Who needs fake-o imitation-wheat pastas? I quite like the buckwheat pasta I’ve tried, but the rice/corn pasta? Not so much. But, there’s another alternative! And it’s fresh, tasty, and energising. Essentially, it’s a salad with good quality marinara sauce stirred through. Freshly blended up sauce really is the key to it. It’s damn goooooooood.
Here’s a half-asparagused photo:
Okay, it’s half-eaten, but look at the colours! Orange, purple, green, red! Aint it purrrrty?
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
(for just one serve – double for 2 serves, triple for 3! etc!)
1 carrot
an eighth of a purple/red cabbage
1-2 handfuls of rocket (arugula) or baby spinach (or other favourite leafy green)
1 large tomato, chopped
2-3 sundried tomatoes or semi-dried tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup favourite fresh herbs, chopped OR 1 tabsp dried herbs
1 tabsp extra virgin olive oil
½ clove garlic
small splash of lemon juice (or lime)
add salt to taste
Method
To make the “pasta” -
Peel the skin off the carrot, toss away. Continue to peel layers off the remainder of the carrot, into long lengths, creating “fettucini”. Thinly slice the cabbage and pull layers apart to get long, thin, noodle-like strips of cabbage. Finally, roughly chop the rocket and toss it all together. (You want roughly equal parts of carrot strips, cabbage strips, and rocket).
To make the marinara sauce -
In a blender, combine all remaining ingredients until smooth. If the sauce is very runny, add more sundried tomatoes to thicken it. Add salt to taste.
To serve -
Toss the sauce through the pasta. Done!
Optional: You can sprinkle nutritional yeast or black pepper on top if you like. Or, alternatively, sprinkle with seedy nut sprinkles! See below…
Herb suggestions: a Italian-style mix of basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, and rosemary.
Also: bitter greens work best with the pasta, like rocket or kale, to balance out the sweetness of the carrot. Zucchini is also a popular raw “fettucini” but I find the water leeches out really quick and mucks up the sauce, plus it’s a bit bland.
Seedy Nut Sprinkles
¼ cup almonds
¼ cup sesame seeds
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1-2 teasp miso paste (depends on the strength/saltiness of your miso)
Generous pinch of sea salt
Grind nuts & seeds to a powder in a food processor or a spice grinder/mill. Add everything else and process until combined. Store in a jar in the freezer. If you are allergic to nuts or sesame seeds, just make the recipe wholly with almonds or wholly with sesame seeds. Add more or less miso and salt after taste testing. The sprinkles may clump up in the freezer, so just shake it, shake shake shake it up, baby, before use.
I’ve been getting into simple raw foods over summer (I’m in the southern hemisphere, people!). They are so darn quick to make, and very energising and refreshing. Plus, there’s no heat in the kitchen, and less energy is used in preparation. So you can save the animals, save the environment, and eat pretty darn well while you’re doing it. Nice.
