Mushroom, Spinach & Walnut Pasta, 67p for 2 at 34p each.
This came about as most of my recipes do, by a head in the fridge and a ‘hmm, what am I going to do with that?’ I’d bought the spinach in a fit of expense, as I start my new job and will be up earlier and to bed later, I wanted something to snack on straight from the fridge when I get home, and I can eat spinach by the handful. Some of it ended up in here, and as they say the rest is history. This doesn’t sound fancy, but it’s one of my favourites so far…
Ingredients:*
80g Spaghetti, 6p (39p/500g)
100g mushrooms, 24p (97p/400g)
1 onion, 5p (part of a 20pc vegetable pack, £1)
Garlic clove, 3p (46p for 2 bulbs avg 8 cloves each)
Splash of lemon juice, 2p (60p/250ml)
Handful spinach, 10p (£1.50/200g)
Splash of oil, 2p (£4.50/3l)
2 walnut halves, 15p (£2.84/100g – which in my packet was 36 halves)
Fresh thyme and parsley, free (window ledge)
How To:
1. Break the pasta in half and put into a saucepan of water. Bring to the boil.
2. Finely peel and chop the onion and garlic. Add to a separate saucepan or small sauté pan with the oil and lemon juice, and cook gently over a low heat until translucent. Break the mushrooms by hand and add to the pan with the chopped parsley and thyme.
3. Check the spaghetti – if it comes to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer.
4. Finely chop the herbs and spinach together – I put mine in a bowl and go at it all with scissors to save my poor worktop and also because it’s therapeutic at the end of a working day. I like my cooking physical and de-stressing, as well as cheap and simple and nutritious.
5. Drain the pasta and toss through the spinach, herbs, mushrooms, onion and garlic with any juices from the mushroom pan. Serve in two bowls and scatter the walnuts on top, and enjoy.
Variations:
My non vegan friends would love this with either shavings of Parmesan on top, or crumbled goats cheese, or chunks of Brie, and on all three counts I would be highly jealous of my non vegan friends!
For the carnivores among you, add bacon for a seriously sensational dinner – can you tell I’m missing my meat a bit on this vegan-for-Lent stretch?
You can also experiment with different mushrooms, add a splash of white wine to the onions and garlic as they cook if you have any lying about, and serve this with chunks of home made garlic bread.
Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MxJackMonroe
*(Prices calculated at Sainsburys, using the Basics range where available. Costs checked on date of publication against ASDA SmartPrice, Tesco Value, Morrisons Value and Waitrose Essentials. Some variation between major supermarkets but most items widely available at similar price.)
My new book, Cooking on a Bootstrap, is now available to order HERE.
This blog is free to those who need it, and always will be, but it does of course incur costs to run and keep it running. If you use it and benefit, enjoy it, and would like to keep it going, please consider popping something in the tip jar, and thankyou.