Pasta with Brussels Sprouts in Chickpea Tomato Sauce ~ Vegan MOFO 2013

Hi, my name is Kelli and I’m a pasta addict….

Ok, you all, admit it — I’m not the only one out there!

With some things, portion sizes don’t exist ~ and often pasta is one of them.  And we can resort to some creative tactics to cover our tracks…. like covering it up with salad. If we see mostly salad on the plate, it must be ok, right? 🙂

And there are other things to do. We can try to volumize it by adding lots of veggies; but that doesn’t always work, because once we have a little pasta, we end up digging through the bowl for more… forget the veggies. So then we ultimately end up with a bowl full of pasta, a little Earth Balance, some nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and we’re in cheesy pasta heaven.

So last night I was looking around online and found this recipe from The Foodies, which looks amazing! I wanted to to try something similar today, so I made a few variations and I think I’ve found the solution to my pasta problem: this sauce and everything else in the dish contain enough protein and fiber that I’m full before I can eat anywhere near as much as I would of just plain pasta. What a great thing!

Pasta with Brussels Sprouts in Chickpea Tomato Sauce

• 8 ounces pasta
• 1 lb. brussels sprouts
• 2 cups chickpeas
• 4 tomatoes, diced
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 shakes of cayenne
• salt & pepper to taste

Cook the pasta. While it’s cooking, wash & prep the brussels sprouts.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and pan fry the brussels sprouts until the start to brown. Add salt as needed to keep them moist while they cook.

Puree the chickpeas in the food processor, or mash well in a bowl.

When the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan with the brussels sprouts, as well as the chickpeas, tomatoes and spices. Add water to thin out the sauce as it’s cooking (I think I added about 1/2 cup).

Cook for about 10 minutes, then remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for a few more minutes to let the steam keep cooking the brussels sprouts. If needed, add a little more water before serving to keep it moist.