When I moved off campus at the beginning of the previous semester, I was very excited to finally have my own kitchen. After eating only lukewarm carbs in the canteen for two years, I was able to bake snacks and cook healthy (and various) vegetarian meals to my heart’s content.
Unfortunately, college students soon realized that they didn’t have much time to cook elaborate meals every day. When I found time to cook a hot meal in the previous semester, it always ended up being one of three: grilled vegetables, grilled cheese or pasta.
All of them are delicious meals, but due to the repetition, I faced the harsh reality of college student vegetarianism.
Even in the comfort of your own kitchen, the diversity for vegetarians is inferior to the variety of meat eaters.
No matter how easy it is, I don’t like to eat the exact same thing every day. Other off-campus vegetarians know that they are having a hard time finding quick and cheap vegetarian recipes that make you feel like you’re actually cooking. Instead of just throwing food into a bowl and calling it a day.
Therefore, welcome to “Weekly Veggie”.
Try new vegetarian recipes from somewhere on the internet in all print editions. 1. ) Not just pasta and vegetables, 2. ) It takes less than 30 minutes to create, check here.
Do you have a recipe you would like to see at The Weekly Veg? Please send an email to radwanat@miamioh.edu. We will test and evaluate.
In the first article, I decided to start with the creamy one-pot spinach and tomato gnocchi from the online food blog “Forkin the Kitchen.”
Yes, I know it’s pasta right away, but this recipe isn’t your typical college pasta for two reasons. First, it’s gnocchi. This is a potato-based dumpling pasta instead of regular wheat spaghetti or semolina linguine. Even better, this recipe creates your own sauce from scratch. There is no unpleasant marinara sauce here.
It’s not as cheap as basic boxed spaghetti or bottled marinara sauce, but it’s much tastier and takes only about 25 minutes.
In addition to the basics such as butter, olive oil, garlic and salt, you’ll need green onions, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and the show star gnocchi itself.
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Some changes I made: This recipe required refrigerated gnocchi that I couldn’t find in Kroger, but instead I used the room temperature preserved gnocchi and cooked it a little longer. I also used vegetable soup instead of the required vegetable stock and white wine, but there was no difference in the finished product.
The problems with this recipe are:
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It is assumed that you know how to cut green onions. I didn’t know how to cut the green onions, but I googled quickly and solved the problem. (Interesting fact: you have to wash the green onions rear Cut because of how much dirt will get into the layer. )
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The tomatoes did not “blister” or brown in the pot over medium heat, which may be due to how jerky my stove was. I had to raise my fever to get this effect.
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Since the finished product was not wilted, it is advisable to add spinach a little earlier than the recipe requires. If you want the softness of spinach, boil the pot for 1-2 minutes.
Overall, I definitely recommend this recipe. The sauce was creamy and flavorful, the spinach added a healthy green touch, and the gnocchi wasn’t like a typical college supper, giving it a luxurious feel. I will definitely cook this again someday!
Rating: 9/10
radwanat@miamioh.edu
