Other times... well, other times you have a handful of things in the fridge, a few of which you REALLY need to use quickly, a lot of hunger and a little time.
Last night was one of those other times. I didn't take a lot of pictures because when I started it out I didn't think it would amount to much - but it was sooooo tasty I decided I had to share it!
Again, the quantities of each ingredient are rather flexible.
This one is not "diet" in any way - it's still quite full of protein and fairly low in carbs, though!
Ingredients
1 small tbsp butter (or coconut oil, or olive oil...)
1 pack of smoked salmon
1 tub of low fat cream cheese (any brand)
10 olives, thinly sliced (I used black, adjust amount and colour to your preferences)
5 seafood sticks, sliced (adjust amount to taste)
5 handfuls of spelt penne (feel free to use other pasta shapes/types)
1 cube of vegetable stock
1 tbsp tomato puree
Cheese (ex: Cheddar; something that melts nicely) - optional
Panko crumbs (or normal bread crumbs, or pound some corn flakes)
1 tsp Onion granules (or 1 actual onion, finely diced)
2 tsp Garlic powder (or 4 cloves of actual garlic, finely diced)
2 tbsp cornflour
Dry dill to taste (I used about 2 tsp)
Black pepper to taste (I always use freshly ground)
Prep time: 2 minutes (10 if using actual onion and garlic)
Cooking time: 10 minutes + 15 minutes
Serves: 5
Making it:
Turn oven on to 180 C.
Boil the pasta in a saucepan - check the instructions and "steal" around 3 minutes from the required cooking time.
Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.
In the same pot, add the fat of your choice, the sliced seafood sticks, the onion granules and the garlic powder.
None of this needs much cooking, so just give it a quick stir around to ensure the fat coats everything and gets the flavour from the spices.
Boil some water in the kettle.
Now shred the salmon right into the pan and give it another stir.
Add the dill and stir again.
Add the tomato puree...and stir! Yep, you got the gist of it now.
Whilst the tomato puree gets acquainted with the rest of the ingredients and cooks down a bit, melt the stock cube in a little boiling water. I used around 1/2 cup of water.
When the cube is fully dissolved add it to the pan.... and stir.
Add the cornflour and stir until the mix starts thickening up. Think along the lines of the consistency of wall paint. If it's a lot more consistent than that, add a little water. If it's not consistent enough, add a little more cornflour.
Now get a spatula into that tub of cream cheese and scrape alll of that white goodness into the pan. Stir until melted and combined with the rest of the ingredients.
This should now be thick enough to stick to the pasta and coat it evenly.
Grind some black pepper into the mix.
Add the olives, add the pasta, and do your last bit of stirring.
Note that all of this process took around 10 minutes - less if you have lined up your ingredients on the counter and are not making the recipe up as you go along and diving into every cupboard looking for stuff.
Slide it all into an oven proof dish.
At this point I took out the slab of Cheddar cheese and used the vegetable peeler to get some thin slices scattered over the mix (I find this method more entertaining than grating + I end up using less cheese and still feel I covered the tray + there's something magical about feeling the peeler digging into the cheese).
Finally scatter crumbs over the top - as much or as little as you like - and pop it all into the oven.
It took me 15 minutes to get my tray golden brown - you can leave it more or less time depending on how toasted you like it.
I served it with some salad greens and it was surprisingly awesome - I hope you enjoy it!
PS: I can think of a few variations - next time I'm thinking of adding grated carrot and/or thinly sliced peppers to the mix to up the V factor.
PS2: Notice I completely skipped the salt - I figured between the smoked salmon and the olives there was more than enough
