Creamy Avocado Basil Pasta

So I know I said just the other day that my new addiction is Garlicky Kale, but I may have found something better (blasphemy, I know). My new new food addiction is this fresh Creamy Avocado Basil Pasta. And by addiction, yes, I do mean that I've made and eaten this dish four times already this past week alone. Don't judge till you try it.

Creamy Avocado Basil Pasta

Did I mention that once again this recipe is from Oh She Glows? Best. Blog. Ever.

The most amazing thing about this recipe is that it take as long to make as the pasta takes to cook. So fast, so easy, and pretty easy clean-up as well.

Start off by bringing your favorite pasta to a boil. I find myself going back time again to fettuccine, and I recently bought a spinach variety that was wonderful as well. Check the package to find out al dente cooking times.

While the pasta is cooking, get out that handy-dandy food processor of yours. Add:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 avocado
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp of lemon zest
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large fist full of basil--about a cup
• 1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Blend until smooth, adding an extra splash of olive oil if necessary to get that creamy consistency.

Once the pasta is done, simply drain, mix in the avocado sauce, and serve with an extra sprinkle of finely ground sea salt on top!

 

 

Note: The original recipe called for the pepper and lemon zest to be put on top of the mixed up pasta as the last step. I found that the avocado was kind of lost that way, so I started to use less of both and began blending it up in the sauce instead.

This dish also works great if you want to add some veggies. I've used spinach on several occasions, returning the drained noodles to the heat and adding some fresh baby spinach while I stir in the sauce. You just want them wilted a little bit. I bet mushrooms or asparagus would be lovely as well!

 

 

It is difficult to get this recipe exactly right, just because you can't control every factor, such as the size of the avocado or garlic clove. Play around, figure out how you like it, and enjoy!

 

As a last note, do not store this pasta in the refrigerator and attempt to reheat it later. Make the amount of pasta you need and store any extra sauce in the fridge. That way when you want leftovers you can quickly and easily make more pasta and stir in the cold sauce with the hot noodles.

Linguine with Seared Oyster Mushrooms

While there aren't many foods that I don't like, mushrooms have got to be one of my all time favorites. Simmered in white wine, who could say no?

Linguine with Seared Oyster Mushrooms & Wilted Spinach with Lemon

My only complaint here was that this meal was so acidic. Next time I would probably leave the lemon out of the spinach, since there is already lemon, tomato, and capers in the pasta sauce.

If a pan I first sauteed a mix of oyster, shikate, and cremini mushrooms. Half way through I dumped in a little white wine. Let that evaporate and then cook the mushrooms a bit longer just so that they get crisp. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.

Next, put one can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, the juice of one lemon, and a tablespoon of capers into the pan. Let simmer while you boil your pasta. Once that's done plate the pasta, top with sauce, and sprinkle the mushrooms on top along with some fresh sliced basil. This goes really well with some oven-toasted garlic bread as well.

The taste makes up for the less-than-stellar looks. Or maybe that's just my plating skills?

Day 7

Today marks one week that I have been following a completely vegan diet as well as Dr. Neal Barnard's book, 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart. While not over yet, I can say that this week has had its ups and downs, but has been overall an incredibly positive experience in my life. For the past week I have eaten better than I have in my whole life--and I don't just mean better as in healthy. Better as in more food, more often, and more delicious. This is one diet you definitely won't feel deprived and hungry on. And what's more is that last night at Gobblerfest and the Spirit Rally I could barely keep my pants on me because they were so loose! The poor people sitting in the grass behind me had to stare at my backside all night due to the fact that I do not own a belt. As Carla said, "I wish I had your problems..."

The menu for day seven is:

Breakfast:
Pancakes with maple syrup
Fresh raspberries

Lunch:
Quinoa and Red Bean Salad (recipe)
Hummus and pita bread

Dinner:
Sauteed spinach with fresh lemon juice
Penne al Forno (recipe)
Linguine with Seared Oyster Mushrooms (recipe)
Mixed greens with balsamic vinegar
Baked Cardamom Pears (recipe)

The Asian buffet last night, Hokkaido, turned out to be very good, and had lots of vegan options. I chowed down on sauteed mushrooms, steamed bok choy, vegetable lo mein, rice noodles, and some fried rice (with no egg, yay!). Because of this, I didn't get to cook the lovely menu from last night. So tonight I am going to make a few substitutions. There is no way that I am going to let those mushrooms go to waste, whereas the Penne al Forno ingredients are nonperishable.

Check it out this evening!

Dinner

This is dinner for day one. Talk about a three course meal--this was a huge amount of food! I made a Balsamic Pear Salad, Caldo Verde, and Fettuccine with Asparagus, Peas, & Lemon.

Day One Dinner

I almost didn't make everything that the book had listed, but decided to stick to the plan as closely as possible. Whereas my earlier meals were fairly simply, I basically destroyed the kitchen while making all this. Flipping through the upcoming menus, I notice that everything is quite a bit simpler than this, and it makes me wonder if they tried to be impressive on the very first day and took it a little over the top. Either way, I'm glad there are no more "feasts" in my immediate future.

Admittedly, I didn't really like any of theses three dishes. I started off making the Caldo Verde, which I believe is supposed to be a Portuguese version of Zuppa Toscana. This is not what it turned out like...

Looks pretty good so far...

I think a lot of the reason for this was human error. The recipe said to blend the potatoes to get a puree. All I had was Carla's little food processor, and the bottom came unscrewed while I was blending. All of the boiling hot liquid pour out (all over my book). So after this point, it wasn't really soup anymore. It was more like mushed onion and potato baby food. Yuck.

Caldo Verde

The recipe called for half a bunch of kale, which I think ended up being a little too much. Also, it called for soy chorizo or another vegetable-based sausage. The only kind I could find in Krogers that was vegan was a brand called Gimme Lean, which was basically chunky refried beans in a chub. Following the instructions carefully (and against my better judgement), I just plopped some of that in at the end and tried to break it up with the spoon. Bad idea. I would make this again, but with some serious alterations. I would have sauteed the onions and garlic first, used vegetable stock, diced the kale finer, made sure there was a lot more liquid, and IF I decided to use the veggie sausage again, I would cook it and crumble it in a separate pan first. This recipe was edible, but just barely.

Next was the fettuccine. This one sounded promising to me, though I was confused about what I was supposed to dress the noodles with. As it turns out, nothing. Also a bad (and very sticky) idea.

Fettuccine with Asparagus, Peas, & Lemon

The asparagus was to be tossed in a garlic lemon sauce before grilling, but once they were on the grill that sauce evaporated and the asparagus got very dry. The pasta also had a bunch of chopped parsley in it. The only variety of parsley I could find at Krogers looked very odd to me, but it was that or nothing so I bought it. It was a flat-leaf variety, and it turned out to be bitter and spicy and overly aromatic. It pretty much ruined whatever goodness would have been in the dish to begin with. The noodles were sticky and flavorless so I squeezed the juice of one lemon over them, which was actually quite nice. I ended up eating these with my fingers and picking bits of parsley off of the noodles and my tongue as I went along. Less than an awesome experience, to say the least. If I were to make this again I would have steamed the asparagus and peas in the oven in aluminum foil with the garlic lemon mixture. I would have poured the entire packet on top of the freshly drained noodles, and then used some normal parsley to top it off. This recipe has potential, but it needs some major changes.

Lastly but not least (well, actually yes, least) is the salad. It is comprised of arugula, Bartlett pear, radish, and a red wine vinegar reduction.

 

Balsamic Pear Salad

 

I really like fruit on my salads so I thought for sure this one would be a winner. I was wrong. Have you ever had raw arugula? It is awful. It was so bitter that it actually induced an involuntary gag reflex when it got to the back of my throat. There was only one brand at the store, which looked less than stellar, so maybe the quality was the problem. Either way, I took only one bite before pushing it away. I ended up picking the pears and radishes off the top and eating those. The dressing was lovely though, I must say. The recipe called for balsamic vinegar, but all I had was red wine vinegar. I put some in a pan and let it reduce until it was a little thicker, and then drizzled that over the salad. I will definitely be using the vinaigrette recipe again.

 

 

Three strikes, your out. It was a little disappointing, especially after all the effort it took to cook it, but it is okay really. Dr. Barnard says that if you don't get the occasional dud then you are not experimenting enough. We'll just chalk this up to a valuable culinary learning experience.