Sequestration Meal #587

 

Because I am presently obsessed with tomatoes, believe it or not, this entire, delightful meal was constructed around my desire to have tomato salad. I have a pot of fresh basil my window and I had those gorgeous cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so that was the basis for this recipe from The Healthy Foodie. But there was plenty of good stuff to go around and I ended up making a meal that I loved! Here we also have creamy zucchini mushroom pasta (recipe from Wholly Tasteful) and some sliced Tofurky Italian sausage sauteed with onions and yellow bell peppers.

The tomato salad was delicious; absolutely no complaints other than my frustration with how pricey these specific tomatoes are. But maybe they were worth it. I should be kinder to myself.

I have a spiralizer but I don't often use it. This pasta was a great way to reacquaint myself with it. There was at least as much zucchini as spaghetti here, and somehow it balances out perfectly. I will say that the recipe never tells you to add salt and I added salt along the way, which is important rather than waiting until the end--a tip for you if you're a novice. Throw some salt in the cashew cream mix, cook your pasta in salted water, and just before you add the garlic to the mushrooms and onions, add a pinch. It'll make such a difference. Also, I finished it off with red pepper flakes, flaky sea salt, and a bit of fresh parsley; the parsley is mostly for looks but the dish was really, really elevated to something special with the red pepper flakes. I would make this again! It was pretty easy and also kind of fun given the spiralized zucchini. (I guess I am easily entertained.)

The sausages I had in my freezer after using half in a similar way a few weeks ago. I am trying not to just forget what I stick in my freezer, because my freezer is full, up to the brim, and I don't even know how it got that way! But based on what I see in there I must just slowly be accumulating odds and ends like some sort of squirrel. So I need to work on that. Still, I'm grateful to past me for those squirrely habits. The sausage went really well with the rest of the meal.