Crazy Days Challenge - Day Sixteen - Hummus and Pasta

I set to making a batch of hummus yesterday.  I was craving something dippy and as there was a couple of flatbreads I could toast and that needed using up before they turned into chicken fodder, I thought a dish of hummus would be ideal.

I use a recipe that originally came from this book. 

 Gosh doesn't Ella look so much younger here on her first book cover.  So much has changed in her life since her early blog days when I used to read her posts.  Now her foods are available in most supermarkets and as well as having her gorgeous daughter Skye, there is a new baby on the way.  A lovely success story all round.

Anyway back to the recipe.

As I usually whizz it all together in my Nutribullet I make the mix in two halves.  One half I keep au natural and the other I add something to.  In yesterdays case I decided on one of the vacuum packed beetroots, thinking that we could add the others to the choppy salad that I have in the fridge.

You can't beat having a little stash of tasty hummus in the fridge.

This was my lunch yesterday, a large dollop of each flavour and a toasted flatbread.

For our evening meal yesterday I added the last few spoonfuls of the Mediterranean vegetables, saved from our tea the other night to a tub of pasta sauce from the freezer.  I tipped in half a small bag of frozen baby Spinach that was also in the freezer and a few handfuls of penne pasta and left it all to putter away in the oven for 40 minutes.

Cooking pasta in the sauce this way add so much more flavour than cooking it in water first and then tipping it into the sauce.  We both prefer our pasta this way now.  If you have a dish long enough you can even do spaghetti this way too, although I usually just snap it in half and use it that way.  It takes approximately twice as long cooking it this way, whether you use whole-wheat or white pasta but the flavour is more than twice as nice, so it really is worth it.

Of course you can also mix the two together ... hummus pasta is delicious and hummus takes to being warmed through gently really well.  Simply stir it through your cooked and drained pasta and serve.  When I do this I tend to cook some peas or broccoli in with the pasta, drain the two and then tip it back into the pan and stir the hummus through.  

A nice simple meal with minimal washing up ... my favourite sort of meal.

Sue xx