Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Daniel Fast: Fresh Vegetable Pasta



If anyone is familiar with the Daniel Fast, it's something I am doing right now as part of a devotional. I know a lot of people are doing this fast as part of NewLife Community Church, and other churches also do fasts at the beginning of the year.
The Daniel Fast basically is from 2 passages in Daniel, where Daniel decides to have only vegetables and water (in ch. 1) and abstains from several other things (in ch. 10). From those passages, a specific "Daniel fast" arose, that has specific guidelines and things to abstain from. Basically, you avoid protein, dairy, artificial flavors/sweeteners, and anything with sugar. So, that leaves you with vegetables, fruit, whole grains (except leavened bread), healthy oils, nuts, legumes, and a few other things. For more information on the Daniel Fast, click here.
It's interesting trying to be creative with these foods. Tonight, though, I decided to whip something up for dinner. I had an idea to use some vegetables that I had, and it turned out so good!! It's rare for me to make something from scratch without a recipe, and honestly, I was expecting this to turn out mediocre at best! But I loved it, and am excited to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!
So, I will try to give a recap of how I put this together, and just know, that you can substitute regular for whole grain noodles, different vegetables for ones you like, etc. Put it together according to your own tastes!!

Fresh Vegetable Pasta:

1/2 medium eggplant, chopped small
1/2 medium zucchini, chopped small
1/2 medium onion, chopped small
1 small container of cherry (or grape) tomatoes, chopped in half
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
8 oz. whole grain noodles, cooked according to package directions
Olive oil

1. In a medium sized saucepan, heat 2 tbs. olive oil. Add garlic cloves and saute for about a minute. Add onions, cook about another minute.
2. Add chopped zucchini and eggplant and saute until all the vegetables are browned and fragrant. Add salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. Add more or less, depending on the spices you like. (I also am adding more olive oil as needed, if my veggies need more and are getting dry in the pan. This also helps with the sauce.)
3. Add cherry or grape tomatoes. Let the mixture cook until the tomatoes "burst." Add some more salt and pepper if it needs it.
4. Add 2-3 ladles of pasta water from the noodles to the vegetable pan. Stir around to create a sort of "sauce."
5. Add the cooked, drained noodles to the vegetables and stir to combine. Enjoy!!!

This is part of aliciashomemaking.com where every Thursday, bloggers participate in her Try New Adventures Thursday. If you think this sounds fun, then do the same thing and link up to her website!!

1 comment:

  1. Wow, this sounds really fresh and yummy. And healthy!

    Thanks for linking up, Stephanie. :)

    ReplyDelete