I have a hard time cooking for my brood some most days. Some don’t like mushrooms, some don’t like anything spicy, some don’t like food that requires work (such as chicken wings), some just don’t like anything like little Rowan. It can get frustrating when you’re flipping through a cookbook listing off delicious recipes and everything gets vetoed by one person or another. It’s also frustrating when you give up and choose something and it doesn’t getting eaten quickly enough to not grow slimy in the fridge. I know. It’s hard to believe that happens in this house.
Matt, the boys and I stopped by a Half-Price Book store the other night, and I rescued a couple beat up lowfat cook books for a dollar a piece. Can you imagine the groans that caused? “Lowfat? You mean ‘Flavor Free’ right?” Etc etc. But there are actually quite a few recipes that I think will end up being keepers. This recipe is one of them.
Seafood is not something we normally eat. I’ve never been huge fan, Matt doesn’t see what the hype is about, and kids will be kids, right? My brother on the other hand… We made a double batch and picked up a pound of shrimp on sale for less than 5 dollars. Everything else I pretty much had on hand.
Even a large serving of the dish comes in under 350 calories. The pasta makes it very filling, and the broccoli gives you lots of good vitamins. Am I the only mama blessed with kids that generally love vegetables?
Pardon my bad pictures. The sun had gone down before I started dinner. Oops!
Pasta in Garlic Sauce with Shrimp and Broccoli
Adapted from The 99% Fat-Free Cookbook
This clear, thin garlic sauce is a noteworthy change from the heavy mound under which pasta typically is buried. It lends both a permeating flavor and a gloss to the pasta, set off by flecks of seafood and vegetables.
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 10 gloves garlic
- 1 cup 99% fat free, reduced sodium Chicken Stock
- 8 ounces uncooked thin-strand spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 pound broccoli florets (About 1 large head)
- 1/2 cup sliced white onion (About 1 small onion)
- 1/2 pound cooked medium shrimp (About 24) peeled, deveined, and halved
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
- Put the garlic and stock in a small nonreactive sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the garlic is soft and easily smashed with a fork. Transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor or blender, and puree until smooth. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta, stirring to make sure the strands don’t stick together, and cook over high heat to desired tenderness. (3 to 4 minutes for homemade or other fresh pasta, 8 to 10 minutes for dry pasta.)
- Meanwhile, put 1 tablespoon of water in a nonstick frying pan and bring to boil over medium heat. Add the broccoli and onion and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add the shrimp, dill and the remaining tablespoon of water. Stir, recover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat.
- When the pasta in done, drain it in a colander and return it to the pot over very low heat. Add the garlic puree then mix well to coat the pasta. Add the broccoli-shrimp mixture and the seasonings. Toss together until well blended and serve immediately.
Nutrition info:
- Calories 316.1
- Total Fat 2.5 g
- Saturated Fat 0.2 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g
- Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g
- Cholesterol 110.5 mg
- Sodium 613.3 mg
- Potassium 416.4 mg
- Total Carbohydrate 49.7 g
- Dietary Fiber 4.8 g
- Sugars 2.1 g
- Protein 22.2 g
- Vitamin A 30.0 %
- Vitamin B-12 14.1 %
- Vitamin B-6 15.8 %
- Vitamin C 115.2 %
- Vitamin D 0.0 %
- Vitamin E 7.2 %
- Calcium 7.8 %
- Copper 9.1 %
- Folate 39.6 %
- Iron 25.0 %
- Magnesium 10.6 %
- Manganese 18.5 %
- Niacin 30.3 %
- Pantothenic Acid 6.3 %
- Phosphorus 14.5 %
- Riboflavin 22.1 %
- Selenium 36.7 %
- Thiamin 36.0 %
- Zinc 8.8 %
