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.

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Just creamy, vegan, spiced tomato spaghetti

Having used hummus as a cheese alternative on grilled toast and in lasagna, it is perhaps not surprising that I recently added it to pasta sauce. It worked extremely well. Paired with tomato paste, red wine vinegar, various herbs and plenty of vegetables, it turned spaghetti from bland to exciting and was a very satisfying meal.

I confess that, of late, I have been buying hummus rather than making it. I know, I know! It's extremely easy to make, not to mention cheaper and open to customisation. Nevertheless, I sometimes buy it. A consequence of this is needing to use up the tub within the recommended date range. I'm very fond of hummus, but sometimes I struggle to get through it all as a spread or dip. Dishes like this are handy at such times.

Whilst I didn't use them here, I think sun dried tomatoes would provide a nice twist with this meal too. If you like sun dried tomato flavours, feel free to try out the addition (and let me know how it goes).

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Aubergine and pepper spaghetti 'bolognese'

I have made this dish twice in the last month, which is a high hit rate when considering that I usually leave pasta dishes to Mr Bite. The first time I made it with relatively large chunks of aubergine (eggplant), but on my re-run I chopped the vegetables into smaller pieces to give a bolognese type sauce.

As you might guess from the frequency of our eating it, we both really enjoyed this dish. It is a satisfying match for cooler, darker evenings, and a delicious use for aubergine. The meal is not very high in protein, but it does provide a great hit of vegetables. Mr Bite has added cheese to his servings, and you could also increase the protein content with a scattering of pine nuts or slivered almonds.

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Tri-pepper, five-colour spaghetti

Remember, in this post, when I talked about the various 'niggles' that may haunt a dish? The things that can go wrong, the ideas you can't quite make, the recipes you somehow lose...

Dear readers, I have lost a recipe. Not a terribly complicated recipe, or even a very exciting one, but a combination of ingredients that turned pasta from simple to exciting. Lost might in fact be a little generous; I distinctly remember throwing the piece of paper out (!). I thought I had transferred my scribbled notes to a draft blog post, but it seems that happened in my imagination and not reality. 

I am really very sorry. 

On the plus side, I can remember most (perhaps all - who knows!) of the things that went into this dish. And, pasta dishes are pretty much a concept anyway. And, I'm sure you all adapt recipes to what you have to hand. 

Maybe we can pretend it isn't so bad.

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Tomato and kale spaghetti with chickpeas

2013 seems to be the year where I go from having no pasta recipes on this blog (oh, okay, a couple) to having 7 and counting. In the last 6 months, we have had angel hair spaghetti with roast peppers, basil and tofu bacon; Asian-spiced tofu with green tea soba noodles; beetroot pasta with a spinach and white bean sauce; more beetroot pasta with cumin-spiced tomato split pea sauce; and now, this chickpea, tomato and kale spaghetti.

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Angel hair spaghetti with roast peppers, basil, and tofu bacon

After more than two years of blogging, this is the first spaghetti recipe to grace my pages. Prior to this, my pasta efforts have been limited to one (very dated, very early!) ginger noodle recipe, one chocolate pasta recipe, and one Thai and rice noodle salad recipe. There has also been a zucchini noodle dish, but that's not really the same.

What triggered this sudden welcoming of pasta? To be truthful, I don't even know. The idea of the dish just wafted to me. I followed the line of thought, and so it was made.

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