Monday, July 7, 2008

Summertime Pasta and Black Bean Salad

Mmmm. . .last night's dinner was delicious! Inspiring! Easy! Completely thrown together! Here's what we did:

Ingredients:
1. Pasta. We used rigatoni, you can use any other kind you want or have handy. About 1/2 a box small will do you for 2 people.
2. Frozen chopped broccoli, 1 12-oz pack.
3. 1 can black beans
4. 1 half red onion
5. About 2 tablespoons minced garlic (This comes in big jars, lasts forever, and goes well in about anything. Invest in some.)
6. 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast
7. Salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper to taste.

How to:
1. Boil water. Add pasta and cook until al dente.
2. Sautee onion and garlic until onion is soft.
3. Add broccoli to onion and garlic.
4. When broccoli is cooked (i.e. no longer frozen and actually hot), add black beans. Cook beans for a few minutes, but stop before they get too mushy.
5. Drain pasta, add pasta to vegetable mix once beans have been cooked.
6. Add nutritional yeast and other assorted spices. Taste. Spice more. Repeat as needed.

As you can see, this pasta was super easy and really filling. It works as an entree or a side dish and saves well for leftovers the next day.

Also, there's tons of room for creativity. Have a can of sweet corn? Add it! Have half a tomato? Add it! Don't like broccoli? Drop it! Do whatever. You know what you like.

We ate this last night with some pan-fried spicy breaded tofu and bbq sauce, which will have to wait for another day.

I hope to maybe take some pictures and make this a Real Food Blog. Until then, use your imagination!

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