I've been trying to limit my carb intake to one meal a day, as I've mentioned before. So I gotta make those carbs meaningful and delicious, otherwise, what's the dang point? It's my payoff for exercise doing torture poses in yoga for an hour.
The other day I got my carb fix from pasta. I've been wanting to try udon noodles in a dish. Mostly because I'm fascinated by them. Udon noodles are generally seen in Korean cuisine and are made from wheat flour. They're thick but they only cook for 2 or 3 minutes and not a minute more. Which is kinda awesome. I'd read about different eggplant purees and decided I wanted to make one into a "cream" sauce in place of actual cream. Trying to make this carb dish as guiltless as possible.
I went vegan with this dish, but you could add parmesan in place of the nutritional yeast. I roasted the eggplant for extra flavor, and the heat from roasting the eggplant should melt the parmesan right into this sauce.
This is ridiculously satisfying and delicious. Try it with any leftover veggies you have sitting around. You can also use whole wheat linguine noodles or spaghetti noodles instead of udon. I think I really just wanted to say I used udon noodles. You can find them at Kroger in the Asian food section.
Asparagus, Portabella, and Udon with Roasted Eggplant Cream Sauce
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 5 or 6 baby bella mushrooms
- 1/2 pack of Udon noodles
- 1 medium sized eggplant
- 2 tblsp nutritional yeast (or 1/4 cup grated parmesan)
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tblsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tblsp grated ginger (or 1 tsp powdered ginger)
- 1 green chili, sliced
- salt to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice eggplant, lengthwise, and place, cut side down, on a foil lined baking sheet. Cook until skin is blackened, about 25 - 30 minutes. Set aside and cool.
When eggplant is ready, bring a large pot of water to a boil (if using udon noodles, don't salt the water). While water is heating up, scoop out the insides of the eggplant, pulling away from the peel. Place eggplant in a food processor and pulse with nutritional yeast, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Set puree aside.
In a medium skillet, heat olive oil and sautee 1 clove of minced garlic and ginger for about a minute. Add sesame oil, asparagus, and baby bellas. Sautee veggies for about 3-5 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, once water is boiling, drop udon noodles in the water for 2 minutes (seriously, don't go over 3 or the noodles get mushy. Yuck.). Drain noodles. Add noodles to the veggies and stir in the skillet. Stir in cream sauce and serve.
This is some really amazing stuff. And, once again, it's pretty guilt free, it's fresh, and it satisfies the carb monster. We all have one.
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