Vegetarian Creamy Seafood Pasta

I have a confession. I love alfredo sauce, or any cream-based pasta dishes. I also loved seafood prior to being a vegetarian, but I’m severely allergic to shellfish/seafood. One mock meat that I love to use is vegetarian shrimp/prawn and so, I’ve incorporated it into this dish. You don’t have to use vegetarian shrimps if you can’t find them. The dish would still be very good. Vegetarian mock meats can be very expensive. Also, I love to combine my cream sauce with lemon, I think it gives it a nice tangy taste.

Ingredient

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (roll on counter prior to get the most juice from the fruit)
• 2 cups of cream (I use 18% table cream)
• 1 cup of grated parmesan regianno cheese
• 1 packet of wholewheat spaghetti or linguine
• 1 zuchinni or yellow squash, diced into 1cm cubes
• 1 red bell pepper, diced into 1cm cubes
• 10 vegetarian shrimps, halved lengthwise or 20 whole 
• Salt (we use seasalt or kosher salt because it is healthier and taste so much better than iodized salt)

Method

1. Cook spaghetti/linguine according to package instruction until al dente. Drain pasta from water but reserve some of the starchy water to help thicken the sauce.
2. Brown the shrimps in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Set aside.
3. Add another tbsp of olive oil and cook minced garlic, cubed zuchinni and peppers over medium heat. Season with 1 tsp of seasalt.
4. As vegetables begin to soften (about 3 mins), add the semi-cooked pasta. Stir thoroughly.
5. Add cream and bring to boil for half a minute, then season with 2 tsp of salt. Turn off the heat.
6. Add browned shrimps back into pasta.
7. Add lemon zest, juice and grated cheese. It should thicken up or else use the leftover pasta water or more cheese.
8. Serve while warm with a few cracked of black pepper if desired.

Squash & Green Bean Simple Curry

I was inspired to make this dish while thumbing through February’s issue of Yoga Journal that my dear friend SS had subscribed for me as my birthday present. The original recipe is called Butternut Squash and Green Beans in Coconut Milk Curry, and was also adapted from 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices by Ruta Kahate (Chronicle Books, 2007). I had decided to finally use my acorn squash that had been sitting on my kitchen window will for about 2 months instead, and made the curry using the method that I am more familiar with. I think this dish would be much better with butternut squash,  sweet potatoes or yam. The recipe also called for using chopped cashews, which I did not have. What does a domestic goddess do? She modifies again and uses pinenuts.Pinenuts tastes much creamier than most nuts I know, with the exception of macadamia …. mmmm yummmm….

The important part of making any curries would be the tadka. The magazine gave a bried introduction of making tadka to those who are new to making Indian food. My tadka for this dish consists of mustard seeds, ginger and curry powder.

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, peeled and cubed into 1″ pieces
• 2 cups of green beans, cut into approx 2″ lengths
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 t mustard seed
• 1 thumb-size ginger, skin removed and cut to matchstick pieces
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 T curry powder
• Salt & sugar to taste
• 2 T pinenuts or chopped cashews

Method

1. Cook the squash in boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Dry roast the nuts and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or any cooking vessel. Add ginger and fry until fragrant. Add mustard seed and cover. After the seeds stop sputtering, add the curry powder and  and mix thoroughly with the mustard seed.
4. Add green beans and cook until tender.
5. Pour coconut milk and add the squash back into the wok.Bring the coconut to a boil, then immeditealy reduce to low heat.
6. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Sugar may be ommitted if using sweet potatoes or yam.
7. Garnish with roasted nuts.
8. Serve with steaming hot rice.