Veg Pasta in Creamy Spinach Sauce

We eat lots of pasta, almost every week, sometimes twice a week. Mainly because of the ease of cooking and because DH loves it. But he doesn't love all of them, so for example he is not a big fan of tomato based sauce in pasta so while i love pasta arrabiata for it's adjustable spiciness, but he will not mind give it a miss. 

This time i decided to use this spinach from the fridge and try pasta with spinach. I searched recipe on internet and most of them were with all fancy kind of cheese to be included for creamy spinach sauce, and neither i had all those fancy cheese in fridge nor intended to go do grocery.

So i came up with a solution, how about just make some white sauce and can add to pasta along with spinach paste ! Excellent. So that is what i did.

By this time Ashu was already done with his easy pasta, complaining it wasn't the same as i make and also there was no parsley in home !

When i was done with this  i asked him...

You can try this one, there is plenty. 

No, i had enough...actually had a lot.

Ok may be just taste it.

umm, hmmm ok. But just a little, only to taste. 

ya ya, you can take more if you like it.

After first bite. 

hmmm ya may be i can take a bit more. Ok let me just eat it.

haha, success !

So you see, it was THAT nice.

Here we go, this is what i did in my kitchen. 

Creamy Spinach Pasta

Let's collect the ingredients:

For white Sauce:

1-2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp cheese

salt to taste

For Spinach Paste:

handful of spinach (Around 1 bowl)

3-4 garlic clove

1 tsp freshly ground black papper

1 tsp freshly ground sea salt

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp cheese (optional)

For Pasta:

3 cups Pasta, cooked

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp garlic cut in small pieces or minced whichever way you prefer in your pasta 

1 tbsp cut red chilli

1/2 cup cut capsicum, i had a mix of green, yellow, red (optional)

Few olives, because i love them. (optional)

A few baby spinach leaves for seasoning

Let's start making Pasta:

For the white sauce :

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. 

2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes 

3. Take the pan off the heat and gradually stir in the milk to get a smooth sauce. Return to the heat and, stirring all the time, bring to the boil. 

4. Add Cheese and simmer gently until cheese has melted and sauce has thickened to your preferred consistency. Season with salt.

For Spinach Paste:

1. Mix everything together and blend them.

For assembling pasta:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add Garlic and red chilli. Saute them for a minute.

2. Add capsicum and olives. This step is really optional, i added them as i had them in fridge and wanted to use them !

3. Add spinach paste and white sauce and mix well.

4. Add pasta and mix well till it's all evenly covered.

5. Season with some fresh spinach leaves. 

Your delicious creamy spinach sauce veg pasta are ready ! Enjoy !!

Pumpkin Soup

I was on a healthy eating bandwagon last month. Please note verb "was" here. I haven't been much into pumpkins and it hardly enters my kitchen but once i tasted how amazing this soup tasted i already have had it a few more times. 

While it is nice to go healthy, it doesn't always mean you have to eat bland food and your taste buds have to suffer. I tried so many tasty recipes for the first time that i have a lot of new additions in my favorite list ! 

I know i need to share more recipes but it just gets too busy specially with Lil Bun in our lives. By the way he loves this soup as well, i was having it the next afternoon in lunch and he was making faces as if why not to me? So i gave him a spoon and he licked it thoroughly, so inspired i gave him some more and he gulp it happily. So then we ended up sharing a lunch, i am so happy that soon we will be able to eat same meals and no more special baby foods but wait, still some time for that. No day dreaming, back to recipe.

Ok so what are we waiting for, let's get started.

Pumpkin Soup

Let's collect ingredients :

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 bowl pumpkin, peeled, seeded, cut into cubes (i used around half of pumpkin)

3 cups vegetable stock

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (optional )

¼ tsp salt 

¼ tsp pepper

Let's make some Soup :

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. 

2. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent, while stirring in between not to make it stuck. It will take about 3-4 mins. 

3. Add pumpkin and cook until lightly softened. 

4. Add vegetable stock and tomato paste and stir to mix. 

4. Bring it to a boil over high heat, lower to a simmer, and cover. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, until pumpkin is very tender. 

5. Let it cool down a little bit and blend it into until smooth. 

6. Put it back on flame, add cheese, salt, and pepper; mix and serve warm.

Enjoy delicious healthy pumpkin soup !