Receta Recipe | Vegetable Pasta in Wholewheat Flour White sauce – Its’ Healthy & Yum
Pasta, noodles, pies, pizzas…no, these are not the food that I could relate my childhood memories with. I was introduced to these food quite late in life. It was when I started to work, living independently and cooking on my own that I craved for eating out during weekends. And these carbohydrate and calorie loaded food were quite a stress buster and a good remedy to homesickness.
That was a phase I suppose, as now when we are in our forties both me and hubby prefer eating simple and light Indian food. But wait…this was only till our children grew and joined us on the dinner table! Now the menu in my kitchen often drifts from Indian to global on weekends as I surrender more often to the demands of my children who love these carb food. Times change or rather we change for the sake of our children. Now that both mom & dad don’t mind an occasional binge and dig into Pastas or have a bite or two of that cheesy Pizza just to be one with their kids
I prefer making simple pasta with just a few herbs and spices and lots of veggies in it. Make sure you make my pasta very gooey, sticky and…yes, you heard it right more Cheese there should be!
So here is one of the many healthy versions of my Pasta recipes with whole wheat flour white sauce and loads of colorful and fresh vegetables…
Ingredients;
(serves 2)
- 2 cups boiled pasta
- 1 cup or more chopped veggies
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil/olive oil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- Basic white sauce
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp. butter/oil
- 1 tbsp. grated cheese
- 1 tsp dry herbs
- 1 tsp. chilly flakes
- 1/2 tsp. crushed black pepper
- Salt as desired
White sauce; Boil 1 cup milk and keep aside. Heat another pan and add butter/oil in it. Add whole wheat flour and fry for 2-3 minutes on slow heat, keep stirring continuously to avoid burning the flour.
Pour one tbsp. of hot milk each time to the flour and mix well making sure there is no lump in it. Use the whole one cup of milk in the similar way and make a sauce of thick consistency. Take off the flame.
Add salt, crushed black pepper, herbs (dried oregano/thyme or any other herb), chilly flakes, and grated cheese to the cooked white sauce and mix well.
Method; Heat about 3-4 cups of water with ¼ tsp. salt and add pasta of your choice in it. Boil pasta for 7-8 minutes at medium flame till the pasta starts floating on top.
Take off the flame and drain the cooked pasta in a large colander. Pour cold water over the pasta and drain again to avoid pasta sticking to each other.
Dice all the veggie into small pieces. Select veggies such as colored bell pepper or capsicum, carrots, baby corn, fresh peas, beans, broccoli.
Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a wok and add one cup or more of veggies of your choice and cook on high flame for 3-4 minutes. Take off the flame.
Assemble the pasta; Take a large serving bowl, add cooked pasta and the vegetables in it. Pour the prepared whole wheat flour white sauce over it and mix it lightly with a fork or ladle to incorporate the sauce in the dish.
Serve the vegetable Pasta in whole wheat flour sauce hot as a scrumptious dinner.
The more veggies you add in the pasta recipe the more refreshing, healthy and scrumptious it will be.
I like how this simple and creamy white sauce can transform any pasta recipe into one that is more exotic looking and scrumptious till the last bit. I use many versions of this white sauce to give textures, colors and add fun factor to my pasta recipes.
This whole wheat white sauce in the pasta which besides being much healthier option than the all purpose flour also helps reduce the quantity of cheese in the recipe….a little bit of (read healthy) cheating is not that bad
Notes;
Always use warm or hot milk to make white sauce, it will make a lump free sauce.
Use half whole wheat and half all purpose flour before switching completely to wholegrain white sauce.
Make the recipe more liquid or dry by adding or reducing the quantity of milk in making the white sauce.
Use whole wheat or multi grain pasta to make a much healthier recipe.
Use olive oil in the recipe for better taste.
Keep the vegetables slightly undercooked to retain the crunch in them. Overcooked veggies become lumpy and tasteless.
Sprinkle extra cheese over the pasta before serving to your special guests or kids.