Power Pack Your Pasta with the Goodness of Vegetables

We love a dash of Italy on our dining table. The fancy bottle of olive oil and the aroma of oregano from the herb sprinkler, oh, we simply love it! Pastas are a household name now. Kids particularly love this dish, as it comes in interesting shapes, it has lots of cheese and is easy to eat independently! However, the guardian angels of food (read mother) want to pack food with immunity boosting goodness and nutrition, and are not too convinced about pasta’s nutritional value. Due to this prejudice, the delicious pasta may not make as frequent an appearance on the dining table as we would want it to. No fret, here is a simple trick to make your pasta nutritive with the goodness of as many vegetables as you want to eat!

Ingredients:

1. 200 gm any pasta. Choose a Pasta, penne, fusilli, spaghetti or any other

2. 3 medium sized tomatoes roughly chopped

3. 1 medium sized onion roughly chopped

4. 150 gms of chopped green vegetables like (You can use all the vegetables that your kids don’t eat otherwise!)- Broccoli, Capsicum, Carrots, Spinach and Beans

5. 2 1/2 tbsp Olive oil or any vegetable oil

6. 2 tsp Fresh or dried herbs like oregano or rosemary or mixed herbs

7. 2 cloves of crushed garlic

8. Grated cheese

9. Salt to taste

10. 2 – 3 tbsp of any commercially available pasta sauce or tomato ketchup (optional)

Recipe:

1. Boil the pasta. Add 1 tsp of oil to the pasta while boiling it. Save some water while straining the pasta for the sauce, keep it aside.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil

3. Add the tomatoes, onions and chopped greens to the pan. Add some salt. Sauté till the vegetables are cooked well

4. Puree the cooked vegetables in a blender. We will use this puree as the base for our pasta sauce

5. Heat the pan again with 1tbsp of oil

6. Add the 2 cloves of crushed garlic

7. Add the vegetable puree

8. Add grated cheese or pop in a few cheese slices if that is what you have at home

9. You can add 2 – 3 tbsp of any pasta sauce available commercially or ketchup at this stage. Else, just add some fresh or dried herbs like, oregano, rosemary or any other herb of your choice.

10. Add the water which we had saved while straining the pasta to loosen the sauce

11. Add the boiled pasta

12. Garnish with some cheese

Here is your healthy pasta with the goodness of vegetables! Bon appetite!

Share with us more recipes that you think are healthy. For expert diet advice, book an expert dietician from Urban Company!