The main course of Sunday`s meal is finally here. Its long to type these recipes up or else I`d load you all with it in one post. This turned out to last me to the next night for leftovers and some for lunch as well.

Whats great about this recipe is that its loaded with veggies. The sauce is quite delicious and pretty healthy as well. Plus, I love chicken and this had it also.

The recipe is called Orient Express in the Looneyspoons collection by Janet and Greta Podelski and here it is:

Makes 4 Servings

12oz uncooked whole wheat linguini*

2 tsp olive oil*

1 cup chopped onions

2 tsp minced garlic

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup each reduced sodium soy sauce and ketchup*

3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar*

1 tbsp each freshly squeezed lemon juice, sesame oil and grated gingerroot

2 tsp liquid honey

1 tsp hot pepper sauce *

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 cups chopped or sliced cooked chicken breast

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets

1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper*

1 cup carrots, cut into thin strips*

Instructions:

1) Prepare linguini according to package directions. Dran and keep warm.

2) While pasta is cooking, prepare sauce. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Add broth, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, gingerroot, honey, hot pepper sauce and black pepper. Mix well and bring to a boil. Blend cornstarch with an equal amount of water until smooth. Add to sauce. Cook and stir until sauce is bubbly and has thickened, about 1 minute.

3) Add cooked chicken pieces, broccoli, red pepper and carrots to sauce. Mix well. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, until vegetables are tender-crisp. Pour chicken-vegetable mixture over warm linguini and toss to coat evenly. Serve hot.

As usual, I had some modifications and I’ve indicated them with *asterisks. First of all, I used normal linguini and not whole wheat. I’m still working on the bundles of pasta sitting in my cupboard that my mom bought. I ran out of olive oil so I used grapeseed oil. Apparently, its really good for you also. I lowered the quantity of the ketchup by half. As for the rice vinegar, I only have the normal type, I’m not sure what seasoned rice vinegar is or what its seasoned with. I’ll have to look into that and see if it would have made a difference in taste. I omitted the hot pepper sauce completely as I don’t own it and I wouldn’t be able to eat it if it were added. As you can see, I decided to dice the carrots and peppers instead of slice in thin strips. Either would’ve been fine.

Also, I have cooked chicken highlighted because I didn’t read the recipe beforehand and when it came to the part that I needed cooked chicken, I flustered about in the kitchen trying to not spoil the sauce but cook chicken and multitask at my max potential to get it all together. My boyfriend was tremendous help and came to make sure that nothing was burnt and mixed the vegetables and chicken and sauce together when the time came.

This dish tasted A-MAZ-ING! I’m starting to think this cookbook can do no wrong. I think I had one slightly over sweet recipe and changes here and there but most of the time, its absolutely delicious. I’ll definitely be trying out more of their pasta recipe although, next week, I’ll be aiming to try out the Pad Thai recipe for one.

Some people like the texture of Spaghetti, or they like lasagna, and some like rigatoni, I’m a huge fan of farfalle. Do you have a special type of pasta that you like?