21 February 2013

Recipe | easy peasy lemon squeezy pasta!

I'm lazy. In case you hadn't already picked up on this, I'm fairly certain you will have by the end of this post, especially after I ramble on about the wonders of ready-chopped garlic.

I'm not the most wonderful chef in the world. In fact, most of the time I wouldn't even call what I do in the kitchen 'cooking', although I suppose it's closer to this than it is to anything else... I tend to throw a mixture of vegetables into a pan/oven, cook pasta/quinoa/rice/couscous, add beans/pulses, sprinkle in spices/herbs and mix (- delete where necessary, it's a fairly foolproof system I assure you). Cooking complete. Here's a little recipe I threw together for some summer-y inspired pasta. Enjoy!

Siddalee's simple summery pasta!

Makes 1 serving
Pasta for one (I suggest spaghetti, linguine or the like)
1 courgette
1 salad onion (or 3 spring onions)
handful of cherry tomatoes
olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic (or 1 clove)
lemon juice
(can you tell this is my own slap-dash recipe?!)

1. Chop onion, half cherry tomatoes, 'ribbon' courgette with a peeler (or a mandolin if you're fancy).


These salad onions are a lifesaver for me. I never need a whole white or red onion and these rarely make my eyes water. I usually buy spring onions (often labelled as salad onions) but occasionally the supermarket will have the bigger salad onion variant and these are the perfect size for meals for one!

2. Put pasta on to boil, cook as per instructions.


3. About 3/4 mins before pasta is ready, sauté the garlic and onions in a pan.


I ADORE this stuff. I always find when I buy cloves of garlic they go a bit dry before I've used them all up and it's just so messy and a lot of hassle. Pre-chopped garlic can be a bit vinegary and you definitely need to be aware of this during cooking but it smells AMAZING and is such a handy alternative.

4. When the onions soften and begin to golden, add the courgette ribbons. These are so thin they need minimal cooking.

5. Squeeze in lemon juice, taste and add more as necessary (I found the first time I made this I didn't add nearly enough lemon juice to counteract the vinegary-garlicy-ness - you can be fairly liberal with this).


Something else I LOVE. Lemons are a hassle yo. Who needs the bother of buying a whole lemon when you want a little squirt of it on a pancake or in a tomato sauce. Jif all the way my friends.

6. Add halved cherry tomatoes.

7. Drain pasta and add to frying pan. Mix everything together on a low heat for 30 seconds/1 minute max.

And serve!


This is very, very minimal. I'm fairly simple with my meals. I rarely have fancy ingredients in the cupboards and basically never buy cheese. Liberal shavings of parmesan would be amazing in this. Pine nuts would also give you some much needed protein. Personally, I was feeling a carb day. I bought the pasta in France and it is FAT, and not in a rude-boy way. I stuffed my face with this.

Super simple, and made of ingredients I always have in my kitchen. 

What are your go-to meals?

4 comments:

  1. Mmmm, fresh and delicious! Thanks for sharing :)

    -Jen

    www.vibrantbeautyblog.com

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  2. Yum, this looks so good and it has everything I love in it

    Please come and check out my latest post if you have a few minutes spare :)

    www.fragile-bird.blogspot.co.uk

    Helen

    X

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  3. Easy and fresh! Sounds like my kind of mid-week meal! Thanks for sharing! x

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