Spaghetti Bolognese with Mushrooms

In keeping with resolutions to live well, we bring you an easy-to-make dish to fuel your workout sessions. Pasta, in general, is a favorite of runners to “carb-load” in preparation for races, and this bolognese with mushroom sauce is a delicious way to get your fix. Bolognese is a meat-based sauce originally from Italy, and typically contains beef, but here I have substituted lean ground turkey for beef. For vegetarian version, you can use a plant-based protein substitute, such as MorningStar Farms Grillers Crumbles (though these aren’t necessarily “healthier”), paneer, or baked tofu. Also, because I love mushrooms and would eat them with almost any meal if I could, I always put sliced fresh mushrooms in this sauce. For noodles, I used a mix of angel-hair pasta and whole wheat thin spaghetti, but the great thing about a sauce like this is that you can serve it over pretty much any type of noodle you like - even use it for a lasagna!

 

Ingredients: (serves 6-8)

1-1.5 lbs ground turkey (or beef)

1 15oz can no-salt-added petite diced tomatoes

8oz can no-salt-added tomato sauce

4oz can tomato paste

8oz mushrooms, sliced

~¼ cup minced onions

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

~1tsp oregano (I used dried, but fresh would be even better)

~1tsp ground thyme

~1tsp ground sage

~1tsp ground marjoram

Salt, pepper to taste


Brown the meat in a pan over med-hi heat (no oil necessary - there will be enough fat from the meat). Add the mushrooms and onions and cook until they are soft and most of the released liquid has cooked off. Season with garlic, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, salt, pepper, adjusting quantities to taste. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Turn heat to med-lo and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve over noodles and top with grated or shredded Parmesan cheese. Pairs well with a glass of Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon - not recommended before a work-out :-)

 

~ Karla

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April Fools!

The concept of “April Fools” is deeply rooted in history. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392), which was set “thirty days and two” after March, and which many people mistook to mean “March 32” or “April 1,” a vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox. A French poet, Eloy d’Amerval, in 1508 referred to a poisson d’avril, literally “April fish” - and to this day in France, Belgium, French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, and even Italy (with pesce d’aprile), April 1 is celebrated with attempts to attach paper fish to the backs of unsuspecting victims.

 

Keeping up with the tradition of trickery and pranking, we’re bringing you a collection of our recipes that feature uncommon twists - usually substituting one ingredient with another “healthier” ingredient. We promise these uncommon twists are still super delicious!


 

Oil-free french fries (featuring egg whites)

Spaghetti and Beet Balls (featuring spinach and beets) - these are similar in nature to our no-meat balls

Zucchini Lasagna (featuring zucchini "noodles")

Spinach Walnut Pesto (featuring spinach and walnuts)

Enjoy a day of foolery and deliciously different food!

~Karla & Gayatri

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Of fish and fools - a brief history of April Fools Day...and some delicious recipes to go along with it!http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2016/04/april-fools.html

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Friday, April 1, 2016

Spaghetti and Beet Balls

Who says spaghetti and meatballs is something only meat eaters can enjoy? You could always put a vegetarian twist on it and make a veggie patty into a sphere, or to really convince yourself that it’s indeed a comparable dish, you could make spinach and ricotta balls, give them a rhyming name and call them “no-meat” balls, or make “beet” balls with beets, black beans and cashews. Fine, it’s still not quite the same, but all puns aside, these delicious and moist beet balls are wonderful with spaghetti, salads, sandwiches, or just on their own as a snack.

Ingredients:

3 medium beets

¾ cup cooked black beans (or from a can)

½ cup packed spinach leaves

¼ cup raw cashews

2 Tbsp quick oats

1 clove of garlic

½ tsp grated ginger

1-2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp paprika (adjust to taste)

Salt to taste

Wash the beets and cut into halves. Leave the skin on and steam for ~15 minutes until they’re tender. Peel off the skin. Alternately, you could boil or roast the beets in the oven.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Add the steamed beets along with all other ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is well combined and starts to come together. Shape into 1” balls and arrange them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 5-7 minutes. Flip them over gently and bake for another 5-7 minutes until lightly browned and firm to touch.

Let cool and store in airtight container in the refrigerator. For a delicious healthy snack, serve the beet balls with yogurt (or sour cream) and paprika.

To pair the beet balls with spaghetti, make an avocado pesto sauce by blending together 1 Tbsp spinach walnut pesto, one mashed avocado, enough water to get a creamy sauce consistency and lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste. Mix the sauce with cooked spaghetti and enjoy with beautiful red beet balls.

~Gayatri

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Not your average spaghetti and meat balls! This vegetarian pasta dish uses beets for a delicious flair.http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2015/12/spaghetti-and-beet-balls.html

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Saturday, December 26, 2015

Spaghetti and No-Meat Balls

A Cooks of Cake and Kindness Culinary Experience Part II: Karla mentioned last week that we cooked a 3 course dinner for some of our friends, and she shared the recipe for our first course - portabella mushroom caps with spinach and fried egg. After the delicious first course, the expectations were high for the second course of our meatless menu. We chose spaghetti with spinach balls inspired by this recipe. Just like our first dish, this one also has multiple components, but each component is quite simple to make, and they all complement each other very well in terms of taste and texture.

Ingredients (8 servings):

1 lb uncooked thin spaghetti or vermicelli/angel hair pasta (we used half regular and half whole wheat)

For Spinach balls:

~2.5 cups frozen spinach (but you can use chopped fresh spinach)
0.5-1 tbsp chopped garlic (adjust according to taste - we like it garlicky so we went with a lot)
~1 cup ricotta cheese (we used part-skim ricotta)
~1 cup bread crumbs / oat bran / crushed cereal (we used panko bread crumbs)
salt and pepper to taste
paprika (optional)
oil for shallow frying

For sauce:

4 8oz cans of tomato sauce

1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes

~1-2 TBSP canola oil (optional)

salt

pepper

Italian seasoning to taste

*If you don’t have a pre-made Italian seasoning mix, you can add the following spices to taste, which is what we did: garlic powder, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano

To make the spinach balls, heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add spinach, salt and let it cook for ~8 minutes the liquid released by the spinach is mostly evaporated. You do not want any liquid left as this will make it difficult to form the balls. Once cooked take the pan off the heat and let the spinach cool down. Add ricotta cheese and breadcrumbs to the cooled spinach. Adjust the quantities of both as required until you get a consistency which holds well on its own, almost like soft cookie dough that has just come together. Season with salt, pepper, paprika (optional) and form balls about 1 inch in diameter.

 

 

 

 

Heat a little oil in a pan. Keep the heat at low-medium - the spinach ricotta balls can burn very easily. Add a few balls to the pan and shallow fry, turning them so that all sides get browned. Remove from pan and set aside. Repeat until all the ballas are shallow fried. If required, these can be reheated in the microwave for 30 seconds.

For the sauce, you can make a more elaborate tomato sauce with sautéed garlic, onions (also chopped peppers if you like), followed by crushed/diced tomatoes and tomato puree and seasoning. We went with a quicker route, using canned tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. For this version, combine 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of diced tomato over medium heat. Add canola oil and season with salt, pepper, and blend of Italian spices. Stir well and let the sauce heat through.

Boil spaghetti according to package instructions until al dente.

Serve the spaghetti topped with the sauce (or you can mix it in), and the spinach ricotta balls. Sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese on top for extra deliciousness.

~Gayatri