Recently I’ve been trying to find new ways to incorporate vegetables into my diet. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat and chicken, and I’m definitely not trying to go veggie crazy, but I realized it would probably be good to shake things up a bit. As such, I went to the store and picked up quite a few fresh vegetables, and I was trying to come up with fun ways to use them. After looking around for some inspiration, I decided to try a simple pasta dish.

The ingredients are:

Pasta

Mixed veg

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar*

Parmesan cheese

*I will note that the balsamic vinegar can be left out. I love the contrast in flavors, but the dish is still enjoyable without it, so if you aren’t currently stocked on this item, don’t panic.

I prepared the pasta first– if you need help cooking pasta, I have instructions here. Once I’d finished making it, I kept a lid on it so that it wouldn’t dry out while I made the sauce (you can always use a plate instead if you don’t have a lid for your pot, I’ve done so plenty of times), which went somewhat like this:

Chop up your veggies

In my case I used carrots, green beans, broccoli, asparagus, and sweet bell peppers. You can use any combination of these or others, whatever you like! Other possibilities include artichoke hearts, cauliflower, and squash, it’s really up to you.

Place them in the pan with a generous amount of olive oil

If you have it on hand, add salt, pepper, and garlic

Stir ever once in a while to keep them from burning

When they get soft/cooked, add a couple of dashes of balsamic vinegar

Stir some more

Add plenty of parmesan cheese

While hot, pour it over your pasta

Once it’s there, taste it. Look to see if there’s enough oil, balsamic vinegar, cheese, and salt to fit your tastes.

And voilà! Your veggie pasta dish is complete.