Friday, January 26, 2018

Lemon and artichoke spaghetti with spinach

Having my parents visit inspired me to make some different meals to those in our usual rotation. This spaghetti dish was adapted from the recipe for lemon, artichoke and baby spinach spaghetti in Adele McConnell's The Vegan Cookbook. I won this book back in 2014 and posted at the time that I wanted to make almost all of the recipes it contains. Four years on and I haven't made even half the recipes, but those I have made have been great.


This is not a complicated recipe. You need fresh lemon, basil and spinach plus canned artichokes. The lemon and basil give a freshness to the dish; the artichokes a richness.

I added nutritional yeast and tomatoes on serving and used artichokes mixed with olives, which worked well. I also added fresh spinach at the end as well as mixing spinach through when cooking.

The meal was well received by my parents and Mr Bite. It was also enjoyed by Mini Bite, although her enjoyment included a great deal of play as well as the eating. Usually I cook her spiral pasta and she was thrilled with the extra mess made by spaghetti strands.


Lemon and artichoke spaghetti with spinach
An easy, tasty pasta dish for four
Vegan

Author: Adapted from Adele McConnell's The Vegan Cookbook


Ingredients
350g dry spaghetti
250g canned, chopped marinated artichoke hearts in oil (optional - mixed artichokes and olives)
Juice and zest from 2 lemons
1 small bunch basil leaves, roughly chopped
100g + 100g baby spinach leaves, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste

Tomatoes, optional, to serve
Nutritional yeast, optional, to serve

Method
Cook the spaghetti according to pack instructions (10 - 12 minutes).

When the spaghetti is cooked, reserve 4 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Combine the spaghetti, reserved liquid, artichokes in oil, lemon juice and zest, basil and 100g of the spinach leaves and stir to combine over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Serve with additional spinach leaves and tomatoes if desired. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast if desired.


Do you have a go-to cookbook at the moment?

9 comments:

  1. I love mini bite's high chair - spaghetti is fin for toddlers. I don't make spaghetti much but when I see this sort of dish I feel should amend my ways!

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    1. I don't make it much either - not sure why - but dishes like this make me want to change my ways too :-)

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  2. What a messy little pup mini bite is :) I have this cookbooks, but don't think I have used it yet, I will have to take it off my shelf and cook at least one recipe from it next month. The spaghetti dish appeals, as it is an ingredient i go to for quick evening dishes, so who knows this might be the dish I make, thanks for sharing. It looks light and flavourful.

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    1. I'm glad I could inspire you! I have tried quite a few recipes from here and also like the African stew a lot.

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  3. I don't have any pasta in the house, but weirdly I do have a tin of artichokes - what's wrong with my shopping habits at the moment?! I love the red, white and green colours here - it makes me think maybe spring isn't so far away...

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    1. I am convinced spring is coming! The sun is out more and it is light beyond 4.30pm :-)

      Artichoke but no spaghetti suggests your kitchen is quite the fancy place at the moment!

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  4. Yummo - this sounds like my kind of pasta. Mini Bite sure had fun with it!

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  5. Your parents are so lucky! This sounds completely delicious =)
    I really love all things lemon and we really love artichoke hearts. Yum. I will definitely be giving this a try - maybe topping it with homemade vegan parmesan.

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