Miso Pasta with Summer Squash

This creamy, miso-flavored pasta pairs perfectly with tender summer squash with notes of garlic, thyme, and cheese. Dinner is done in the time it takes to boil the noodles.

Miso: more than just soup. I don't know about you, but I put miso in errrything. Salty, umami, earthy, probioticy (it's a word now!)... miso's got all the goodness going on. I prefer the dark or red miso as I find it to be the most flavorful. However, if you're new to miso try the mellower yellow one. Once you start putting it in dishes and sauces, you'll never stop. It's a great alternative to salt, anchovies, parmesan, or feta flavors.

Did you know miso makes a wonderful pasta sauce as well? Oh yes, my friends. This is a super quick and easy weeknight meal that everyone will love and even sneaks in veggies too (like all that squash from the garden). I hope you'll love it as much as Todd and I did; it'll be a new staple in our house for sure!

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

— Barack Obama

Miso Pasta with Summer Squash

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 06/17/2016

This creamy, miso-flavored pasta pairs perfectly with tender summer squash with notes of garlic, thyme, and cheese. Dinner is done in the time it takes to boil the noodles!

Ingredients

• 1 lb spaghetti, dry
• 3 tbsp vegan stick butter
• 3 medium summer squash or zucchini, quartered and sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp red miso paste
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vegan worcheshire sauce (check the store-brand)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp large-flake nutritional yeast

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta. Cook according to package, until al dente. Before draining reserve ⅓ cup of the pasta water and set aside. Drain the pasta and return to pot.
2. While the pasta cooks, melt the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the squash and saute for 5 minutes before adding garlic; saute an additional 10 minutes until the garlic is fragrant and the squash is just tender but not overcooked. Remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the miso through the thyme. Add the cooked noodles to the sauteed squash and stir in the sauce and reserved pasta water until well coated. Stir in the nutritional yeast and serve hot.

Yield: 6

Yum

Rhubarb & Raspberry Nut Crisp

Taking advantage of the backyard bounty, this is healthy and deliciously tart and sweet crisp is a breeze to whip up. Oats and nuts lend their nutrition to make one scrumptious dessert, bursting with sweet and juicy raspberries and puckering rhubarb.

In my world... where there's rhubarb, there's crisp. My love for crisp knows no bounds. Using fresh rhubarb just plucked from the garden and berries that Todd and I picked last summer, there's certainly no better summertime dessert.

This recipe is a deviation from my standard crisp. It's a little healthier; with an all nut crumble and I use erythritol in place of regular sugar for Todd (it aggravates his RA). We had raspberries from my Grandparent's garden on hand in the freezer and though I'm stodgily a strawberry-rhubarb gal, they worked great. 

Perfect for dessert or the most divine breakfast, you really can't go wrong here. I hope you enjoy this scrummy little recipe as much as we did!

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Rhubarb & Raspberry Nut Crisp

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 05/23/2016

Taking advantage of the backyard bounty, this is healthy and deliciously tart and sweet crisp is a breeze to whip up. Oats and nuts lend their nutrition to make one scrumptious dessert, bursting with sweet and juicy raspberries and puckering rhubarb.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups frozen raspberries
• 1 ½ cups fresh rhubarb (about 3 stalks), sliced
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• splash of lemon juice
• ½ cup raw almonds
• ½ cup raw pecans
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¼ cup room-temperature coconut oil
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 2 tbsp erythritol or vegan granulated sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a pie dish with a nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the raspberries, rhubarb, 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, vanilla, and lemon juice in the pie dish with your hands to combine; spread out into an even layer.
3. Process the almonds and pecans in a food process until a flour-like consistency. Pulse in the remaining ingredients until just combined. We don’t want the oats to be processed too much.
4. Spread the crumb mixture over the berry mixture and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. Serve warm.

Yield: 4

Yum

Read all about how the folks behind the Impossible Food Beyond Burger create that perfect, vegan burger in this totally fascinating interview from Science Friday. 

Healthier Avocado Vodka 'Cream' Pasta + Classico Riserva Giveaway

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Classico Riserva for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

A healthy and modern twist on traditional vodka cream pasta. Avocado stands in for heavy cream, smokey TVP packs a vegan protein punch, and swiss chard gives itself for a nutritional boost. This pasta is everything; creamy, meaty, cheesy, and so darn delicious. Whips up in the time it takes to boil the noodles!

I just love it when a recipe comes together so, so perfectly. Todd adores vodka cream pasta. Me? Not so much. It's always been way too heavy for me and let's be real, it's obviously not that nutritious; heavy cream, cheese, vodka, and ground meat... it makes my arteries wanna clog up just thinking about it!

It was time something had to be done about this. So, I created my own version! In this healthier take on vodka cream pasta, I use avocado instead of heavy cream, TVP instead of oily ground meat, and added an entire bunch of swiss chard for a boost of nutrition. I couldn't believe what a couple wonderful, creamy avocados could do to kick heavy dairy to the curb. This will definitely be a staple in our house. I'm telling you, wonderful things happen when you have two aging avocados mingling about in your fridge. 

A couple jars of Classico Riserva pasta sauce were eyeing me from the pantry and I knew I wanted to do something fun with them. They Riserva sauce line is free from artificial ingredients and added sugars! I wanted to create a dish that was as sophisticated and delicious as this thick and savory pasta sauce itself and a vodka 'cream' sauce was just the ticket.

Riserva comes in five, slow-simmered flavors: Arrabiata, Roasted Garlic, Marinara, Eggplant Artichoke, and Puttanesca. Perhaps the greatest thing about the new Riserva line (besides everything else I've already listed) is that all the flavors are totally vegan. Yay!! Usually I have to scour the ingredient lists (which is always lengthy for some reason) on the back of pasta sauce jars, but not with Riserva! In addition, these sauces only contains a few ingredients, as they should. 

I'm also hosting a giveaway for three full-price coupons for this new sauce. Tell me in the comments what dish you'd like to make with Classico Riserva to be entered to win. Winners will be drawn at random and will close on 6.6.16 at noon EST. Open to U.S. only. Thank you, Classico Riserva for sponsoring this post! Open up a bottle of the good stuff! *** This giveaway is no CLOSED, thank you!***

Healthier Avocado Vodka 'Cream' Pasta

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 05/20/2016

A healthy and modern twist on traditional vodka cream pasta. Avocado stands in for heavy cream, smokey TVP packs a vegan protein punch, and swiss chard gives itself for a nutritional boost. This pasta is everything; creamy, meaty, cheesy, and so darn delicious. Whips up in the time it takes to boil the noodles!

Ingredients

• 1 lb pasta of choice (I like penne ), dry
• ⅓ cup vodka
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 28 oz jar of Classico Riserva pasta sauce
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted
• ½ cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)
• ½ cup vegan shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)
• 1 bunch of chard, destemmed and chopped

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat for the pasta. Cook according to package until al dente, about 9 minutes; drain and return to pot.
2. While the pasta boils, simmer the vodka in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes until it’s reduced by half.
3. Add the pasta sauce, nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, and avocados to a blender; blend on high until completely smooth. Transfer to the reduced vodka and stir in the tvp. Cover and simmer an additional 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the chard to wilt; cover and continue to simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Over low heat, stir the sauce into the pasta to combine. Stir in the cheese ; serve hot.

Yield: 6

Yum