- I'm very excited for this pasta.
I think it's gonna be great.
- Yay!
- I'm really curious about
how it's gonna turn out.
- I am, too!
(laughing)
- You're like, it'll be an adventure!
- It's gonna be a big surprise!
(upbeat funky music)
- Hey guys, welcome back to Cook With Us,
the show where we invite
some of our favorite people
to come and hang out in the
kitchen and cook with us.
I'm your host, Jessie Van Amburg,
and today I'm joined by
the lovely Klancy Miller.
Klancy, tell us a little
bit about yourself.
- I am a cookbook author and food writer.
I wrote "Cooking Solo: The
Fun of Cooking for Yourself".
I went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
After working in bakeries and restaurants,
I decided to switch a little
and go into recipe development.
- Oh, that's so cool.
Why'd you switch?
- I'm really slow in the kitchen.
(laughing)
- Well, I'm sorry that
you're not super into speed
'cause we do have a little
bit of a challenge for you
that has a bit of a time constraint.
So today I would love for you to make
a high-fiber, high-protein,
high-healthy-fat, gluten-free pasta.
I also want to be able to enjoy it
tomorrow at work, take it as leftovers,
so it's got to work both ways,
and it has to be ready
in 30 minutes or less.
How are you feeling about this?
- I'm feeling good.
I think I've got this.
- Basically, I'm gonna
leave and start the timer,
and then you're just gonna get going.
But before I do, tell
me what you're cooking.
- Okay, so I'm gonna use
a red lentil quinoa pasta.
And I love playing with
vegetables, so I'm gonna,
and I like kale with pasta,
so it's gonna be a kale
pasta salad served hot.
- Okay, that sounds like
a lot to do in 30 minutes.
So I'm gonna leave and
let you get started.
Good luck!
- Thank you.
Okay, so I already got the
water started, so it's boiling.
And I'm gonna start with the pasta,
the simplest part of this.
So we've got a big old
pot of boiling water.
I'm gonna add this red lentil
quinoa gluten-free pasta.
We're gonna let that boil
for about eight minutes.
And then I'm gonna
start chopping an onion.
I'm just gonna thinly slice the onion.
And make sure that you
don't cut off your fingers.
You always want to have your fingers
towards the edge of the knife, like this,
so that you don't chop them.
I'm gonna heat up a
little bit of olive oil,
and I'm going to saute the onions
until they are slightly wilted, soft,
maybe just a hair caramelized.
And while those are in the skillet,
I'm going to de-rib some kale.
I really love this dinosaur kale
because it's really pretty, it cooks well,
and it's kind of, I think
it's officially a superfood.
It's got a ton of antioxidants.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so I'm gonna dump the kale in here.
(sizzling)
I'm gonna cook this until
the kale is slightly wilted.
The onions are pretty soft.
They're somewhat caramelized.
And I'm also gonna add some turmeric,
a nice kind of antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory spice.
It also adds really nice color.
It's really pretty.
I'm gonna drain the pasta.
This is pretty much how you want it.
You want the kale to still
be nice and bright green.
Okay, so I'm gonna turn
that all the way down.
Okay, yay.
And then I'm gonna chop up my tomatoes.
So I sometimes think it's nice to have
a few different like textures
and even temperatures in kind of any dish.
This is training that I
got in cooking school.
For a pastry, like, you always want
to have different colors,
different textures,
something hot, something
cold, something warm.
So you can do this however you want.
With the tomatoes, if you want them hot,
you can throw them in
there just to warm them up.
You can use as many or as few as you like.
I call for about a cup.
I'm feeling good on time.
Holy smoke.
Yay, hurrah!
Me, the slow cook.
I'm just gonna put them
in here to warm them up.
Now what I'm gonna do is
make the tahini vinaigrette.
It's basically gonna
be tahini, lemon juice,
garlic, a little pinch of
salt, and some olive oil,
and that will be, you'll
see it come together.
I'm a chef, so I'm doing this in my hand,
and frankly, it's the only
way I know how to do it,
but I wouldn't recommend
doing this at home,
especially if you're
not great with knives.
If you have a garlic press,
this would be a great time to use it.
This is the little bowl that I'm gonna add
all the tahini vinaigrette ingredients to.
I'm gonna juice a lemon.
I'm obsessed with lemons.
I think they're one of the best ways
to heighten almost any dish
'cause the acidity just brightens things.
I'm gonna add the tahini first
to this garlic situation.
I'm gonna add the lemon juice.
Here we go.
I have this cute little whisk,
so I'm just gonna, I'm just whisking it.
Okay, so I'm gonna add a pinch of salt.
This is just to bring
the flavors together.
Salt is the ambassador of flavor.
You don't want to use too
much, but it's helpful.
Just gonna use a little, this
is way less than a tablespoon.
A tiny bit of olive oil.
And now I'm gonna toast some walnuts.
So this is gonna add like
a little bit of crunch.
Not even gonna chop them,
I'm just gonna kind of crush them.
You could also crush it with like,
I don't know, a measuring cup.
There, perfect.
And now I'm gonna add the walnuts
that I just kind of crushed up
and just slightly, just lightly toast them
for about a minute or two.
This is just gonna make
them that much more crunchy,
and that's gonna be a nice
element for this hot pasta salad.
If you don't like walnuts,
you could use pine nuts.
That would be a nice addition, I think.
And of course, you can make it without,
but the nuts do add a nice crunch.
Plus, they have like the good fats,
so that's something we like.
It's important to move
them around in the skillet
so they don't stick and so they don't burn
and so that they can toast evenly.
Okay, I'm going to just add this
to the little measuring cup.
So I am gonna take this pasta,
just to like give it
a little jolt of heat,
I'm gonna add it to the skillet
just 'cause I don't want
it to be room temperature.
I want it to be hot.
Might just add just a teeny
finishing little bit of olive oil.
It's like a teaspoon.
Okay.
(sizzling)
Here we have the tahini
dressing, tahini vinaigrette,
and I'm just gonna slowly drizzle.
You don't even have to use all of it
'cause we are gonna use some
for Jessie's lunch tomorrow.
Then I'm gonna add some of
these pomegranate seeds.
They're a little tart, a little sweet,
so I just think that's a
nice unusual combination
to add to like a hot pasta dish.
And I'm also just gonna
sprinkle some of these walnuts.
And voila.
One minute to go.
Holy smoke, me finishing early
is, like this is unheard of.
(soft upbeat music)
- All right, I'm back, time's up.
I am so excited to eat this.
- So we're gonna start with our hot pasta,
and then I'll show you
how to plate it later
for your your Pyrex for lunch tomorrow.
- Awesome, this is beautiful.
I love those colors in there.
- Yeah you see the kale,
the walnuts, the pomegranates, the pasta.
Do you?
- Yes.
Okay, so I'm gonna get a bite
that has as many things as possible on it.
- Okay.
- Mmm!
I love the kale in there,
and I think the sauce especially
is what really makes
everything come through.
It's so bright and zippy
because of the lemon.
That is so good.
- Dun, dun, dun!
- I know.
Here we go, here's the judging time.
So as a reminder, I'm judging
you on four categories:
flavor, creativity, nutrition, and ease.
I think you score highest on ease.
This was a super easy thing
literally to throw together.
You were able to just have a pot of pasta
kind of going in the background,
getting all your vegetables,
it only really took two pans,
and you finished before 30
minutes were up which I love.
Next, I would say is nutrition.
This is so healthy.
There's tons of high-protein,
high-fiber coming through
with the pasta itself because it's made
out of quinoa and lentils,
and then all of those vegetables as well
are bringing in fiber and flavor
and just like all kinds
of great things in here.
The only way it could possibly
be improved nutrition wise
is to add maybe another protein source,
but I think that would be super easy
for somebody to do if they
had like pre-made chicken
that they wanted to cut
up and toss in there.
The flavor is incredible,
especially with the sauce,
I think really brings it together.
Next is creativity.
At face value, yes,
this is pasta with kale,
but you did a great job at
putting together ingredients
that I likely already have,
or would have on hand,
or would be willing to buy,
things that I'm familiar with,
and combining them in really interesting
and different ways to make
a super surprising meal.
So now my next question is,
this was delicious today,
I want to eat it for lunch
tomorrow, what do I do?
- So you've got your Pyrex
here, and it's really simple.
We're just gonna put
the pasta salad in it.
- [Jessie] That's easy
enough for me to understand.
- That's very easy.
- That's good.
- If you want some extra
pomegranate seeds, you can do that,
and then you've got
your tahini vinaigrette
that you can just drizzle.
I think it's fine just to
put it all in your Pyrex
and pack it and you're ready to go.
- Awesome and do--
- Very easy lunch.
- And I probably wouldn't even need
to microwave that, would I?
Like do you think it would--
- No!
- Taste just as good cold?
- Absolutely.
This is actually why I chose this recipe
because it's great hot,
and then the next day you
can have it cold for lunch,
and it's just as delicious.
- Well, this is awesome.
Thank you so much for doing this.
I am very excited for my lunch
tomorrow, let me tell you.
- Thanks so much for
having me on Cook With Us,
and if you need the recipe, it's below,
as well as a list of ingredients I used.
- And if you have any questions,
leave them in the comments below,
and we'll get back to you.
- Thank you all and don't forget
to subscribe to Well+Good.
(soft upbeat music)
