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Pasta with tangy lactose-free yogurt sauce, topped with peas, caramelized onions and chili oil

Frozen or fresh peas, chili flakes and red onion perk up this pasta in tangy yogurt sauce, a simple and quick low-fat and healthy recipe.

Course: Main Course

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion
  • 2 teaspoon chili flakes
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 2 tablespoon of fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons of dry thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 2 cups 500 g lactose-free yogurt
  • 4 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
  • ⅔ cup 150ml olive oil
  • 2 cups 500g fresh peas – or, local frozen peas, defrosted
  • 500 g regular or gluten-free pasta Ottolenghi recommends shell-shaped, or less – if using less, the sauce keeps beautifully in the fridge for a few days!
  • basil leaves roughly torn, to taste
  • nutritional yeast for topping

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Finely mince one garlic clove.
  2. Slice your onion in half lengthwise. Cut each half into thin slices.
  3. Heat a large pan to medium heat. Once heated through, add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan, and wait a minute for it to heat through. Add the minced garlic and chili flakes, and let cook for one minute, until the garlic gets fragrant.
  4. Lower the heat to low heat. Add the onion slices to the pan in a thin layer, trying not to crowd the slices. Let the onions cook, turning gently, on low heat for about 20 minutes. Add the thyme, mix everything together and let cook for another 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
  5. While the onion is cooking, put the yogurt, garlic, 6 tablespoons (90ml) of the olive oil and 100g of the peas in a food processor. Blitz to a uniform, pale-green sauce and pour into a large serving bowl (if cooking less pasta than the recommended amount, I keep the sauce in a jar and dole out as needed).
  6. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente.
  7. While it's cooking, heat the remaining peas with in a pan of boiling pasta water, then drain (fresh peas need longer than frozen. If using frozen, I simply heat them up in the microwave in a small bowl with a bit of pasta water).
  8. Finely chop the basil into thin strands.
  9. Drain the cooked pasta into a colander and shake well to get rid of the excess cooking water.
  10. Gradually add the hot pasta to the large bowl with the yogurt sauce (adding it all at once may cause the yogurt to split). Add the peas and basil, and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.
  11. Transfer to individual serving bowls and spoon over the fried onion mixture. Top with nutritional yeast (to taste), and serve.
  12. (If you're not eating all of your serving at once, I recommend mixing the pasta with the vegetables, topping with a little bit of oil, and storing the sauce separately in a jar. Once ready to eat, just heat up your pasta-veggie mixture, and carefully top with the cold sauce).

Notes

  • This sauce goes beautifully in a cold rice or quinoa salad. Just cook the grain of your choice, let it cool, mix with some vegetables (broccoli, corn, and peas go well with this sauce) and your choice of fresh herbs, and top with this sauce. It's an easy and delicious lunch that will taste only better once the flavours have time to meld together.