What do you do when you reach home after a super busy day at work? Do you feel like cooking a wholesome, nutritious balanced meal for your family? Especially when its freezing outside and all you can think about is slouching over with a hot cup of tea. Come on, admit it ladies.. Well, I would. These days, it’s so hard for me get going with the elaborated dinner. Usually I wrap up with simple dal rice and yogurt aside. This in itself, is quite a balanced meal. But you know, the foodie in me keeps peeping out to grab some from the fridge. And I have to think of new ways where I can get everything done from start to finish within half an hour and then I can relax and enjoy the food stooping on my couch.
This is the reason, I prefer one pot meals more when the temperature drops. Whether it’s a rice meal like Chickpeas Pilaf, Tomato beans rice or it’s a Pasta skillet like this Vegan Pasta with beans.. I am always up for it. Especially Pasta dishes, since then I get to enjoy the melted cheese too.
The best part about the Pasta skillets is that you don’t have to fuss over two separate pans. One to boil the pasta and the other one to prepare the sauce and then a third one maybe to mix both. And if I have got the sauce ready beforehand (which BTW is one of the best pasta sauce you must have ever tasted!), it’s done in less than 15 minutes. Isn’t it just great!
Check out the post on how to cook Pasta perfect each time
The pasta sauce consists of lots of veggies like carrots, tomatoes and bell peppers (capsicum) so its super healthy in itself. With no artificial preservatives and flavouring, this is the best you could do to provide a nutritious meal to your family and yourself. You may add any vegetable of your choice like spinach, broccoli, celery etc. in the sauce to further enrich it. Meat lovers can add some bacon, hamburger, sausage, chicken, turkey, beef, meatballs or even tuna to the sauce. Of course, you can use other type of pasta, like ravioli or tortellini or fusilli etc.
Some people might prefer One Pot Pasta to be thinner, more like a soup, while I wanted to achieve pasta-in-sauce consistency. One more advantage of this kind of cooking is that all the starch from pasta goes into the sauce and makes it very creamy without addition of heavy cream or butter.
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups any pasta (I used whole wheat Spaghetti)
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, very finely chopped or grated
- 1 bell pepper, chopped small
- 4-5 garlic cloves
- 3 cups chopped tomatoes (about 6-8 large tomatoes) OR use 3 cans chopped tomato with the juice
- 2 tbsp tomato puree OR tomato ketchup if you like your sauce a bit sweet
- 6-7 cups vegetable broth/stock (or chicken broth, if you like)
- 1 tbsp of mixed herbs like parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, allspice
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp Black pepper, ground fresh
- 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
How to make?
- In a pot, heat the oil and sauté onion until translucent. Add carrots and garlic and sauté for 2 more minutes.
- Add chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, tomato puree, spices and about 4 cups broth. Bring to boil and then simmer for about 15-20 minutes till the carrot chunks are soft enough for your taste
- Add pasta and simmer until it is tender, about 15 minutes. Stir from time to time and add more stock while cooking to achieve the consistency you like.
- Sprinkle some herbs on top, and serve with grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Notes
- If using spinach, add it towards the end of cooking with the pasta, to retain the nutritional value of the leaves.
- Other vegetables which are good for such pasta skillet are- baby corns, mushrooms, zucchini, sweet corns, peas, celery etc.
- If preparing sauce beforehand, cook it for 20 minutes and then store. When using for pasta, bring it to a boil using some extra water and add pasta to it. Don’t add the pasta without bringing the stock/sauce to boil. Read my post on how to get the perfect pasta each time.
- The vegetables get soft when cooked in the sauce, and thats how I prefer them. But you may like them crunchy enough, so take care to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Here are some more One pot meals recipes- >>>
Pizza Frittata– Pizza on an egg base. Gluten free and full of protein
Spinach Risotto with cheese and wine
Broccoli saffron turmeric rice
Vegan Pasta Skillet with beans and vegetables
You wont blv 😀 i was looking for one veg pasta ..and i got urs in google plus when i went to share my post 😀 good one!
OMG!!! The pasta pot looks super delicious and your clicks are too good. Can completely relate to what you said for those rushed nights or meal times pasta or dal rice are my go to options too.
My little sister and myself would love to finish the whole thing!!!! It’s so tempting with its vibrant colour and flavour….Love the one pot meal idea 🙂
If I may ask, how many does this serve?
Looks great! 😀
Well, I ate it all on my own 😛 . But for normal people – it serves 2-3 😉
So do you pre cook the pasta or do you simply cook it in the broth/sauce mixture?
Hi Jessica, The pasta gets cooked in the water/broth itself. So dont need to pre cook the pasta. thats the beauty of this recipe 😉
This looks amazing, but how did you measure a cup and a half of spaghetti? Is that half a box of pasta or is there a weight that this might convert to? Thank you!
Hello Meghan. I just used the same bowl/cup measurement which I used for measuring the water. So its roughly the same amount. This would however vary due to varied pasta quality, water hardness factor etc. So you would need to adjust it as per your region and taste. But the approximate quantity remains the same. I hope this helps! 🙂
This looks so good…I’m going to try with 1 tbsp of oil because I can’t imagine using 6-8. Maybe 2 cans of tomatoes too. Looking forward to trying 🙂
hi Elaine. Thanks for drawing my attention to this error. Even I didnt use 6-8 tbsp, it was supposed to be tsps. I have now changed it to 3-4 tbsp which is the approximate qty I used. I hope it turns out as good for you in 1 tbsp, I will try with that next 🙂
I will definitely start visiting your blog more often in search for delicious pasta recipes like this.
Hi! I’m going to make this for a family who is dealing with leukemia. I plan on doubling it since there are at least four family members eating. Any special tips or should I just plan on doubling all the ingredients? Thank you!
One pot meals are great any time of the year! And I love it when I can cook pasta right in the sauce. So much less cleaning. (Also great for any time of the year. 🙂 )
That is so true Annemarie! I love one pot meals for the exact same reason 😉
Noting only does this dish look lovely, it looks filling and satisfying, too. Beautiful photos!
You had me at…”ready in under 30 minutes.” And then I was completely sold when I saw how delicious this looks and sounds. So, basically, it’s perfect! Thanks so much for sharing!!
That was so kind of you to say that Sarah.
This may be simple but you have a lot of ingredients which creates a real depth of flavor.
So true Peter!
yes we all need a great recipe that we can fix after a long day at work. This looks easy, healthy and fast, perfect weeknight meal.
Thanks Dahn, this dish is definitely all that- Easy, healthy and quick! 🙂