cold curry and pasta salad

I've been going to the sunset valley farmers market recently, and I bought another pesto from sgt peppers - red curry, which is mainly roasted red peppers and curry powder, with some sunflower seeds (in place of the pine nuts) and some parm.

TO prep for this recipe, I've already cooked up some chickpeas and have them stored in the fridge in their cooking broth, canned in fine too, you'll need about a cup of chickpeas for this recipe.

For the pasta, I like bowties (farfalle) or cavatappi, but gemelli would work well too.

Get a large pot of water on high heat for the pasta and a large saucepan for the curry sauce. Add a little oil to the pan, preferably peanut or olive. Finely chop a small onion and saute. Dice 3-4 medium roma tomatoes and set aside. Finely dice (like 1/4" cubes) a zucchini and a summer squash and add to the pan with the onions. Add the tomatoes to the pan when the onions begin to look translucent and reduce heat to medium. Season liberally with curry powder and a littel salt and pepper. Add 1 C cooked chickpeas with some liquid and reduce heat to medium low. Let simmer while you cook the pasta (probably 8-10 minutes). Drain the pasta and place in a large bowl or tupperware container.

Add 2-4 tbsp of the pesto to the pan, reduce heat to low and gently mix until the pesto and curry mixture are combined. Pour over the drained pasta and mix. Serve chilled or hot, depending on the season.

5/6/09 Sorry it's been a while, and A Tangy Salad!

Sorry for the long break! Totally unintentional. Anyway, here is an awesome salad I made last night.

Cut a pound of firm tofu into squares/triangles and sear in a pan on high heat in a little vegetable and sesame oil until browned and crisp on the outside. Turn the heat down to medium and add about a tablespoon of say sauce to the pan and toss until the tofu has an even coating. Turn the heat off completely and dust with nutritional yeast (NOT brewers yeast). Set aside.

Thinly slice a golden delicious apple and wash, then roughly chop some lettuce or mesclun mix (red leaf is really good here). Crush some roasted and salted peanuts or cashews.

Construct the salad by tossing the greens with some Annie's Goddess dressing (it's very easy to make this dressing as well, it's tahini and citrus mostly, with some herbs thrown in) placing the apples on the lettuce and topping with the warm tofu. Garnish with the crushed nuts. I really like this salad as it has a lot of different flavors and a good balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates.