12 August 2026

MEATLESS MONDAY PASTA

From time to time I love to cook a meat-free meal and often that is when there’s not much food in the house. It is amazing how resourceful you can be when this happens. For this meal on Monday evening, I had a head of broccoli in the garden, and one potato and a bit of pumpkin lurking in the veggie drawer of the fridge. And I had picked up a packet of Monty’s trumpet pasta shapes (made in NZ from NZ grown grains, yay!) when visiting my nephew Tim who runs the fabulous Chantal Organic supplies shop in Napier. Highly recommended.

RECIPE. Chop the potato and pumpkin into dice, toss in a pan with 3 tbsps olive oil, and cook until golden and soft.

Chop the broccoli flowers into small pieces and plunge into boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile slice the stalks and any small broccoli leaves and cook until soft in 1 cup boiling stock. When the stalks are soft use a blending stick to puree the stalks with enough of the stock to make a very sloppy sauce. Add 4-5 fine tbsps freshly grated cheese and keep this all warm.

At the same time take 1 cup Monty’s trumpet pasta and simmer in salted water until it reaches the al dente stage. Drain the pasta and toss back in the saucepan with the sauce, adding the hot potato, pumpkin and broccoli. Reheat this well.

Serves two, with extra cheese and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!