porcini mushroom & truffle triangoli with seared asparagus and cremini in brown butter sage sauce

Asparagus is in season so it’s time to eat as much of it as possible! Continue reading to get my recipe for an earthy triangoli pasta dinner. Before you begin, I’d recommend you use more butter than the 4 tablespoons I used last night to get a greater yield on the brown butter sage sauce! Mine could’ve used just a wee bit more sauce.

Ingredients:

• Porcini mushroom & truffle triangoli
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• Cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 6 sage leaves, chiffonade
• Asparagus, peeled (if thick stalks and fibrous) and coined up to tips
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Cook the porcini mushroom & truffle triangoli in a pot of lightly salted boiling water until it reaches your desired level of doneness.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and cook the cremini mushrooms (as much as you like without overcrowding the pan!) and sage leaves until the mushrooms are lightly browned. Add in the asparagus and cook, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

Drain the cooked triangoli of excess water and add to the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and gently toss until each of the triangoli is glistening from the brown butter sage sauce. Plate and enjoy! If you’d like, you can finish the dish with a top layer of grated Parmesan cheese.

spinach & mushroom quinoa

So when did Meatless Mondays become a thing? I’ve heard of it, and occasionally practiced it, but I never really knew where it originated from. Until today. After a quick research online, I’ve learned that Meatless Mondays was launched in 2003 by The Monday Campaigns; the non-profit group that is also credited with several other Healthy Monday initiatives such as Move It Monday – how cute! Anyway, as found on their website, the goal of Meatless Mondays is “to reduce meat consumption by 15% for our personal health and the health of the planet.” I can stand behind that!

Ingredients:

• tricolor quinoa
• spinach
• cremini mushrooms, sliced
• shallot, finely diced
• olive oil
• salt
• lemon, for juice (optional)
• parmesan cheese, for grating (optional)

Directions:

1. Rinse the quinoa and cook in a pot over the stove, 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, by bringing the water to a boil and then lowering to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the excess water has evaporated and the germs (the nutrient packed little white rings) are visible.
2. When the quinoa is almost done cooking, start sweating the finely diced shallots in olive oil until translucent in a large pan.
3. Add the cremini mushroom slices to the pan with the shallots, without overcrowding, and saute until browned. Turn off the heat.
4. By now the quinoa should be done. Drop a large handful of spinach in a layer over the cooked mushrooms before scooping the cooked quinoa out of the pot and into the pan over the spinach. The residual heat from the mushrooms and the quinoa should wilt the spinach.
5. Toss everything in the pan together, seasoning to taste with salt and an optional squeeze of lemon juice.
6. I also grated in some parmesan cheese, but that’s just a personal preference. Feel free to tinker with the recipe as you wish!