Recipe Description
Welcome to the ‘#HealthyEating’ series! #HealhyEating is launched to encourage everyone to love themselves and live a healthier life. In this quarter, we are sharing vegetarian and/or vegan western recipes, a healthy and simple meal with bright, bold flavours. This pasta is made with homemade pesto sauce, tossed with sautéed tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and nutritional yeast. You can substitute the spaghetti with your desired pasta or even veggie-noodles. The pesto sauce can also be used as salad dressing, dips and even in sandwiches.
Featuring Chef Yong Mei Kei, the Director and Executive Chef at MIB College. She is a qualified food technologist and plant-based chef with a huge passion for food and well-being.
Want more vegetarian or vegan recipes? Check out the ‘#HealthyEating’ recipe folder.
Recipe Ingredient
- Pesto Sauce
- 2 cups Fresh Basil Leaves
- 3 tbsp Lightly Toasted Walnuts, Pine Nuts, or Sunflower Seeds
- 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 clove Garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 4 ½ tbsp Water
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ¼ tsp Salt and Pepper
- Pasta
- 1 packet Spaghetti
- ¾ cup Cherry Tomatoes
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 cups Button Mushrooms, sliced
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper
- ½ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Blend the basil, nuts, garlic, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper until a paste.
- Add in olive oil a little at a time, and scrape down sides to blend. Then gradually add in water until the desired consistency is reached.
- Taste and adjust the flavour as needed. Note: Add more nutritional yeast for cheesy flavour, salt for overall balance flavour, nuts for nuttiness, or lemon juice for acidity.
- In a pot, bring water to a boil and cook spaghetti according to packaging instructions. Add a dash of salt and oil into the pot.
- Strain the cooked pasta, saving some pasta water to coat if needed. Set aside.
- In a pan, heat oil over medium-high heat, add in cherry tomatoes, stir and sauté until cooked and burst. Set aside.
- Using the same pan, sauté garlic and sliced mushrooms.
- Add in the pesto sauce (as needed), tomatoes and drained pasta, toss together.
- Add pasta cooking water if necessary. The starch in the water will thicken the pesto and coats everything nicely.
- Top with more nutritional yeast and fresh basil. Ready to serve.
