You can’t beat an easy “go to” pasta dish when you need something quick for dinner, just go through your cupboards and fridge and see that you’ve got and try and incorporate it into your pasta recipe, so for me this included some fava bean and lentils and it was just lovely, especially with some left over sliced black olives on top… was yummy! You could use lots of other cupboard staples like chickpeas (garbanzo beans) black eye peas, kidney beans, butter beans etc just use what you have in (not baked beans though!!!).

We picked up some whole-wheat tagliatelle yesterday and some tofu, tofu is like gold dust here, we can never find it, so I thought I’d get a couple of packs in, I’ve set my mind to making some kind of cheesecake. I’m also going to try to do something a bit different this week with the pasta, I love tagliatelle, so I’ll have a think about it and see what I come up with. Hoping to pick up some beautiful bags of sun dried tomatoes in Italy next week to bring back with me to use in my pasta.

Called my nan this afternoon to catch up and try to get her motivated in getting out and about now the weather is a bit warmer, she’s been talking about visiting Torquay or Cornwall for a few days and I keep telling her to just go and do it, I’ve been saying the same thing for about 5 years now! We’re going to take her to York in June for a few days so I’m looking forward to that and to see how she manages (she’s 82) and maybe look at going a little further a field on our next visit.

Lentil & Fava Bean Bolognese (Vegan with Gluten free option)

MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range

Serves 2 – Ready in under 30 minutes

200g wholewheat spaghetti (For GF use Gluten free pasta)

1 onion finely slices

2 cloves garlic finely sliced

1 can Fava beans drained and rinsed (or you could use kidney beans, chickpeas, black eye peas etc)

1 can brown lentils drained and rinsed

1 can chopped tomatoes

1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp dried basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 tbsp sliced black olives to garnish

Method

1. Prepare the pasta – Add the spaghetti to a pan of boiling water and let this cook for 12 – 15 minutes until it’s to your liking

2. Add 2 tbsp water to a large saute pan over a medium to high heat, add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes before adding in the basil, cook for a further 1 minute then add in the fava beans, lentils, tomato puree, balsamic vinegar and black pepper and mix all together, reduce the heat to low and let this cook for 10 minutes until thoroughly heated through, add in the black olives, give it a stir and it’s ready.

3. To serve, I drain the pasta and mix this through my bolognese sauce, spoon into a good sized bowl and top with a few more sliced olives and a pinch of black pepper. Done.