A fresh and summery meal–Pressure Cooker pasta with a Crunchy Salad
Author :
monikamanchanda
Blog :Sin-A-Mon
Date: 5/7/2012 12:18:11 PM
A vibrant plate full of colours of seasonal fresh vegetables, cheesyness of the pasta and the spicy hint provided by pepper. This meal was one of my favourite quick meals of past sometime. The fact that I love one pot meals and topped by the fact that everyone in the house loves pasta was just an added advantage. And this one is so super easy to make that I should may be tag it as bachelor cooking 
Just sautee veggies, add spices, cheese, pasta and water and steam that abt it
I first heard about pressure cooker pasta somedays ago on my favorite FB haunt these days the Foodies in Bangalore group, someone posted a picture of pressure cooker macaroni and it intrigued me, I decided to give it a try and it very pleasantly surprised me, post that its become such a regular meal at home.. any day I am lazy or want a one pot meal I turn to this as the Ojas loves pasta and has taken quite a liking to this one too
We had this with a fresh and crunchy salad and some lousy bread from daily bread. Next time I won’t do that blunder and I urge you guys to think about it too Don’t believe me see how crumbly the bread is in the picture below. The crust if you can even call it that was hardly sustaining the cutting with my sharp bread knife
Recipe – Pressure Cooker Pasta
Source – Adapated from a post in FB group
What I used
- 1 cup chopped vegetables (I used yellow, green and red peppers, broccoli, baby corn)
- 5-6 cherry tomatoes
- 2-3 fresh red chillies
- 3/4 cup grated cheese
- 1 cup raw pasta
- Handful of fresh oregano or rosemary or 1 tsp dried herbs of choice
- 2 tsp olive oil
- Salt to taste (but do remember about the cheese too)
- 1/2 – 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/2 cups water
How I made it
- Heat olive oil in a pressure cooker, add all the vegetables and saute for 2-3 minutes
- Add grated cheese, the seasoning i.e herbs, salt and pepper. Saute for another minute
- Add the water and the pasta. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and don’t put the whistle on, let it cook on high flame till the steam starts building. Reduce the flame post that and let it cook for about 5-6 minutes.
- Let it stand for 5 mins and serve hot
Can it really get easier than this? I think not 
Recipe – Crunchy Summer Salad
- 5-6 green lettuce leaves
- 5-6 red lettuce leaves
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced red and yellow peppers
- 1/2 cup chopped physalis
- for the dressing
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp red wine
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- salt to taste
How I made it
- Mix all the vegetables together, if u have a salad spinner give it a spin or just mix it well enough
- Stir all the dressing ingredients till well mixed, pour over the salad veggies and mix again
- Chill and serve
