Mushroom and Broccoli Creamy Pasta

This is a quick comfort food for me. This takes only few items and super easy to make. You can add spinach, cherry tomato, sausages, crispy bacon or chicken to make it more yummy..

Monday night is tiring..After the relaxing weekend , I feel lazy on mondays.. During dinner time I was confused what to make that will be easy but filling. I saw I had some mushrooms in my pantry. I decided for a quick creamy mushroom pasta.#vegetarianpasta

I use the #wholewheatpasta for all my pasta dishes. This pasta dish is like a #comfortfood for me.. its super easy and uncomplicated. You can add veggies like spinach, cherry tomato to it. If you want it to be non veg you can add diced chicken, chopped sausage or some crispy fried bacon. This time I had broccoli and mushroom in my pantry.

This requires very few items.

I used Chestnut Mushrooms, you can add any mushroom you have. Remember to clean the mushrooms before use.

Few florets of broccoli

Penne pasta - 1 cup

Olive oil

Dry Chilli - 1

Tomato -1 chopped roughly

Onion - Thinly sliced

Cheese - 1 cup (approx)

Italian Herb Mix

Garlic - 2 medium clove chopped.

Here I used garlic powder as I feel lazy to peel & chop garlic 😉

Black Pepper Powder

Salt

When you make this mushroom broccoli pasta, be sure to start your electric kettle first. Hot boiling water is required to boil pasta. Plus, you can prep your vegetables and begin cooking the other ingredients while the water comes to a boil.

Add the pasta in the pan , add generous amount of salt in it. The dried pasta absorb the seasoning well. Now add the boiling water to the pasta and let it boil. Different pasta takes different amount of time to get cooked , so please follow the packaging instructions for cooking. After the pasta is cooked drain them in a strainer and keep aside.

Now in the pan take some olive oil. Put the onions and the chopped dry red chilli into it. I like the heat of the dry red chilli crushed. You can skip this if you like it mild. Instead you can smoked paprika powder. This also adds a nice flavor and color to the pasta.

Saute the onions till they are translucent and fragrant. Add the mushrooms in the oil. Saute them for 2 mins. After the mushrooms are lightly browned, add the chopped broccoli florets and the tomatoes. During this time I added the garlic powder and the black pepper powder and also 1 tsp of salt. Coat the veggies well with the powdered spices. Let them cook for 4-5 min in medium heat. After all the water from the mushroom and veggies have evaporated add 1 tbsp of flour to the mixture and mix it well with the veggies in the pan.

After mixing reduce the heat of the hob to low. Add approx 1 cup of cold milk. Never mix a hot milk as the flour in the pan may form lumps. The cold milk easily form a creamy texture with the flour.

Wait till the milk comes to a boil and forms a creamy mixture with the veggies in the pan. Then take a cup of mozzarella / cheddar cheese or both and add it to the mixture and stir till all the cheese has melt. Add water if you think that the sauce is too dried up. 

Add the cooked pasta and mix everything. You can add mixed Italian herb now to the mixture and let the whole thing boil for a minute. Turn off the heat. The creamy pasta with mushroom and broccoli is ready to be served. Buon Appetito 😋