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a simple real food recipe :: spring veggie pasta :: asparagus season week!

I have two spring babies 🙂 One of my babes just turned 2 on Monday, and for her birthday dinner I wanted to do something special to celebrate her birthday, and the FINALLY blooming spring season!

It doesn’t get more spring than asparagus and fresh peas! I know tomatoes are later into the summer but they go so well with this dish and add some beautiful color!

This early into the season, I’m still having to get my peas in frozen form to get them organic – peas have been on and off the dirty dozen list in past years, and tomatoes are on the dirty dozen list almost exclusively, so I would recommend getting organic if at all possible. I really love doing cherry tomatoes with a pasta dish like this, but the larger organic ones were cheaper than the cherry organic ones this time of year. Later this summer we’ll pick them right out of the garden 😉 Asparagus actually falls on the clean 15 list, and living in Michigan it is really one of our staple, great growing veggies!

a simple real food recipe :: spring veggie pasta :: asparagus season week!

Author: Renee - www.theSIMPLEmoms.com

Ingredients

½ package of brown rice pasta
½ medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch asparagus (about 1lb), coarse ends removed and chopped
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 large tomato, seeds and juices scooped out and chopped (could do halved cherry tomatoes!
⅓ cup reserved starchy liquid from cooking the pasta (I cook my pasta in stock for more nourishment and so my liquid is stock too but water works as well)
1 ½ cups cheese, shredded (Raw cheese preferable. Otherwise stick with organic right off the block – shred your own – the pre shredded cheeses have too many unnecessary additives)
Sea salt/pepper to taste
Optional extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over top to garnish

Instructions

Cook the pasta to al dente and set aside. Reserve about ⅓ cup of the starchy cooking liquid for the veggie mixture sauce.
Saute the onion in a few TB of butter or coconut oil and a pinch of salt for a few minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for a minute.
Add the asparagus and another pinch of salt and cook on medium high for a few minutes until bright green and slightly tender.
Add the peas and tomatoes for a minute or two and then add the starchy pasta liquid.
Simmer the mixture about 5-10 minutes and then pour over the cooked pasta.
Stir in the cheese until melted and is combined with the sauce making it creamy.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil if desired.

Kitchen Tips:

Whoa that ended up looking like a lot of steps but this really only took me about 30 minutes start to finish to complete including veggie washing and chopping and dealing with my 2 year molar teething birthday girl who was quite crabby on her special day 😉
Re-heat on the stove with a splash of water or stock to re-moisten or pack away in a thermos with an extra splash of water for your work lunch or the kid’s school lunch the next day!
HERE is my chicken stock recipe! So worth the extra nourishment!
Add some leftover chicken if you want! Have you ever tried crockpotting a whole chicken for a week’s worth of meat for meals? It is so easy to add into any dish! HERE is the recipe – seriously as easy as into a crockpot and turn it on!

YOUR TURN!
Where are my mamas with spring babies?!?! What special birthday meals have you prepared for them on their special day?

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday and The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday!

May 1, 2013 By Renee

About Renee

the real food hippie :: renee is married to her superman and mama to her 3 busy bees. she loves soaking up the sun, real butter, and julia child. her passion is helping people take baby steps to raise a real food generation in this world of highly processed food – one with healed guts, functioning minds, and solid health. she also blogs at Raising Generation Nourished. Find more of Renee on twitter pinterest and Google+.