasty and absurdly easy. (I was surprised how good it was.) I did an alternate where I roasted some fresh mushrooms in a separate dish, then when the mushrooms gave up liquid but were almost done, I put a bunch of raw spinach in with them and covered until the spinach wilted. I mixed that with the pasta and the roasted tomato/feta at serving time. (Doing it in one dish, the mushroom liquid made the tomatoes less roasty so not as tasty.)

Another thing you could consider is whether you might enjoy a more nutrient-dense pasta - that will be down to individual taste. I've found that I like red lentil pasta pretty much as well as regular pasta, and it has more fiber and around twice the protein.

I've tried the black bean and edamame pastas which have around 3-4x the protein of wheat pasta, but they have a much more chewy texture. I don't care for them in Italian-esque sauces, but found that I do like them in Asian-style preparations, such as combined with stir fried veggies. The thin shapes are best IMO - spaghetti, fettuccine. I especially like these with a peanut sauce made with peanut butter powder (defatted) or almond butter powder, soy sauce, chile sauce if you like heat, and rice wine vinegar. To that, one can add any reasonable combination of fresh grated ginger root, minced garlic, chopped green onions, Szechuan peppercorns, . . . .

Experiments are fun. What's the worst that could happen? One sub-par meal, maybe. I can live with that.

kshama2001

I especially like spinach with pasta that has no red sauce. I made tortellinis for the two of us last week. For the last minute of cooking time, I threw in 5 oz of spinach. This seems like a gigantic amount, but trust me, it shrinks, and I bet there are people here who would have that much for one serving. I served this with rotisserie chicken. (And butter.) This is a super quick, balanced meal

With a spaghetti, red sauce, and meatball type meal I will have broccoli, green beans, or a salad on the side.

I also like to add legumes to pasta. When I make chicken cacciatore, which I serve over pasta, I add dry lentils or canned white beans.

When I have slow cooker recipes that end up with too much sauce, the next time I make it, instead of reducing the liquid, I add 1/2 cup dry lentils.

Rockmama1111

Quick spaghetti with mushroom and tomato sauce

2 servings, reheats well for a leftover lunch. My go-to for a pasta fix.

Cook 2 servings pasta; I really like chickpea pasta. It tastes pretty close to the real thing but has extra fiber. Save 1/4 cup cooking water.

Sauté a few handfuls of sliced mushrooms (portobello are great)

Add a can of diced tomatoes a clove or two of chopped garlic, the reserved cooking water, and any herbs you like. Fresh if you have them, dry is fine. I use basil, parsley, Italian seasoning, a little salt and pepper, whatever. Let it simmer and thicken while you make it taste good.

Toss in the pasta, add a little Parmesan or similar.

AnnPT77

I forgot until Kshama mentioned legumes in pasta sauce: Someone who used to post here recommended a basic red sauce but with lentils and powdered mushrooms added. It's excellent, flavorful and hearty, very filling, very nutritious. Even people who dislike the texture of mushrooms may like it, since the powdered mushrooms don't affect the texture of the more dominant ingredients.

For the red sauce, you could use a basic purchased marinara (find one with 50-80 (max) calories per half cup/125g), or you could use plain tomato sauce or diced tomatoes and add minced garlic, onions, oregano or basil, and that sort of thing. Mushroom powder tends to be expensive, but dried mushrooms not as much so (ounce for ounce). Dried mushrooms reduced to powder in a food processor work fine. Canned lentils work fine.

As an aside, it's maybe going to sound crazy, but adding a little unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder to a tomato sauce adds richness and complexity, especially useful in a no-meat (or white meat) sauce. For chili, I use around a tablespoon per serving, but I'd probably start with half that for a tomato pasta sauce.

Dark miso is another option for adding umami richness to tomato sauces used as pasta topping, even though that's not remotely traditional. How much will vary depending on the heartiness of the miso, but I'd probably start around a teaspoon per serving, taste, and work up from there. It's salty, so maybe skip salt elsewhere in the recipe. Add the miso at the end, right before serving, if you have a live-probiotics miso.

GamingandGains

I like mixing in zucchini noodles with pasta noodles to bulk it up with more veggie but have less calories.

avatiach

+1 to red lentil pasta and to thinking about changing the proportions of pasta:vegetables. Up the vegetables!

sbelletti

Minestrone soup is one of my faves... Loads of veggies with just enough Ditalini pasta to make it more filling. Make your own and control the sodium, too.

I use fresh onions, garlic, spinach, carrots, zucchini, celery, Italian parsley, kidney beans, cannellini beans, vegetable stock, canned diced tomatoes, canned green beans, Ditalini pasta and whatever Italian seasonings I feel like chucking in. Super easy and makes a ton.

mtaratoot

When I make pasta, I like it with just a little high quality olive oil and some minced garlic. That’s it. And I like quality pasta. But it’s not the main part of the meal. It’s just pasta!

Sometimes I get a little sad when I weigh out one serving of dry pasta because it’s a small portion. If my day allows, I might cook two. Usually not.

Then I have other things next to, but not on top of, the pasta. Roasted cauliflower. A big salad. Anything.

One of these days I will probably start making pasta a fagioli. Good for wintertime. And since I also like beans, I will probably make it several times.

For me it’s just portion control. Not always easy, but it lets me enjoy the pasta just by itself.

pridesabtch

I enjoy the texture of pasta, so I'm likely to mix my pasta with spaghetti squash or some other pasta-like veggie as filler so I can still have the mouth feel of the pasta but in a serving size that feels filling to me.

I've been experimenting with Palmini pasta as a substitute or a filler with regular pasta. Warning it smells awful until you rinse it, but once you rinse, heat and add a light sauce it is quite nice. The texture is okay also.

2tryharder

Zoodles! Or spaghetti squash.