Since I don't generally cook vegetarian food, I've been trolling the internet looking for vegetarian recipes which meet my discerning criteria:
a) is not trying to make vegetables into meat. meat is meat, vegetables are vegetables, can't we just leave them be?
b) healthy. I'm detoxing so it should be easy on the butter, cheese, and fat. Oh yeah, and ideally using whole grains
c) delicious
Despite perusing tons of vegan/vegetarian blogs you'd be surprised how few vegetarian recipes there are that meet this description! But I can always trust Smitten Kitchen (one of my fav blogs!) to have great mouth watering recipes, and I decided to adapt her broccoli pesto recipe for tonight's dinner.
This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1/2 pound broccoli
2 handfuls of rocket/arugula (washed)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, julienned
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Freshly ground black pepper
handful of pine nuts
1/2 of shaved parmesan
1/2 pound dried whole wheat spaghetti
1. Trim the stem off the broccoli and peel the rough bits, cut into pieces. Trim the broccoli florets into similar sized bits. (yes, I know I'm starting to sound British)
2. In a small saucepan on medium heat, sauce onion and garlic until softened.
3. Blanch broccoli florets and stems in salted boiling water. Drain and rinse
with cold water.
4. In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente and then drain.
5. In a food processor, in small batches pulse together broccoli, rocket/arugula, onion, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and add olive oil as needed to help combine. Blend until pesto-like consistency.
6. In a large bowl, mix together pasta and pesto and then plate. Garnish with more parmesan
a) is not trying to make vegetables into meat. meat is meat, vegetables are vegetables, can't we just leave them be?
b) healthy. I'm detoxing so it should be easy on the butter, cheese, and fat. Oh yeah, and ideally using whole grains
c) delicious
Despite perusing tons of vegan/vegetarian blogs you'd be surprised how few vegetarian recipes there are that meet this description! But I can always trust Smitten Kitchen (one of my fav blogs!) to have great mouth watering recipes, and I decided to adapt her broccoli pesto recipe for tonight's dinner.
This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1/2 pound broccoli
2 handfuls of rocket/arugula (washed)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, julienned
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Freshly ground black pepper
handful of pine nuts
1/2 of shaved parmesan
1/2 pound dried whole wheat spaghetti
1. Trim the stem off the broccoli and peel the rough bits, cut into pieces. Trim the broccoli florets into similar sized bits. (yes, I know I'm starting to sound British)
2. In a small saucepan on medium heat, sauce onion and garlic until softened.
3. Blanch broccoli florets and stems in salted boiling water. Drain and rinse
with cold water.
4. In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente and then drain.
5. In a food processor, in small batches pulse together broccoli, rocket/arugula, onion, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and add olive oil as needed to help combine. Blend until pesto-like consistency.
6. In a large bowl, mix together pasta and pesto and then plate. Garnish with more parmesan