Green Veggie Risotto–vegetarian

This recipe used green veggies; green beans, asparagus, peas. 
I also used a mixture of wild rice, brown rice and red Bhutanese Red Rice.  This made the risotto really nutty and flavorful. 
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup peas
1  1/2 cup cut green beans about 1 1/2 inch
1 cup cut asparagus
1 cup rice (mixture of anykind you like)
1 can vegetable stock
water
fresh cut basil
2 T olive oil

Saute onion in olive oil for about 2 minutes.  Add green vegies and saute until tender–about 5 minutes.   Measure vegetable stock and add enough water to equal 2 cups of liquid.   Add this to veggies.  Chop up fress basil to equal about 1 tsp.  Cover and simmer until rice is fully cooked.  Continue to cook until creamy adding water to keep from sticking.
Cook about 10 to 15 minutes until rice is creamy.  Season with salt and pepper and Parmesan cheese.  This can be served as a side dish or main course.  I absolutely loved the wild rice in this dish.  Of course, if you are trying to go Vegan leave out the Parmesan cheese and substitute veggie cheese. 
   *Christine*

Asparagus Spaghetti Carbonara

Asparagus Spaghetti Carbonara made with Turkey Bacon.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus spears, cut in 1 inch pieces
13 ounces spaghetti
2 Tbsp olive oil
5 slices turkey bacon, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 – 1 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the bacon to the skillet and cook until crisp. Wash and chop the asparagus spears into 1 inch pieces.  Add to boiling water in large pot and boil for about 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Once the asparagus is tender remove from boiling water with slotted spoon and add to skillet, once all asparagus is in skillet, stir the garlic into the skillet. Add spaghetti noodles to already boiling water that had asparagus in it, add some salt to the water and cook until al dente while preparing sauce.  Do not allow noodles to cool since their heat is needed to cook the egg sauce.
3. While noodles are cooking, In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cheese, and 1/2 cup of water from your pasta pot while stirring constantly to temper (warm up) the eggs without cooking them.
4. Drain noodles, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to skillet (the same skillet the bacon and asparagus is in) and cook until slightly reduced, about 1 minute. Add hot noodles to skillet, stirring quickly to coat, add egg mixture to skillet. The eggs and cheese will thin and create a velvety sauce that coats the noodles.  Stir in more pasta water if you want it saucier.
5. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, serve immediately and hot.

This is my take on Carbonara, I don’t eat regular bacon because I don’t eat Pork at all, ever (it has been seven years since I had some of that “other white meat”). Sometimes I eat Beef Bacon but mostly stick to Turkey Bacon if I get into a bacon kick and decide to get some, I do enjoy turkey bacon when I decide to eat it. I had some turkey bacon and asparagus in the fridge I needed to use, so I decided to make Carbonara with Spaghetti and throw in some Asparagus. This dish is quite delish, some people get freaked out because of the thought of consuming raw eggs with Carbonara but the way I make this sauce the eggs aren’t quite raw. By the time this dish is done the eggs are pretty well heated and cooked:) This also is a lower fat version of traditional Carbonara sauce because of the use of the Turkey Bacon, Other than that I love the nice creaminess of the sauce and I tried to make it as simple and quick as I could, Enjoy!

*Camala*