Riff on a recipe

My awesome sister-in-law Elizabeth Tigani has a great wellness website, DishingWell.com. She recently posted one of her favorite summer recipes, gluten-free lemon spaghetti with kale. It sounded so good, I had to try it. But you know me: I always do my own thing with recipes!
The original from DishingWell has (as you'd expect) gluten free spaghetti and kale, as well as lemon zest and parmesan. I eat gluten, Jordy doesn't care for spaghetti much, I didn't have kale, we're vegan (so no parmesan), I can't have pasta without garlic, and I was too lazy to juice AND zest lemon. So here's my gluten-full, vegan, protein-rich variation:

Garlic Lemon Basil Capellini with Broccolli Rabe, Spinach, and Navy Beans


Boil a big pot of salted water.

Chop 4 cloves of garlic. Wash about 6 sprigs of fresh basil. Cut one lemon into sixths and remove the seeds. (Just wait-- you'll see how lazy I am!)

Put small pieces of broccoli rabe in a colander. Put your colander over the boiling water pot and cover with the lid to steam/ boil for about 5 minutes. Add handfuls of spinach to colander. Steam for another minute. Take colander out of pot and set aside in your clean sink.

If you're pressed for time, rinse and drain a can of navy beans. (If you have time, soak and cook to rehydrate some-- it's healthier!)

Boil your capellini. (Takes about 2 minutes).

When your capellini's done, strain in colander WITH THE BROCCOLI RABE AND SPINACH IN IT. Yeah, heck, why not?!? Why dirty a bowl?!?

Put your empty pot back on the stovetop. Add a glug of olive oil. Put your garlic and a few shakes of chili pepper flakes in the oil; sautee. (It's totally fine to use a packet from delivery pizza. I used one.) Then add your beans. Then dump your colander o' goodies (pasta, spinach, broccoli rabe) into the pan. Turn off heat.

Rip up the basil and toss it in the pot. Squeeze your lemon wedges into the pot. Add a little more olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, maybe a grind of fresh black pepper to taste. Put the lid on the pot and shake it around to mix or be civilized and use a utensil to stir.

Plate and enjoy!

(Notice how you really only dirty on big cutting board, your pot, your colander, a knife, a spatula, and your dinner plates? This is why I really love this recipe. If you enjoy it with a nice bottle of rose, you don't have to have the buzz kill of lots of dishes after your lovely meal.)

I also added avocado to the leftovers one day and ate it all cold-- another delicious variation.

Buckwheat noodles with lentils, mushrooms, and arugula

That was lunch. Leftovers from dinner. I tasted better than it looks, I think, but I have decided to try to include photos whenever possible, just to give an idea of the end result.

This was a triumph. Again, Jordy declared it "one of my favorite vegan dishes." (But then as he said today at breakfast, "Anytime you want to cook, I want to eat." I think that's more a statement of his support and appreciation than proof that he doesn't love good food, though.)

If I had been smart, I would have started by cooking the lentils. Instead, I microwaved them vite! vite! in the microwave partway through the preparation of the sauce since I hadn't thought to include them until then.

Be wiser than me.

Start with a cup of lentils. Boil according to directions. (I like them best cooked on the stove in an actual pot, not boiled over in the microwave, but if you need to, microwaving in a pinch works in about 5 minutes.)

I started with/ you can move on to sauteeing

garlic, chopped (about 5 cloves) in olive oil with

3 shallots, chopped

Then I added

10 crimini mushrooms, sliced fine and cooked until they were soft.

Threw in

a handful of chopped pecans

a dash of oregano

a pinch of rosemary

a dash of salt and pepper.

Then I boiled up buckwheat soba noodles. I usually use these in Asian-inspired meals, but I thought, "Why the heck not?" Mine cooked in 6 minutes.

Squeeze

the juice from two wedges of lemon into your sauce.

Toss three handfuls of arugula into the sauce. Stir. Turn off heat. Stir a little more.

Then stir the buckwheat noodles and the sauce together. Ta-da! Done.

Today proved it also works well microwaved the next day. Toss in some more fresh arugula on day 2 if you have it; greens are good for you.