Italian pasta

Last night was another exciting adventure in cooking with Quinoa pasta.  I opted for the Ancient Harvest Linguine style pasta and needed a quick and easy sauce to complement that.  With my son on a no dairy diet it's been a challenge.  He's not crazy about marinara sauce, he preferred his noodles with butter and cheese, but he's been good about branching off to the Veganaise based sauces I've made.

Ingredients to the sauce:

1/4 cup Veganaise

4 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

honey to taste

Add it all to the blender and let it rip! 

I made the sauce first, let that sit and then started the pasta, since I'm new to cooking quinoa pasta I set the timer.  The box warns you about over cooking it.  It also warns you that the water will turn yellow, it does, it's a little odd for this normally whole wheat pasta cooking Momma.  Once that was cooking I started the rest of the dish.  I diced 1/2 of a red onion and 5 good sized mushrooms.  Heated a large pan with olive oil and sauteed those.  When the veggies were nice and soft I added some cooked, shelled, shrimp.  You could easily omit the shrimp, increase the veggies, and keep this a vegetarian dish.  I didn't want the shrimp to be tough so I added them at the end just to warm them a bit.  I also tossed in the raw zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes.  Again, I didn't want them cooked, just warmed.  I prefer those two vegetables (yes I know tomatoes are technically a fruit) raw. 

When the pasta finished cooking, I drained and rinsed it.  Added it to the pan and tossed it with the veggie/shrimp compo and dressed it with my sauce.  The sauce is light, definitely garlicky, but in a good way.  Paulo's first words were "mmm!  It's spicy!"  He likes spicy food though.  This dish has countless ways you could vary it.  Asparagus would be great, so would marinated artichokes or steamed broccoli.  Omit the meat, add different meats, other sea foods would go well with the mild sauce, the choices are only limited by what foods you have in the refrigerator.