One-Pot Tuscan Pasta

(Ashley Madden, Plant-Based Delicious)

(8 servings)

Ingredients:

1 leek, dark green tips and root removed and      discarded, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced (4 portobellos)

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 15-oz can diced tomatoes

1 15-oz can tomato sauce or passata*

2 3/4 cup low-sodium vegetable stock

1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste

10 oz dried brown rice spaghetti or linguine

1 1/2 cups  cooked or canned borlotti, navy, or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp coconut sugar

1 1/2 cups packed baby spinach

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp red wine vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh thyme or oregano

Instructions:

In a Dutch oven or soup pot, sauté the leeks and garlic with a few tablespoons of water over medium heat for 5 minutes or until softened. Add water, as needed, to prevent burning.

Add the mushrooms, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes, and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have shrunk in size and begin releasing their juices. Now, add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, vegetable stock, and salt, and bring to a boil.

Crack the pasta in half and add to the pot along with the beans. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring often to prevent the noodles from sticking together or to the bottom of the pot and making sure the noodles are always submerged in the sauce for

12 to 15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened. Toward the end of the cooking time and as the sauce thickens, it might start sputtering and splashing. If so, partially cover the pot to avoid a mess.

Turn off the heat. Stir in the coconut sugar (if using), spinach (if using), nutritional yeast, and vinegar. Taste and re-season with pepper and salt, as needed, and divide among bowls. Garnish with fresh thyme or oregano if desired.

Notes:

If you don’t have leeks, use 1 large yellow onion, diced.  If you eat gluten, you can use whole-wheat spaghetti.

*Passata is an uncooked tomato purée that's been strained of all skin and seeds. It’s sometimes found in a jar or aseptic (shelf-stable) package.

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PCRM is a marvelous nonprofit organization central to the plant-based and vegan cause. In addition to conducting plant-based research studies and developing educational materials on nutrition, including for its greatly successful 21-Day Kickstart, PCRM fights against the use of animals in medical schools and research labs. PCRM has a large collection of recipes: https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/plant-based-diets/recipes An occasional recipe will call for oil as an ingredient, with an oil-free option; otherwise it’s all WFPB.

Try this recipe for One-Pot Tuscan Pasta! To make it Jumpstart-compliant, you can leave out the coconut sugar (or leave it in—it’s a small enough amount to be a condiment and it’s a natural sugar anyway).