Brown pasta with tempeh, garlic, sugarsnap peas and mint

S's go-to is pasta with some kind of veg-based sauce. He bought some brown pasta as a special concession to me: I prefer it, he doesn't. Somehow, though, today we both managed to agree that this one is weirdly good. Realised after making it that this combo is also very much inspired by N+G's picnic special pasta salad recipe: tempeh, pasta, peas and mint. The garlic scapes and sugarsnap peas came out of the CSA, and the mint is from the yard. It's the best thing about this time of year: being able to eat superfresh food.

Sufficient brown pasta for two people
water
salt
olive oil
3-4 garlic scapes, chopped
1 small punnet of sugarsnap peas, washed and trimmed
1/2 a block of tempeh, diced
1 tbsp mint, chopped
black pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the pasta and simmer until done (10-20 min depending on variety). Drain.

Meanwhile, heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry until softened and starting to colour. Add peas and tempeh and fry until the peas are just tender and the tempeh is lightly golden. Add the mint, and salt+pepper to taste.

Eat the pasta mixed with the pea-tempeh-garlic mixture, and be happy about Summer despite the oppressive heat.

We mixed in some carrot green-lime stuff with some of it, and that was also good, if the above combo isn't exciting enough for you... Also good with finely grated lemon zest, avocado chunks, or grated parmesan, depending on your proclivities.


Open to variations: made some last night as a salad using brown pasta left over from this, pea shoots (from CSA), regular garlic fried with the tempeh, chickpeas, and lemon juice. And coriander instead of mint, although I think mint is better here.