“Cheesy” Chickpea Linguine with Cauliflower, Arugula, and Mushrooms

Endless variations, tons of plant based protein…I’m a big fan of the Chickapea brand of alternative pasta. The ingredients are chickpea flour, red lentil flour, and yellow lentil flour. Flours in general are highly processed but these pay the tax with extra protein. 23g and 220 calories per 2 ounce serving. The “pasta” cooks in 7 minutes and I heat up whatever veggies I want to cook in the very salted cooking water for the last couple of minutes. Sometimes, it’s green beans or peas, but tonight, it was just the cauliflower. I don’t put the greens or mushrooms in at the same time because they would get slimy, so they go in at the end. I put a small bowl underneath the strainer to catch some of the cooking water when I drain the pot, but everything in the strainer goes immediately back into the pan. I don’t rinse or shake the excess water out because I am going to use that as well.

From there, I added whatever ingredients didn’t want a bath. In this case, it was the mushrooms, arugula, nutritional yeast, and EVOO. They all went into the pan with the noodles and the cauliflower. I turned the burner to low and returned the pan to the heat. After I mixed everything together, I added as much of the reserved cooking water as I needed, probably 1/4 cup, to loosen everything up and make it kind of saucy. Mac and cheese it is not, but it is not trying to be that. It is, however, in my opinion, a yummy and filling meal that I am recently obsessed with.