Pasta with Basil Sauce
Kids don’t come with owner’s manuals. Sure, you can buy books on how to raise them and keep their future therapy bills to a minimum; however, there is no hard and fast set of rules for parenthood. Your child is born. After a brief tutorial about basic care and maintenance in the hospital, you head home. The first few months, while mentally and physically exhausting, are relatively easy to navigate because babies do three things: eat, sleep, and poop (generally in that order).
As your child grows, care and maintenance become increasingly more complex. Your children develop their own personalities and opinions. Yes, these little people acquire thoughts and feelings about everything, and they are not afraid to share these sentiments…especially at dinner time. Nutritious food used to come from mom. Now, it can be a “cage match to the death” just to get them to eat a spoonful of vegetables. And it is this struggle / battle / mêlée that provided me inspiration for my next dish: PASTA WITH BASIL SAUCE.
I don’t believe in lying to my children (unless they ask about my college days); however, sometimes you have to bend the truth when they ask “what’s for dinner.” Nutritious food isn’t always appealing to children. So, I took child-approved pesto sauce, eliminated most of the fat, added some beans and spinach, and tossed in some carrots and celery to make a pasta sauce that kids and parents alike can enjoy. Use whole wheat pasta and the kids won’t know they are eating healthy food.
Ingredients Instructions In a saucepan over medium heat, add your carrot, onion, celery, garlic, and ½ cup of broth. Bring this mix to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until the veggies are soft and the garlic is fragrant. Next, add the wine, beans, and remaining broth. Cover and simmer for another 3-5 minutes or until the beans are hot. While the beans are simmering, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. The next steps are up to you depending on the hardware you have in your kitchen.
I put the spinach, basil, walnuts, and nutritional yeast into my Vitamix Blender. Then, I carefully poured the hot bean mixture over these ingredients. I pureed the mix for 2 minutes on high until the sauce was nice and creamy and all visible hidden ingredients were unrecognizable. You can also throw everything into the saucepan and puree with an immersion blender. Or working in batches, you can use a food processor. If the sauce gets a little cold during the puree and thickens up a bit, just return it to your saucepan, add a splash or two of vegetable broth, and reheat.
Drain the pasta, and ladle a generous amount of the sauce on top.
Garnish with a sprinkle of rice parmesan if you like, and dinner is ready. Sit back and enjoy the silence of children eating healthy food. You can always come clean about the real recipe when they get a little older. I plan to confess when they are old enough to hear about my time in college… Longer Letter Later.
**This post is dedicated to my late uncle. He was always amazed about how good vegan food could taste, but never failed to ask me where the meat was in every single recipe. Jim, you were the best.
Love, Bob aka The Grassfed Carnivore
I recognize this dish! It was great!
Why did you not mention the julian zucchini and peppers?
Amy got me one of those peelers, I love it!
This dish was superb! The 5 kids all enjoyed it! I would say some even loved it since they went back for seconds! No way you could tell the dairy or all that oil were missing! Yum!