One Pot Pasta

It has been way too long since I've shared a food related post!  It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's just that things have been busy and a lot of the food we've been eating has been really simple.  Summer is one of those times that things seem to pop up, we're always busy, and that complex recipes just don't get made.  So I've been trying to find dinners that can be made in a hurry without taking up too much time.  And when I discovered the concept of one pot pasta, it made my day!  Delicious, easy, and quick. Not a lot of clean up either.  Lots of veggies. Apparently this has been a thing people have been doing for a while and I just haven't heard of it until now for some reason.

The thing that makes one pot pasta perfect is that you pretty much just throw all the ingredients into a giant pot and let them cook together.  No need to make a separate sauce for your pasta or sautee veggies on their own.  You don't even need to drain the pasta.  Just chuck everything into a pot, keep stirring, and then add a couple things at the end and you have a healthy, delicious, and fairly economical dinner.

The recipe I used to may my first one pot pasta dinner was from Oh My Veggies.  If you don't know this site, you should definitely check it out.  I always find great recipes there. I adapted it a little bit for what we had at home so here is my version.

Ingredients

4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

8 ounces pasta, uncooked (I used some of the basil fettuccine we got from the farmer's market)

1 small onion, halved and sliced thin

1 pound broccoli florets (I used the already chopped broccoli in a bag from the grocery store)

1 1/2 pounds asparagus, ends snapped off and cut into 2-inch pieces

4 ounces sliced white button mushrooms (about 1 cup)

 1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (less for milder heat; more to increase heat)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small handful fresh parsley, chopped (about 1/2 cup chopped)

1/4 cup almond milk (the recipe called for heavy cream but this is what we had on hand and it worked really well)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

Additional salt and pepper to taste

 Veggies and pasta before the broth is put in, you can see that the pot is pretty full!

I put the broth, linguine, onion, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper in a large pot over high heat and poured the olive oil on top.  The pot looked really full and I was worried because it didn't seem like the liquid covered all the veggies, but once things started to cook down there was definitely enough liquid.  Nothing to worry about :)

Here is the liquid level at first.

Once it came to a boil, I set the timer for 7 minutes. Also, start tossing constantly with long handled tongs.  This will help prevent the pasta from sticking.

As soon as the 7 minutes is up, add the parsley, almond milk, Parmesan, and lemon zest and continue tossing, for 1-2 more minutes, until the pasta and veggies appear tender. Let the pasta sit for a couple of minutes and the sauce will continue to thicken. Taste and add additional salt and pepper or cheese if desired.

And that's it!  How easy is that?   This made 4 servings and it tasted good microwaved the next day as well as fresh from the pot.  And apparently, it was so good that I forgot to take  a photo before eating it all up. Blogger fail :(

There were a couple tips with the original recipe that really helped.  Mainly, use a really big pot because of all the turning and make sure your pasta takes 9-11 minutes to cook so that everything is ready around the same time.  I was worried the veggies would be too mushy but they turned out perfectly.

I'm linking up with Lean Lena for Tasty Tuesday and will be linking up with Deborah and Tina for Meatless Mondays.