No mangoes to make Mango Tomato Sauce Meatballs, but there is always a pack of frozen vegetables available, so why not? For added fiber and overall nutrition as the more (veggies), the merrier.
That completes today's Meatballs Protein Bowl - steamed vegetables as the base, and portion of pasta to pair with tomato sauce meatballs.
The plan was to put together something quick, by simmering store-bought meatballs and store-bought pasta sauce in a pot, then make a one-dish meal of pasta with meatballs.
Everything was as planned, just a slight twist of adding (leftover) frozen cubed mangoes to the pot of simmer. That would only make it better, with reminiscent moments of sweet and tangy meatballs.
Make this Mango Tomato Sauce Meatballs and serve with Lettuce Fried Rice.
If you enjoy one-pot dishes, you may also like Braised Quail, Fennel and Tomatoes or Easy and Simple One-Pot Pasta.
This oven-"fried" meatless mince is like "meat-sauce" without the sauce, without the meat. Besides making Vegetarian Mapo Tofu, this meatless mince versatility can easily be extended to make such balanced meatless meals.
A batch of oven-"fried" mince is "blank canvas" for other stir-fries too; or tossed with pasta (above) or mixed in with quinoa (below), then served with vegetables as a complete meal.
You can always make your own vegetarian meatless mince (Vegetarian Simmered "Meat" Sauce) from scratch with diced mushrooms and tofu. It is definitely healthier and taste more naturally delicious than store-bought plant-based mince which wins on convenience but end of the day, still partially processed.
This assorted vegetables pasta/noodle salad bowl is a great summer option when you want something light yet able to fill in protein, the meatless way. When I use protein-based pasta/noodles (e.g. Explore Cuisine Bean Pasta), I prefer to make the entire dish vegetarian - allowing the plant-based protein to take center-stage.
Today, this Greens and Bean-Pasta Noodle Salad Bowl, is made with greens variety- broccoli, green beans and leafy kale. The vegetables are totally interchangeable, depending on what you have, so feel free to get creative.
Vegetarian option
Other vegetarian meatless recipes made with Explore Cuisine Bean Pasta:
Edamame and Mung Bean Fettuccine Veggie Salad Bowl
Gluten-Free Bean Pasta with (more) Beans and Veggies
Bean Pasta with Vegetarian Tofu Curry
Even the simplest sauté of crimini mushrooms tossed with pesto e.g Basil Walnut Pesto (vegetarians, this one's for you), tastes as delicious as Pesto Chicken and Pesto Salmon.
Do you feel what I feel? (oh, that Christmas song "Do you hear what I hear?" continuously lingering over my ears these days).
Grain bowls and salad bowls - coupled with plant-based proteins such as beans/legumes, tofu, tempeh, or meat options like chicken, or even seafood - are still part of the family meal plan. However, soups and stews, porridge and congee start to have a presence at the dinner table more often during the winter season as these hot and warm dishes says nothing but comfort, just like this Mushroom Turkey Pasta with Marinara Sauce.
Store-bought jarred pasta sauce is convenient and saves a lot of cooking time in the kitchen. However, I hardly use jarred pasta sauce because it is usually too high in sodium and lacks fresh tomato flavor; until I came across several good reviews on Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce.
This pasta bowl has no sauce, and it is not missing any.
The garlic-cilantro oven-roasted shrimps, and the roasted zucchini and bell peppers (alike Oven-Style Ratatouille and Vegetable Tian) are all good components of flavors to the pasta. Add in buttery avocado and roasted tofu to make it a balanced meal of complex carbs, lean protein, healthy fats and vegetables's healthy fiber, vitamins and essential minerals.
Explore Cuisine bean-powered pasta is not only great in taste and texture; it also provides a good amount of protein and fiber per serving. Their Organic Edamame Spaghetti and Organic Black Bean Spaghetti contain 24 g of protein per 2 oz serving - almost three times more than regular pasta and twice that of chickpea or lentil.
To enjoy the best of both worlds, I used two different spaghetti - Edamame Spaghetti and Black Bean Spaghetti, to create this dish - Edamame and Black Bean Spaghetti with Steamed Vegetables in Vegetarian Tofu Green Curry
Beans on beans, pulses or more pulses. What do you say? Plant-protein power! Made from organic edamame and mung bean, Explore Cuisine's gluten-free fettuccine* carries the leftover bean "sauce" very well and makes a nice warm veggie pasta lunch on a cool breezy day. Alternatively, make a quick chickpea salad, toss it with pasta and save this pasta salad or Edamame and Mung Bean Fettuccine Veggie Salad Bowl for the hot summer days.
This bean fettuccine* on its own tastes very flavorful, warm or at room temperature (cooked and allowed to cool a few minutes). Personally, I enjoy the natural bean flavor of this pasta as it shines through without any sauce, just like this Edamame and Mung Bean Fettuccine Veggie Salad Bowl.
Made with two gluten-free ingredients - organic edamame and organic mung beans, this vegetarian-friendly protein-rich (24g protein per serving size) pasta alternative boasts high nutritional value. Explore Cuisine bean pastas* are all certified gluten-free, vegan and kosher.
There are some other brands of gluten-free chickpea and lentil pasta in the market that cooks soft and mushy, but this bean pasta from Explore Cuisine* does not. In fact, within 4-5 minutes, this pasta cooks to al-dente which was what I wanted for my noodle salad. The "beany" taste is also a pleasant surprise - in a beany good way! If you have tried fresh yuba (tofu skins) before, this bean pasta tastes similar.
A simple one-bowl salad of everything, combines two cooking techniques in vegetables preparation -via roasting and steaming. The cauliflower and broccoli could have jolly well been roasted to charred-smoky deliciousness; but personally, I prefer my fresh cruciferous vegetables - steamed e.g. Steamed Purple Cauliflower, or stir-fried e.g. Stir-Fried Broccoli with Beech Mushrooms. Steaming, in this case, retains maximum nutrients using shorter time (10 mins or less), and lower cooking temperature 100degC steam-temperature.
Tomato Fried Eggs 番茄炒蛋 may sound ordinary but this simple classic Chinese home-style dish is nutritious and delicious. Very often, tomato fried eggs is prepared as a side-dish typically paired with steamed rice or rice congee/porridge.
How about turning them into a one-dish pasta meal today, with additional sauteed garlic kale and sweet peppers.
Homey delicious, and homey good.
Have you heard of the one-pot pasta dish, in which you actually cook the pasta AND the ingredients altogether from time-zero to finish, in the same pot?
I came across it a long time ago actually, but only managed to have it tried-and-tested recently. This is a god-send solution for lazy cooks like me. Thanks, Martha Stewart. Now I question myself, as to: why have I not known this even much earlier? Previously, however easy it may sound, even to make the simplest pasta dish like Aglio Olio, there was still a need to heat up the pan with oil, saute the garlic and tomatoes and set up another pot to boil (cook) the pasta.
Oh, but now, with this one-pot pasta, one-pot does it all! And I am quite happy with the results.
If you are looking for a more robust and flavorful dish, you probably cannot skip steps. You have to saute the onions, garlic and tomatoes to exude more flavors from these ingredients. However, if one day, you are REALLY (I mean, REALLY) running out of time or just cannot spare another 5 minutes of effort and energy to cook something, this one-pot method will be your savior. A light-tasting dish not lacking in flavor but much easier to cook.
I had 5 minutes more to spare on this day. What I did differently - blanched/steamed some broccoli, and finely crumbled cooked (leftover) salmon by the sides to make the pasta more
complete. The one-pot method already saved me some cooking time, so prepping some sides came as a bonus.
With pesto, I do not even have to cook a sauce for pasta anymore! Okay, quite frankly, some of my pasta dishes e.g. Roasted Vegetables with Pasta, Kale and Tomatoes with Pasta, do not need sauces. Sometimes, a glorious vegetables-saute or vegetables-roast is good enough to be the "sauce" for pasta.
But if there is homemade pesto, ready in the fridge waiting for you, why not use it to make a good dish better?
Think of pesto like a salad dressing, a spread, a dip, a sauce - it is very versatile in appetizers such as Pesto Cucumber Bites, Pesto Pita Bites; side-dishes e.g. Hasselback Potato with Yogurt-Pesto Dressing, and entrees such as Pesto Chicken, Pesto Pizza.
Seen it once, passed on it. Seen it again, in the bag.
Well, I do have qualms about frozen shellfish products. Personally, I like my shellfish such as clams or mussels - fresh. Bought when fresh, then cooked and consumed fresh.
Still I gave in, as this Trader Joes product at $3.99 came as value to me, and the ingredients are reasonably decent. Most importantly, a frozen product like this keeps well for "emergency" home-cooking.
Let's say I am in a rush to have even 30 minutes in the kitchen. Then a 15-minute dish like this might do the trick.
Fresh clams or mussels cooks fast, you may say, you do not even need 15 minutes. But again, how can fresh clams or mussels be available if you do not even step out of the house to buy some? With fresh shellfish especially, you already need to be planning ahead. Plan to cook them....and cook them on the same day! So if you do not plan ahead, this frozen mussel item is the next best alternative.
Instead of enjoying it as an appetizer, I find that this works well with pasta as a meal which is even better for me. If I have no time to cook, how can I even think of preparing an appetizer. A one-dish meal is more appropriate.
Pumpkin Noodle, or specially Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli is as familiar as Pumpkin Rice to many of us. However, you may have noticed that I have used pasta, in replacement of rice vermicelli in this recipe; well, not just any pasta but Angel Hair pasta. That is the only pasta, that in my opinion, comes closest to rice vermicelli.
The last time I made Garbanzo Beans/Chickpea Salad, I enjoyed it quite a lot. As a result, such bean salads make quite a regular appearance, especially on hot summer days; and given a new spin each time. As always, if I can accomplish a one-dish meal in a salad, why not?
Time to add some carbs.
Pasta it shall be. Not the usual pasta, not even whole wheat pasta. But organic Khorasan (Kamut®) wheat, an ancient grain that is not only rich in healthy fiber, protein, and magnesium but also a good source of iron, thiamin Vitamin B1, niacin Vitamin B3, and zinc.
The rich nutty flavors of Khorasan wheat complements the sweet tangy dressing and refreshing bell peppers and herbs notes in this Khorasan Wheat (Kamut®) Bean Salad.
I am guessing I will be faulted when I say this but this salad makes a very good TV dinner (or rather, maybe computer-streamed videos these days?). As one eats guilt-free, one commits another sin of a sit-down meal with "eyes-hooked-on-screen".
In no time, I will be trying all the mushroom varieties at Far West Fungi, Saratoga Farmers Market. In my previous two trips, these black trumpet mushrooms failed to make it into the grocery basket because they were way too expensive - $10 for a small punnet! Therefore, I have been buying the affordable rest such as baby shiitake, yellow oyster, pioppini and even lion-mane mushrooms. But when I saw the same-size punnet of black trumpet going for $5 one Saturday, I let no chance go by.
Just as lion-head/monkey-head mushroom is a variety of high-end mushroom delicacy in Asia, black trumpet mushroom is also considered highly-priced gourmet mushroom in France. Dark-colored and wispy, black trumpet also known as black chanterelle.
I wanted to make a creamy mushroom sauce with the black chanterelles but the ingredients are lacking in my pantry. No butter, no cream, no any suitable cheese (parmesan) or cheese shreds, nothing.
Traditional ratatouille, the stew, starts with a base of tomatoes, garlic, onions, spices and seasonings with layers of vegetables e.g. eggplant, bell peppers, cooked in the base, then finished off either in the oven or over the stove-top.
What you are seeing here today may not be traditional ratatouille but to capture the spirit of French chef and restaurateur - Joël Robuchon of The Complete Robuchon: "The secret of a good ratatouille is to cook the vegetables separately so each will taste truly of itself".
This is how the roasted vegetables in this recipe are done. Seasoned and cooked in separate trays within a single oven roast, so that when they are combined in a single dish, each vegetable will taste truly of itself.
Similarly, the tomatoes are also "cooked" separately in a "no-cook" way - immersed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and basil, salt and black pepper.
Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish, but may also be served as a meal on its own (accompanied by pasta, rice or bread).
It might be hard for you to imagine how tasty this noodle dish is as you cannot smell and taste the deep seafood flavors, just by looking at this plate. Trust me, as it is absolutely delicious and scrumptious. Simply think Singapore-style Fried Hokkien Noodles, Prawn Noodles or Penang Prawn Noodle Soup; in order to make the passable grade - all MUST be cooked and simmered in prawn stock.
Freshly made prawn stock is just one criteria. Sometimes, pork ribs and other ingredients are also added to the stock especially in the soup version to make it tastier with layered depths of flavors.
As I did not have enough shrimp heads leftovers to make a deeply-flavored seafood stock, I borrowed the umami essence from another formidable seafood ingredient - scallops. The result is amazing as the noodles is simmered in the shrimps-scallop essence.
