Recipe | Vegetable Pasta in Wholewheat Flour White sauce – Its’ Healthy & Yum
Pasta, noodles, pies, pizzas…no, these are not the food that I could relate my childhood memories with. I was introduced to these food quite late in life. It was when I started to work, living independently and cooking on my own that I craved for eating out during weekends. And these carbohydrate and calorie loaded food were quite a stress buster and a good remedy to homesickness.
That was a phase I suppose, as now when we are in our forties both me and hubby prefer eating simple and light Indian food. But wait…this was only till our children grew and joined us on the dinner table! Now the menu in my kitchen often drifts from Indian to global on weekends as I surrender more often to the demands of my children who love these carb food. Times change or rather we change for the sake of our children. Now that both mom & dad don’t mind an occasional binge and dig into Pastas or have a bite or two of that cheesy Pizza just to be one with their kids 🙂
I prefer making simple pasta with just a few herbs and spices and lots of veggies in it. Make sure you make my pasta very gooey, sticky and…yes, you heard it right more Cheese there should be!
So here is one of the many healthy versions of my Pasta recipes with whole wheat flour white sauce and loads of colorful and fresh vegetables…
Ingredients;
(serves 2)
- 2 cups boiled pasta
- 1 cup or more chopped veggies
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil/olive oil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Basic white sauce
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp. butter/oil
- 1 tbsp. grated cheese
- 1 tsp dry herbs
- 1 tsp. chilly flakes
- 1/2 tsp. crushed black pepper
- Salt as desired
White sauce; Boil 1 cup milk and keep aside. Heat another pan and add butter/oil in it. Add whole wheat flour and fry for 2-3 minutes on slow heat, keep stirring continuously to avoid burning the flour.
Pour one tbsp. of hot milk each time to the flour and mix well making sure there is no lump in it. Use the whole one cup of milk in the similar way and make a sauce of thick consistency. Take off the flame.
Add salt, crushed black pepper, herbs (dried oregano/thyme or any other herb), chilly flakes, and grated cheese to the cooked white sauce and mix well.
Method; Heat about 3-4 cups of water with ¼ tsp. salt and add pasta of your choice in it. Boil pasta for 7-8 minutes at medium flame till the pasta starts floating on top.
Take off the flame and drain the cooked pasta in a large colander. Pour cold water over the pasta and drain again to avoid pasta sticking to each other.
Dice all the veggie into small pieces. Select veggies such as colored bell pepper or capsicum, carrots, baby corn, fresh peas, beans, broccoli.
Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a wok and add one cup or more of veggies of your choice and cook on high flame for 3-4 minutes. Take off the flame.
Assemble the pasta; Take a large serving bowl, add cooked pasta and the vegetables in it. Pour the prepared whole wheat flour white sauce over it and mix it lightly with a fork or ladle to incorporate the sauce in the dish.
Serve the vegetable Pasta in whole wheat flour sauce hot as a scrumptious dinner.
The more veggies you add in the pasta recipe the more refreshing, healthy and scrumptious it will be.
Tips for Cooking Pasta;
- Measure the Pasta you need to cook. Say for 100gms of pasta you can add one liter or more of water in a large vessel.
- Take a large vessel and fill with lots of plain water, add salt to it.
- Bring water to rolling boil. Add pasta in it and keep boiling.
- Keep stirring at regular intervals so that the Pasta does not stick to each other.
- Lower the heat and keep cooking for another 8-10 minutes. Check the pasta by taking out one strand and pressing lightly, if it feels firm yet soft to touch, take the vessel off flame.
- Pasta cooked Al dente should be cooked but have a chewy bite to it.
- Underdone pasta is slightly yellow in colour while overdone pasta is white and glossy.
- Underdone pasta retains its shape while the overcooked pasta becomes limpy
- Regular pasta takes less time to cook, while wholegrain pasta takes more time to cook.
- If you are making a cold salad, pour cold water over cooked pasta to keep the pasta from sticking. For warm pasta recipes starch present after cooking will help in holding the pasta sauce better.
I like how this simple and creamy whole-wheat white sauce can transform any pasta recipe into one that is more exotic looking and scrumptious till the last bit. I use many versions of this white sauce to give textures, colors and add fun factor to my pasta recipes.
This whole wheat white sauce in the pasta which besides being much healthier option than the all purpose flour also helps reduce the quantity of cheese in the recipe….a little bit of (read healthy) cheating is not that bad 😉
Notes;
- Always use warm or hot milk to make white sauce, it will make a lump free sauce.
- Use half whole wheat and half all purpose flour before switching completely to wholegrain white sauce.
- Make the recipe more liquid or dry by adding or reducing the quantity of milk in making the white sauce.
- Use whole wheat or multi grain pasta to make a much healthier recipe.
- Use olive oil in the recipe for better taste.
- Keep the vegetables slightly undercooked to retain the crunch in them. Overcooked veggies become lumpy and tasteless.
- Sprinkle extra cheese over the pasta before serving to your special guests or kids.
Looks yummy Sanjeeta. I need to try using whole wheat flour next time I make a balsamella. Thanks for the inspiration.
nice Sanjeeta! Have become a regular reader and love this particular recipe… would love to collaborate and work have your recipes on my organic food & healthy living site http://www.esvasa.com sometime 🙂
Vandana
Yummy dish Sanjeeta! Pure comfort food :-). I know my kids would love this pasta dish, and I’m sure it could easily be adapted to be gluten-free with some cornstarch and rice flour in place of the wheat flour. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Was thinking about this for a long time.I always use whole wheat pasta at home and since it is my hubby’s favourite, I prepare this at home quite often. Wanted to try a healthier version of white sauce and I got it here :). Thanks for sharing.
Superb recipe Sanjeeta. I am bookmarking this 🙂
I often make it this way. looks fantastic and healthy!
I too substitute white flour with wheat flour.. super tasty and healthy…
Looks delicious as always, Sanjeeta!!
Love simple pasta dishes like this. So comforting and hearty. Your white sauce sounds really tasty too…
Both of my kids adore pasta – I need to try this for them!
I love the simplicity of the recipe, yet so full of flavor! I am huge lover of cream sauces, I bet it would be gorgeous with whole wheat pasta:-) Hugs, Terra
never occured to me to try white sauce with whole wheat flour, what a brilliant & healthy idea! makes gorging on this high-carb foof so much more guilt free
I love a good pasta with white sauce. LOVE. This sounds great!
Looks very delicious Sangeetha… and that too in a healthy form.. it cannot get more better 🙂
My mom used to make me the best baked pats with white sauce and top it with cheese when I was little. This brings back memories.
Great idea to use whole wheat flour in white sauce! I usually skip sauce all together. but this sounds tasty 🙂
what a lovely pasta dish…so healthy and delicious!
I prepare my pasta the very same way at times. Its quite quick too and easy with the white sauce. thanks for sharing this recipe, because its a very useful one for everybody!
that’s a white sauce I want to try next . It sounds healthy and if though I am not a teen ager any more I still crave for junk and pasta is my all time fav 🙂
Sanjeeta, love the pasta dish…so healthy and so good! yum!
I love how you lightened up the sauce for this pasta! It looks like such a fresh, healthy dish!
What a great recipe, I love how you lightened up this recipe.
Looks creamy and delicious…..love any kind of pasta dish.
My kids love white sauce and I make it at home. I need to try your recipe next time. Simple and delicious pasta – I love it. 🙂
thats one healthy pasta, sajeeta. have never tried making white sauce with wheat flour.
came across your website a month ago and i was surprised as to how come i did not know about your space before. i came from google.
wanted to comment from a month ago, but i have a busy and hectic life. decided today i have to comment and also join your subscriber list.
one more thing…. i really liked your comment form with a link going to the recent post. i checked via source code the plugin…. habits of a web developer 🙂
Great idea to use whole wheat flour in the sauce Sanjeeta! The pasta looks delish.
I love white wine/sauce pastas. This is definitely yummy looking 🙂
Sounds great. I just have one question. Do the milk (in the white sauce) and cheese go well together (cheese being acidic in nature) ? They obviously do because you have made the sauce.
@Guddi, Yes they do go well together..
It is a super quick and delicious recipe. Ri just cooked it and its outstanding. Thank you so much for this easy and yum recipe.
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