Delicious Cheese pasta sauce loaded with vegetables

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When your kid does not like to touch vegetables, even with the proverbial 10 foot pole, you have to think of ways to put vegetables in their tummy. Most kids, especially mine, love pasta. She has progressed from plain buttered pasta to pasta with cheese sauce in recent years.

When there is a sauce, there is always a scope for adding vegetables. Looking at that silver lining (to eating pasta with cheese sauce), I added creamy vegetables which will not take away from the texture of the cheese sauce. Cauliflower and pumpkin blend to a creamy texture with onions and garlic providing flavour. I did not forget the cheese in the cheese sauce. I put in a mix of colby and cheddar cheese.


I prepare a relatively large portion of the sauce and freeze it. It freezes well for 2-3 months. This is such a big help on busy school mornings. I just boil 1/2 cup of pasta and mix 2 tablespoons of sauce, quickly defrosted in the microwave and a couple of teaspoons of the pasta water. I pack it in her lunchbox with carrots and cucumbers which she eats every day. I can feel good about giving her this lunch box while ticking the box for nutrition.


creamy vegetable pasta sauce

Cooking pasta in a pressure cooker:

Boiling pasta in an open vessel the traditional way takes at least 25 minutes. I just use the pressure cooker to cut the time in half on busy school mornings.
  • I take the pasta, enough water to cover it by an inch, and about a teaspoon of salt.
  • Pressure cook for 3 whistles on medium heat. Takes less than 10 minutes.
  • Release the steam after 5 minutes and open the pressure cooker and drain the pasta.
The pasta cooks up perfectly too. This method will not work with semolina pasta like bambino because it cooks up much quicker. Maybe 1 whistle would work. But I do not buy that pasta so I can't be sure. I use Borges or bigbasket's Happy chef brand of durum wheat pasta.


Pumpkin Cauliflower Cheese sauce

pumpkin cauliflower cheese sauce

Ingredients:
400 gm Pumpkin
1 smallcauliflower
1 onion
6 clovesgarlic
2 tbsp olive oil
200 gmcheese
1/2 cup milk
1.5 tspsalt
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/4 tspnutmeg
Method
  • Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker. Saute the chopped onion and garlic for a minute.
  • Add the chopped pumpkin and cauliflower. Saute till the vegetables get some colour.
  • Add 1/4 cup water and pressure cook for 4 whistles on medium heat.
  • Once the pressure cooker cools down, blend the vegetables with a hand blender or a mixer.
  • Add the milk
  • Add the cheese. Heat till the cheese melts.
  • Add salt, herbs and nutmeg.
  • Once it cools down, store it in airtight containers in the freezer.

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