Happy first day of February! How did January go for you? Did you stick to your New Year’s resolutions? Did you say “sod it”? Listen, I said it at the beginning of January that I refused to make a New Year’s resolution in over 25 years! So absolutely no judgment here! The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that it can be a little too body-centric and that obsessiveness can either be great or retched. You don’t want to ultimately feel worse about yourself!
I’m the type of person that needs the “first” of something (week, month, year) to kick off a new commitment. I don’t know why; I’m just generally more successful at it. For example, I quit smoking almost 10 months ago! Certainly a virus spreading across the world that targets the lungs was a huge encouragement to finally quit the habit after so many failed attempts. But, my quit day was a Monday. I got through the weekend and started off the week fresh.
Similarly, when I kicked off the New Year with a commitment to go dry for January, I didn’t actually start on January 1st because the weekend was the very next day! Instead, I quit drinking that Monday and I successfully made it through the month! But again, that is just me! We all have different motivators and different methods. I’m the type that does a lot of research, asks a lot of questions, and often times take several (OR MORE!!) attempts to actually quit something, or start something, or just commit to something new. This New Year’s commitment was not my first attempt to curb the drinking and try to start a weight-loss journey… it just happened to be the first successful attempt. So again, NO JUDGMENT HERE!
My biggest hesitation with quitting drinking is that for much of my life, I’ve suffered from terrible insomnia… I mean terrible! I’ve laid awake literally all night, exhausted, unable to fall asleep. I ended up trying CBD oil, which has become a nightly ritual, and after a few rough nights, I am now sleeping better than I have ever slept in my life! (Highly recommend it!!). So, I have successfully gone four whole weeks without a drink, and I’ve decided to stick with it. I’ve lost over 10 pounds, so I’m not really wanting to add the unnecessary calories back into my diet.
So, for probably two years now, I’ve tried to commit to one vegetarian meal a week. There are some weeks that I just can’t think of a vegetarian meal I’d like to do, and I’ll skip it that week. But, I do try to be pretty consistent with it. If you are a die-hard meat eater, there are actually some great vegetarian dishes you can make that are super satiating.
Okay, so today’s recipe I had a completely different plan laid out for it… but, my husband poo-poo’ed it 🙄. Don’t worry… I plan to still make the recipe I had originally intended in the future. But for harmony’s sake, I decided to not completely rock the boat when I just want my two guys to actually eat the vegetarian meals I present them!
So in chatting with my BFF, which I do sometimes to start generating ideas for new recipes, I asked her what her favorite vegetarian meals are… she’s a meat eater, but a weird meat eater. I’ll leave it at that and maybe she’ll pop on and explain it one day! Anywho, she told me that she and her husband loves this super simple pasta dish with broccoli and a Dijon mustard/butter sauce. That’s all! Maybe some fresh oregano? No, no, no… it was parsley and chives, that’s right!
Well, the concept sounded great but I wanted to expand it a bit to make it… well, more interesting? First, the recipe she uses calls for FIVE tablespoons of butter! That’s over 500 calories right there! Oof! Plus an additional tablespoon of olive oil! No, I just couldn’t! It felt completely unnecessary! I cut the butter down to 2 tablespoons. I would have cut it down even further, but I wanted to make a roux since I decided to make this a creamier sauce.
If you checked out my loaded cauliflower soup, you’ll know I’ve been totally digging almond milk lately! It is so low in calories and super easy to make into a delicious, creamy sauce! I ended up adding white cheddar to the sauce with dill, chives, garlic, and shallots. And rather than just broccoli, I threw in some peas, because peas are just delicious in these types of sauces! I opted for bucatini pasta because the inside is hollow, which allows the sauce to get inside and it’s just delicious! Feel free to use your favorite pasta though!
With a little bit of Dijon to give it the flavor without it tasting like you’re squirting Dijon straight into your mouth, the pasta turned out awesome! It was filling and so flavorful! I really think the additional couple tweaks I want to make to it will really work also, so I’m definitely going to try that and post that recipe up in the future.
Let me know what tweaks you all would make! (Hint, one tweak I would make is adding cannellini beans ~ aka white kidney beans ~ for the protein!).
Enjoy!
Dijon Mustard White Cheddar Herby Vegetarian Pasta
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Pasta
- Cuisine: Dinner
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
16 oz bucatini
1 cup broccoli florets, fresh or frozen
1 cup peas
1 shallot, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 – 3 TBs dill, minced
2 – 3 TBs chives, minced
2 TBs butter
3 TBs flour
1½ cups unsweetened almond milk
3 TBs Dijon mustard
1 cup sharp white cheddar, shredded
salt and pepper
Instructions
If using fresh broccoli, spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes.
Cook the pasta according to the directions and rinse with cold water to stop it from cooking further.
Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, shallots, dill, and chives and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and stir until the flour is fully saturated. Slowly add the almond milk until fully incorporated.
If using frozen broccoli, add to the sauce as well as the peas. Add the Dijon mustard and cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is fully melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the sauce come to a slight simmer and thicken slightly ~ about 3 to 5 minutes.
If using fresh broccoli, add the broccoli to the dish. Stir in the bucatini until fully coated in sauce. Serve immediately!
Enjoy!
Keywords: vegetarian pasta, pasta with broccoli, pasta with peas, pasta with white cheddar, white cheddar sauce, almond milk cream sauce
