Healthy Mushroom Pasta ~ By my Guest Gauri

This is my celebrations for reaching 200 blog posts.... A lot of you will wonder, why am I not making something fancy to celebrate it. Getting to the 200th post has been a journey full of wonderful people who walked with me in life and some joined me thru the blog world.

So I thought of having an event called 'Celebrations' where I would open out my blog to some of my friends who would share some parts of their journey with me as Guest Posts......

My guest today is Gauri, a friend from office who can get any client to do anything she wants with a huge smile and amazing persuasion skills.


She's a huge foodie at heart.... We both love chocolates, sweets and momos..... We'd eat loads of them every evening in office... and loads of foodie conversations shared over more food.... :)

She's a person of varied moods and facets.... Her bright smile is enough to light up an entire room.... We had such a blast on our Bhimtal trip....

A small something for the Indian readers of Gauri.... She will select 1 lucky commenter to win complimentary vouchers of Moksha, a cozy lounge in New Friends Colony, New Delhi. So be sure to leave a note at the end of this post with your location. Readers in other countries can share the same with anyone in proximity of the restaurant.

Gauri Writes.....

Nachiketa or Nachi as we all call her, is a fun-loving and always on the top of the world. She is the one you can look up to for any kind of professional or personal help. She will help you if you are right but in case she feels that you are wrong, she will make you run, center right and left. I know her now for almost 4 yrs. We are both working for 99acres, She is creative and always on her toes to make some innovation in Product team, and I am the one who sells her ideas being in the sales team of 99acres.

At this Platform, I want to congratulate you on your 200th Blog Post as well as igniting my passion for cooking. As they say, The Way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so is working for me too ;-) lol...

It has been 1.5yrs since I got married. My Husband is a big foodie and loves variety when it comes to food. Am always trying to find easy recipes that don't have a million ingredients yet taste like you spent hours and hours preparing in the kitchen. Passion for cooking was always latent in me but couldn’t take out much time for it. It all started at Nachiketa’s Birthday party this year. She was a gracious host and had done a lot of preparation for the party. We had an awesome lunch at her place. The time we said our goodbyes, I was so sure that my husband will tell me to learn a few recipes from he, and here it was…… as soon as we sat in the car, even before he started the car engine the demands for Pasta, cheese cake and other Dips served by Nachiketa started pouring in.

So I tried first with her no-bake strawberry cheesecake. It came out really yummy so next I tried white sauce Pasta, which is my weakness too :) and to be very honest was the quickest and easiest of all.

I took a rough idea from her as in how to go about it, what all ingredients would be required for the same. I had done some alterations in the same, I tried making the Pasta with No Cheese and NO Cream at all…….Absolute Diet conscious but yet tasty Pasta.
At first the sauce tastes sort of yucky when you are heating it, but after it is cooked and completely done, the sauce is absolutely 'to-die -for!!

A super easy, ultra tasty recipe that calls for a packet of herbs[Basil/Oregano/Sage/Thyme], Wheat Pasta, Mushrooms and Milk for the Sauce.

Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients:
2 spoons olive oil
4 Packets Mushrooms
2 Glasses Milk[luke warm]
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoon of herbs[You may vary as per taste]
250 Grams Wheat Pasta
Salt to taste

To start with boil water with a pinch of salt and 1 table spoon cooking oil, when it comes to boil, put all the Pasta in it and let it cook for 20 minutes. When it is done, drain the extra water and wash the Pasta in cold Water and keep it aside to be used later.

For the sauce, Put 1 teaspoon olive oil in a pan and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes finely chopped mushrooms, add a pinch of salt it will be done faster, don’t add water since Mushrooms will leave water and will be cooked in the same itself.

Once done keep it aside to cool, and make a fine thick puree of the same without adding water in the Grinder. You can keep a few slices of cooked mushrooms aside to be used like that.

In another Pan, Put 1 teaspoon in the Pan and add 2 teaspoons of the herbs along with lots of finely chopped garlic, sauté for 5 minutes till it is cooked, remember we don’t have to turn it golden brown like we do for North Indian Dishes as we don’t want to loose its essence.

Now its time to add puree of the cooked mushrooms, add finely chopped and cooked mushrooms 1 small portion along with the puree in the Pan.

Let it cook for 5 minutes now add 1-1.5 glass of luke warm Milk in the Pan, add salt to taste and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

Once the sauce is cooked, you can add the cooked pasta in the same and serve Hot along with Garlic Bread.