At home we eat pasta at least 4 times a week and I am not exaggerating.
Pasta is a very popular food that has plenty of possibilities. You can have pasta in a soup, in a salad, as a main dish, as a side dish, cold, hot … there are so many shapes and varieties of pasta available to choose from!
Very often pasta – carbohydrates (carbs) – gets a very bad reputation when it comes to weight gain. But carbs are actually used by the body as its main fuel source. Carbs are found almost exclusively in plant foods and are of three main types: sugars, starches and fibres. They are vital to our health as they provide us with energy.
If we choose good natural carbs that are full of fibre such as: beans and legumes, fruits, vegetables and whole grains they will provide us with many important nutrients that are essentials for a healthy and balanced diet.
But if we choose refined and processed carbs and added sugars, we will not be adding any of the necessary fibre or the nutrients to our diet, only the calories!
Today’s recipe is a healthy and delicious wholemeal pasta dish: Fusilli with mushrooms and tomato and red pepper sauce.
Mushrooms are a good source of fibre and plant based protein as well as rich in vitamins (D, B1, …) and minerals (zinc, iron, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium,…).
Pasta should always be cooked the Italian way “al dente” in order to keep its Glycaemic Index (GI) low.
If you try this tasty and healthy vegan Mediterranean diet pasta recipe, please let me know, leave a comment and rate it. I would love to know what you come up with. Enjoy!
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 Red bell peppers, cored and diced
- 4 Ripe tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 Teaspoon sea salt (or salt to taste)
- 150g (2 cups) Fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 400g (4 cups) Wholemeal Organic Fusilli
- A small bunch of chives, chopped
- Sea salt
- Have all the vegetables well washed and prepared as indicated in the ingredients description.
- Boil water in a large saucepan and add one tablespoon salt. Add the Fusilli pasta and stir. Follow the cooking instructions on the package and taste your pasta while it is cooking to avoid overcooking it and to make sure you cook the pasta “al dente”. Stir the pasta from time to time and when the cooking time indicated in the package is over and the pasta is al dente, remove from the heat. Run under cold water until the pasta has cooled and then drain.
- While the pasta is boiling, prepare the sauce following the instructions as explained in my “Tomato & red pepper sauce” recipe. Once the tomato & red pepper sauce is ready, add the sliced mushrooms into the hot sauce and stir together for about 3 minutes.
- Finally add the drained fusilli, the chopped chives and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, stir all together and serve hot.
