After a ten hour shift at work, the last thing I wanted to do was to come home to cook an exhausting meal. However, I saw that I had a few simple ingredients lying around that I could quickly throw together to make some sort of pasta bake. It was a bit of an experiment but it came out so well and was so quick and easy to make. This will serve around 3 people so of course scale up or down if cooking for more or less.
200g pasta (I just used wholewheat penne as this is what we had in the house)
1/2 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
1 400g can of chickpeas
2 handfuls of spinach
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
1 teaspoon of cayenne
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
50g of vegan cheese of choice
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C/ gas
mark 6.
2. Heat up 1 teaspoon of oil of choice is a
medium sized saucepan, and finely dice 1/2 an onion and 2 cloves of
garlic.
3.
Fry
off your onion and garlic until softened for approximately 10 minutes.
4. Add in your can of chopped tomatoes, along
with your seasonings to your onions and garlic.
5. Place on a low heat and leave to simmer.
6. In the meantime, boil your pasta according
to instructions on the packet (approximately 10 minutes).
7. Once cooked, drain your pasta and leave to
one side.
8. After your sauce has been on a simmer for
a minimum of 10 minutes (the longer the better but if you don't have time like
me then it's not all too much
of a worry!),
rinse and drain your can of chickpeas and add them in, alongside a couple of
handfuls of spinach.
9. Leave to simmer for a further 5 minutes
before mixing in your drained pasta.
10. Transfer tomato pasta mix into an oven safe
dish and grate over your choice of vegan cheese (I used Tesco’s jalapeƱo cheddar).
11. Bake your pasta for approximately 30
minutes on the middle shelf until golden and crispy.
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