Wild Food Diaries: Pea Pesto and Red Pepper Pasta Sauces

These colourful pasta dishes are like hugs in a bowl. I ate so much while figuring out recipes, I ended up in a pasta induced coma for a good few hours! No regrets.

I decided to use peas in the pesto sauce, which turned out creamy and delish. I also used two cloves of garlic, and that made it very garlicky (which I personally loved – but maybe go easy and only use 1 clove if you have a hot date the next day).

The red pepper sauce takes a bit longer to make because you have to roast the peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic before you blend. But trust me it’s worth it. The sauce is so deliciously smokey… I’m obsessed! I’d also recommend using some Sriracha if you like spice.

Whizz up a batch of either (or both) sauces today, pour into jars and pop in the fridge so you can use throughout the week. Perfect for this stressful third term. Both recipes are Vegan (apart from the optional grated cheese of course…). And if you don’t already have a blender you can get £10 off in Sainsbury’s at the moment!

Happy Meat Free Monday everyone! Good luck with your essays/dissertations/exams 💘

Pea Pesto

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients - 3 tbsp of olive oil - 2 small cloves of garlic - Handful of basil leaves - 1 mug of frozen peas - ½ mug of pine nuts (you don’t have to use nuts if your blender can’t take them) - Salt and Pepper

1. Put some pasta on to boil.

2. Then, simply pop all the ingredients into your blender. If your blender struggles to blend everything together, consider adding a bit of milk (dairy or alternative) or even water to ease along the process.

3. Drain the pasta, put it back into the saucepan and mix in the pesto.

Roasted Red Pepper

Cooking time: 25/30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients - 1 large red pepper - 3 large tomatoes - 1 red onion - 1 large clove of garlic - 1 tbsp of olive oil - Salt and pepper - Squeeze of Sriracha (optional)

1. Put some pasta on to boil.

2. Chop up the pepper and the onion into thick chunks and place onto a baking tray, alongside the tomatoes and the garlic clove (see picture.)

3. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and put in the oven at 200°C for 20-25 minutes.

4. Once roasted, slide the vegetables and their oils into the blender. Squeeze in the Sriracha (if you’ve chosen to use it) and blend.

5. Next, drain the pasta, put it back into the saucepan and cover it with the sauce.

6. Pop it into a bowl and enjoy!

About the Author: Lydia Hayman is currently studying English at the University of Exeter alongside writing her Meat-Free Mondays column at Wild Magazine.