Creamy avocado pasta with green peas

The past couple of weeks were marked by almost  ridiculously warm weather with up to 23° C on some days. Starting the balcony season in the middle of march has definietelly been a first for me. I decided to celebrate these very early first days of summer with a matching dish, and created a creamy, yet light pasta sauce based on avocado and natural soy johgurt. Thai basil works really great in this sauce, even though I could only get my hands on dried  instead of fresh leaves. If you can’t find it in you local store,  cilantro will work as well. To add a few more vitamins, I cooked some frozen peas along with the pasta, so I ended up with a delicious bowl of fresh, green pasta. Just make sure to use a really ripe avocado for the sauce – otherwise your dish will come out lumpy instead of creamy.

Marinated mushroom steak with rice and peas

Also as a vegetarian you sometimes want to have that ‘steak-feeling’ when having your dinner – so why not make a vegetarian steak? You can get a broad range of vegetarian ‘meat’ from tofu or corn these days, but I personally don’t really like this stuff, so I tend to make my steaks from vegetables – like from mushrooms. Believe me, nothing can beat them!

Pea risotto with fresh basil

You need:

• 100 g risotto rice
• 120 g peas
• 1 small onion
• 50ml white wine
• 300ml vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• some leaves of fresh basil
• salt
• pepper

Chup the onion in small cubes and gently roast the onion in a talbespoon of butter for 2 minutes. Then add the peas and the rice and roast for another 2 minutes. Deglaze with the white wine and pour about one quater of the vegetable stock on top. Boil until the rice has absorbed the stock, then use another quarter of the stock. Carry on until the rice is down. Season with fresh basil and mix the risotto with the remaining butter and the parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Note: This serves two people, but you can easily keep it in the fridge for one to two days.