After a bit of a "birthday week" with plenty of vegan junk food, i.e. whatever I could get my hands on that didn't start out as an animal, I was craving some nice fresh vegetables, something simple and basic. I decided to make a pasta sauce, jazzed up with sauteed veggies. I started with these garden tomatoes, garlic, red onion, shallots, zucchini and collard greens. Don't they look pretty? I would have enjoyed them "as is" on some whole wheat linguine, but I didn't feel like making multiple meals for the family, so I started to think of how I could make this more palatable for them. I thought about simply adding my favorite jarred marinara sauce to this veggie melange, which I know my husband would have liked, but chunks floating in sauce have always been a turnoff for my picky-eater kids. So I threw the whole thing in my blender, and warmed it up again. This step took all the "pretty" out of my healthy creation. Take a look:
After blending, I added cannelini beans and topped it with capers. I was craving both. My husband grimaced at my sauce's appearance, but after tasting it, pronounced it delicious. The kids didn't touch it, opting for marinara straight out of the jar instead. This was fine with me, since the kids were still getting their veggies, albeit not fresh, but it was frustrating because I could have served the sauce chunky after all. The more colorful version would have been more visually appealing. But thank goodness the whole mess did turn out to be full of bright, fresh flavors. I'm grateful to be making my cooking errors in the privacy of my own kitchen. We live and we learn!
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