Dinner Bowl #37

 

An unconventional but delightful combination: sauteed radish and green pea pasta (made with a protein-boosted pasta) (recipe veganized from Inspired Epicurean), maple roasted brussels sprouts and carrots (recipe from Delicious Little Bites), and garlic and herb breaded delicata squash (recipe from Minimalist Baker).

I genuinely wouldn't have expected so much fresh and colorful food by this point in my pantry challenge, but I'll take it--even if the radish and pea pasta is more "spring" than fall/winter. The brussels sprouts need a lot more trimming now, but are still holding up, and carrots, winter squash, and radishes are all very sturdy, so no problems there. Peas are frozen, so they don't need any help, either.

To veganize the pasta, I used what was left of a container of vegan Parmesan, then topped the pasta with some leftover breading from the delicata squash. It was perfect! (Also, I think the breading for the delicata squash is amazing and I now want to bread basically everything in it.) I generally prefer a saucy pasta, but sometimes, a not-so-saucy pasta works, too. This one is flavorful and pretty. I also always feel like I've hacked into a secret code when cooking radishes, which get to be so delightful that way. If you've never cooked a radish, please cook a radish!

Delicata squash is still novel enough around here to not have very many recipes out there using it, but I wanted something different anyway and the roasted breaded squash absolutely delivered. I am also loving the whole wheat panko, because it looks so beautiful when it cooks up.

Roasted brussels sprouts aren't my absolute favorite way to have them, but the oven was already on, so there we are. They were fine, but the carrots here were exceptionally good. Probably, this is because I used melted vegan butter rather than olive oil. Olive oil is all well and good, but I'll confess to being an absolute sucker for butter.