Morning Star's Veggie Pattie Sicilian Pasta

Several months ago Anil convinced me to try veggie burgers from Morning Star Farms. Initially, I was very skeptical about them as I like to prepare my food from scratch and I do not like to eat ready-made products. But since he was talking so highly about it, I decided to give those burgers a chance. To my great surprise, I really enjoyed their taste. I became especially fond of Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers, Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burgers and Garden Veggie Patties Veggie Burgers.

Importantly, those patties have also outstanding nutritional value, so I got convinced that they are also a healthy food choice. Garden Veggie Patties that we eat almost every day for breakfast contain 18g of protein (that's 1/3 of your daily needs!), 4g fiber, 0mg cholesterol and only 150 calories in 1 patty weighting 100g. That's pretty damn good. Oh, and they are really cheap too. Costco is offering a package with 16 patties for around 10$! They can also be bought at Trader Joe's for 3$/4 patties.

Yesterday I decided to check out a recipe for "Veggie Pattie Sicilian Pasta" that I found on the back of the package of Garden Veggie Patties. It is extremely easy and fast to make, and it only calls for ingredients that I always have at home.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Calories (per serving): 350
Protein (per serving): 14g

Ingredients needed:

• 200g pasta (rigatoni)
  
• 2 veggie patties
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  
• 10 olives, sliced
  
• 4 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  
• 4 tbsp almonds, silvered & sliced
  
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
  

Preparation steps:

1. Cook pasta according to the instructions.
   
2. Microwave the veggie patties (3 min), cut into pieces.
   
3. Chop garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, slice olives.
   
4. In medium size frying pan warm up 1 tbsp olive oil. Add crushed garlic and heat for 0.5 min. Add olives, sun-dreid tomatoes and almonds. Heat for 2-3 minutes (until almonds turn brown) and then add white wine. Reduce the heat and seamer until most of the wine evaporates.
   
5. Drain pasta, add the sauce, mix. Garnish with chopped parsley if you wish.
   

Buon appetite!

The outcome might not look great, but is truly delicious:


To crush garlic I use this little garlic chopper that I got from Ania for Christmas:


I can highly recommend it. It crushes garlic in seconds, without making your hands smell and taste of garlic:


It is also very easy to use: you just fill it with peeled garlic cloves, then roll it. The stainless steel blades chop peeled garlic cloves into chunks, ready for cooking.

This is how the sauce looked just before I added it to the pasta: