I love fresh, crunchy vegetables. In our house, cherry tomatoes are eaten by the handful on their own or with slices of cheese, and sweet peppers are munched on in lunches, dipped in hummus, tossed in salads, or just about any way you can imagine. In the summer, being veggi-fied (is that a word?) kicks into high gear and our fridge is always bursting with all kinds of produce. What can I say? We love our vegetables. Every day, I take a small container of sugar snap peas, carrot sticks, grape tomatoes, and pepper slices in my lunch. Grape tomatoes and the mini peppers are quick and easy to pack-and eat!
One of my favourite brands to buy that's greenhouse grown is Windset farms. The cukes, peppers and tomatoes are always so delicious and they are readily available. This post isn't really sponsored by them; I've bought their veggies for a few years now and often chat with them on twitter. Since BC Veggie Day was recently and we were celebrating green house grown tastiness that is now making it's way into the grocery stores, the nice folks over at Windset Farms sent me the above veggies I wasn't asked to post anything, but offered to because I loved them so much. I immediately got down to work and transformed the veggies into something delicious-not that those lovely tomatoes weren't delicious enough that I wanted to just sit and munch them raw, all by themselves.
Anyway you really should try this pasta. It's not a heavy, full of cheese and sour cream or other greasy stuff that some would associate with Mexican type food. It's light and bursting with all kinds of things that are good for you-veggies, beans, some cheese, and a bit of spice. We came up with it on the fly and ended up eating the leftovers the next day for lunch, too.
Ingredients:
200 g of fusilli pasta
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic
3/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sweet peppers, slivered
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1-2 chunked avocados
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup Mexicana Touch of Philadelphia Cheese
fresh lime
*like it spicy? Add a bit of chopped fresh jalapeno
Directions:
Get the water boiling and cook the pasta according to the package directions. While it's bubbling away on the stove, heat up a large, deep pan and saute up the shallots in a little olive oil until they are softened. Add the garlic (and jalapeno if using) and continue to saute until fragrant. Stir in the beans, chili powder and cumin, stirring and cooking it for another 2-3 minutes. Take the beans off the heat and set aside.
When the pasta is finished cooking, reserve about 1/3 cup of the cooking water. Drain the rest. Add the hot, drained pasta to the pan with the beans and shallots, tossing and adding a little of the reserved water to moisten, and then stir in the cheese. Transfer everything to a large bowl.
Toss the pasta and beans with peppers, tomatoes, avocados and cilantro until everything is well mixed together.
Serve the pasta with slices of lime to squeeze over top.
Makes 4 servings
