Skip to main content

Growers Market Goodies


I went to my local growers market yesterday and bought my normal stuff: a ton of greens from the organic produce vendor, some tomatoes to make my gravy and also homemade pasta.  They added a pasta vendor to the lineup and he was talking to me about his homemade pastas.  Two of them are made with eggs so I chose from the ones that were egg-free.  


I was trying to decide between the sundried tomato spaghetti and the tiny pasta twists.  I decided on the pasta twists because I have enough spaghetti here at home.  Homemade pasta is totally different than the box pasta.  It's softer, only needs to be cooked a few minutes and needs to be refrigerated once opened.  Now I wish I had a pasta maker!  And my dinner tonight made me even more excited for my Italy trip next month.  So, I boiled water and cooked the pasta for about 5 minutes-very quick.  For the pesto sauce, I added another one of my own touches: chia seeds.  You can sneak these little guys in anything!

Pesto sauce: Combine the following in your food processor, 2 tbsp. of olive oil, 1 tbsp. of chia seeds, a handful of fresh spinach, a handful of fresh basil, 1/4 cup of mixed raw nuts, 4 pieces of fresh garlic, sea salt and pepper to taste. Blend on high, add a few drops of water if you need to thin it out a little bit.  Pour on the pasta and mix.  Soooo delicious!

Bruschetta: toast some Italian bread.  Cut the bread in small pieces and pour some extra virgin olive oil on top.  Add a few slices of tomato and fresh basil (optional).  Sprinkle some fresh or powdered garlic on top.  Serve.

Salad: combine kale, Chinese celery and baby carrots.  Add more veggies, go nuts!
Dressing: if you have a papaya that you're ready to slice up, save the seeds.  Put the seeds, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, seas salt and pepper in your food processor and blend on high for about 3 minutes.  Blend until the papaya seeds look like bits of ground pepper.  Taste.  Add more sea salt, pepper or lemon to taste.  Pour this dressing over your salad.  It's very tasty, kind of peppery.  If you don't have a papaya, run out and get one and make this dressing!

There you have a healthy, vegan dinner that is filling and nutritious!  Enjoy, my friends :)
XOXO,
Nicole

Comments