Given the cozy, rainy day and in an effort to channel my meatless side this week, I give you an easy, comforting and healthy meatless Monday meal: Creamy No-Cream Pasta!
Creamy No-Cream Pasta
Ingredients:
(serves 3-4)
2 servings pasta
2 chopped broccoli heads
3-4 Tablespoons chopped, sun-dried tomatoes
1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/4 cup minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 can great northern beans, drained & rinsed
Hot sauce
Directions:
1. Heat large pot of water for pasta. When boiling, scoop out some water (about 1/2 cup) and drop in chopped, sun-dried tomatoes to hydrate.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions. About two minutes into the cooking time, add broccoli to the pot to cook with the pasta.
3. Meanwhile, in medium size skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil on medium low heat. Sauté onions until slightly brown (~3 minutes.) Add garlic and stir constantly to avoid burning for ~30 seconds .
4. Add beans to the skillet and mash with the back of a spoon. Keep on low heat while pasta and broccoli finish cooking.
5. Drain pasta & broccoli and return to pot. Add mashed bean, onion and garlic mixture, sun-dried tomatoes and water they hydrated in, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a couple dashes of hot sauce.
6. Stir thoroughly to combine and enjoy!
I am telling you – there is nothing more comforting than this dish. The mashed white beans makes this wonderfully thick and creamy sauce that gets thinned out ever so slightly by the water used to hydrate the sun-dried tomatoes.
The hot sauce just really sparks the whole dish up. It doesn’t make it spicy, but gives a wonderful bright, zing to everything – it’s just perfect!
Those sweet, chewy bits of sun-dried tomato are the perfect pops of flavor and texture throughout the dish, too. I love sun-dried tomatoes!!
This is a perfect rainy-day, uber compf meal, that I promise you’ll just love!
~~~~~
What’s your favorite rainy-day, ultra comfy food of choice?
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THIS would go over great in our house! Must try!
That looks sooo good, especially since I can’t really tolerate creamy things. My comfort food is definitely chili, thick and stewy
Wow! Great idea!
I love creamy pasta dishes but not the way I feel after eating them! Using beans as the “creamy” component is a stroke of genius, my friend!
My favorite comfy meal is grilled cheese and tomato soup (and yes, I like to “dunk”!) it may not be the healthiest, but it’s oh so tasty!
Such a great pasta dish! I love creamy “no cream” sauces. I find this can also be achieved by using the unconventional ingreidnets like canned pumpkin or laughing cow cheese and wine. Say goodbye to Ragu Alfredo sauce and hello to real good honest ingredients!
Hope you had a wonderful day girl.
And it’s vegan! Hooray! I’m going to have to give this one a try for sure
I want to try this…. but am way too lazy to make it. {P.S. I thought of you when I learned this asparagus saving tip: When you get your asparagus home, snap off the bottom of them stems and stand them upright in a glass of water, like a vase with flowers, and throw them in the fridge – they’ll stay fresh as long as you change the water every day}
I always forget about sun dried tomatoes. I need to remember them more often because I adore them.
My favorite rainy day food would have to be the classic grilled cheese and tomato soup
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Looks really yummy and comforting for sure
P.S. I did a twist on your sweet soy glazed turkey and made it into chicken burgers last night and it was awesome!!
Rainy day comfort meal is soup, bread and hot tea. I just warms up my insides when the weather is cold.
that looks awesome!
i love having miso soup. or udon. and sushi on a rainy day.
Chili is mine for sure!
Chili!!! i cant wait to make some
ok i love this dish because it’s easy but looks amazingly filling and tasty. it’s on the list!
This looks amazing! Love the mashed beans idea. But my fiance likes a lot of sauce w/ his pasta. Do you think you can add fat free milk to make it saucier and just make sure the milk doesn’t curdle?
Made this last night so good!
[...] We discuss why we workout & I made Creamy No-Cream Pasta! [...]
This sounds delicious! I plan on trying to soon. To take advantage of the great nutritional value of this dish, I would recommend steaming or sauteing the broccoli instead. A lot of nutrients can be lost into the boiled water with vegetables such as broccoli.
[...] got home at about 8pm, I went straight to the shower, and then had dinner. We had leftovers, I made Kristin’s Creamy No-Cream Pasta last night and it tasted extra good today! I also had some thin mint’s ice cream for dessert [...]
[...] got home at about 8pm, I went straight to the shower, and then had dinner. We had leftovers, I made Kristin’s Creamy No-Cream Pasta last night and it tasted extra good today! I also had some Edy’s Slow Churned Thin Mint Cookie [...]
i know this is an old post by now, but this is brilliant – thanks for the tip.