Palmini Pasta

Shop 'til you drop? These days it's been more like cook 'til you drop. Stuck at home? What better way to pass time than to try out new recipes. Working 40 hours a week and then coming home to cook can be a daunting task; but now with everyone working from home we have many more free hours. This week I have played around with our new Ninja instapot/air fryer, and also tried a new way to make pasta. There are many new pasta swap options available these days, from spaghetti squash, to zucchini noodles, to carrot noodles. But my new absolute favorite is Palmini! It takes a fraction of the time that prepping spaghetti squash does, and more realistically resembles pasta noodles.

This pasta swap is great for those looking to not gain the Covid-19 pounds. Palmini noodles are gluten free, only have 4g of carbs and 20 calories per serving. So, what is it made of you wonder...hearts of palm. In my entire life I had never eaten hearts of palm, so I decided to give it a try.

I snag my Palmini at Sprouts, but you can always buy them on Amazon or your local Walmart. Palmini is already cooked, meaning you can sauté it in a little garlic and olive oil giving it a softer texture. I used a sauce pan and sautéed it for about 4 minutes.

We have been abiding by the stay home order here in California and only going to the grocery store when absolutely necessary. When it came to making last night's meal it was a "throw whatever" we have in the pantry/freezer/fridge into the pan type of night.

To start, I roughly chopped 3 cloves of fresh garlic in a sauté pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1/4 red onion. Next I added 1/2 cup of frozen peas, 2 chopped Roma tomatoes and 1/3 of a red pepper. Stir this until the red peppers are cooked through. Next, I transferred my Palmini from the sauce pan to the tomato, onion and pepper mixture and combined. Added 2 more tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese to finish it off. Plate your pasta and enjoy!! I added salt & pepper to mine after plating.