To a vegetarian family, the nutritional content of food consumed must be paid extra attention to. As the “head chef” of the family, I always call the shots on the food ingredients and cooking methods, hoping that my family can eat healthily. Hence, I try to incorporate as many different vegetables, beans, mushrooms, and nuts as possible into the dishes, followed by fruits afterwards.
It must be quite frustrating for mothers with young children who are picky eaters. As my child dislikes the mushy texture of pumpkin, I started to experiment with different cooking methods to make pumpkin dishes. There are definitely more solutions than problems, and I managed to find a recipe of Italian Pumpkin Pasta which piqued my child’s ‘interest’.
Pumpkin is extremely nutritious, as it has carbohydrates, protein, carotene, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorous and more. With the addition of mushrooms, basil and milk, the nutritional value of the dish becomes more wholesome, and it is suitable for both young and old.
Ever since I became a vegetarian, I have discovered countless ways of cooking vegetarian food. Take for example, pumpkin, it can be cooked in many ways. All it takes is a little more effort to incorporate different color ingredients to make the dishes look more appetizing. I believe that for family’s health, mothers will definitely put in more effort to mix and match different ingredients each time and try out different ways of cooking to prepare dishes in a wide variety of ways!
Here is the recipe I’d like to share:
Ingredients:
Spaghetti, basil (according to your preference), mushrooms, garlic, milk (vegans can use sugar free soymilk as an alternative), water, steamed pumpkin
Seasoning:
Salt, black pepper according to your preference
Steps:
- Place boiled pumpkin, milk and water into a food processer or blender and blend to gravy form.
- Slice the mushrooms and mince the garlic and basil.
- Stir-fry garlic and mushrooms till golden brown. Afterwards, add in basil and continue to stir-fry.
- Pour in the pumpkin gravy, sprinkle salt and black pepper. Add in cooked spaghetti noodles and mix well.
A small tip: Topping the pumpkin pasta with some crushed cashews will not only improve the texture of the dish, but also increase the protein content. Additionally, cherry tomatoes can be used as decoration.