A classic combination of tomatoes and cream, pretty common in Indian as well as Italian cuisines, and loved by people from all over the world… this Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta is my absolute favorite! Its rich, easy to whip up, and the velvety sauce is a perfect balance of tanginess and creaminess which tastes incredible right from the first bite. This recipe is very similar to an Indian style Butter chicken but with some variations to the spices used.

The key to any pasta dish is the perfection in the cooking of the pasta and not allowing it to dry. So, make sure to cook your pasta just al dente. The tomato paste gives the color and the flavor, and combining it with spices and cream gives you the creamy dreamy pasta which is so perfect for your date nights or get togethers.

A few pointers:

1. This is a toddler approved recipe and always a hit for our kids’ parties.
2. You can make the vegetarian version of this pasta by swapping chicken with vegetables. Veggies like mushroom, broccoli, spinach, bell peppers work well with this recipe.
3. Shrimp is also a great substitute for chicken in this dish.
4. Although I highly recommend tomato paste, you can use fresh tomatoes, marinara sauce or canned diced tomatoes. Make sure to cook them well until it is thickened and reduced to a thick saucy consistency.
5. How to store: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 3-4 days.

Interested in other pasta recipes? Check these out:

1. White Sauce Chicken Pasta
2. Spaghetti and Meatballs
3. Spaghetti with Mushroom and Peas
4. Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo

Enjoy, Happy Cooking…!

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Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta

Creamy Tomato Pasta with Chicken! A Delicious Pasta packed with Tomato flavors put together in just 30 minutes. Pair it up with your Favorite Wine for the Perfect Meal on your Dinner Nights!!!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword chicken pasta, creamy tomato pasta, pasta

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5

Author Akhila

Ingredients

• 2 cups rigatoni pasta (or any pasta of your choice)
• 3 chicken breasts (thinly sliced)
• 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 medium yellow/white onion (finely chopped)
• 6 oz canned tomato paste
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup pasta water (reserved)
• 2 tbsp butter/olive oil
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese + topping
• Parsley (garnish)
• Salt (as required)

Instructions

• Preparation of pasta: Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. Before draining the pasta, reserve 1 cup of the cooked pasta water.
• Preparation of chicken: In a pan, heat some oil on medium flame and cook the chicken with salt and pepper, until cooked through and slightly browned. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
• Make the sauce: Into the same pan, add butter. Once it is melted, add garlic and sauté until it turns fragrant.
• Add onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes until it turns soft.
• Add tomato paste and mix well. Followed by adding the spices; oregano, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Add the reserved pasta water and allow it to cook for 2 minutes.
• Add the heavy cream and cooked chicken, mix well, let it cook for 3 minutes until it is slightly thickened but still saucy. Check for the seasoning.
• Add the drained pasta, toss them together and top with parmesan cheese and parsley. Serve hot.

The post Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta appeared first on Pepper Delight.

If your New Year resolution is to look out for healthy swaps to your usual favorites, then this Air Fried Cauliflower Steaks is a great option. This recipe is inspired by the classic Chicken Parmesan, having replaced the chicken with Cauliflower. It’s a vegetarian low carb meal which requires minimum effort and is so tasty that meat eaters would love it too.

Cauliflower is a house favorite vegetable, although we mostly end up making an Indo-Chinese style Manchurian or a simple Indian style stir fry with potatoes. But they all require rice or roti as a carb side to go with. Recently we started looking out for low carb meal options and have experimented various recipes, of which my husband loves a very few. Among them, these air fried cauliflower steaks were a huge hit.

The recipe needs fewer ingredients; some basic spices, olive oil, cheese and marinara sauce. Since its Italian inspired, marinara sauce and cheese play an important role to enhance the flavors unlike the regular “boring dried cauliflower”.

How to cut the cauliflower steak?

1. Use a small knife to first cut all the leaves, keeping the core intact.
2. Using a big knife (like a Chef’s knife), slice the cauliflower into half by cutting it in the center.
3. Hold each half vertically and carefully slice 1-inch steaks.

This recipe would still work if you don’t have a full head of cauliflower or if you couldn’t slice the cauliflower into steak cuts. You can use the florets and apply the sauce and top with cheese, which tastes equally good. Just make sure to cut the bigger florets in half so that they cook evenly.

Interested in other Air Fryer recipes? Check this out:

Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

Happy Cooking…!

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Air Fried Cauliflower Steaks

Italian inspired Cauliflower Steaks with Marinara Sauce and Cheese… A Delicious Low Carb Dinner for your busy Weeknights!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword air fried, cauliflower, parmesan cauliflower

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 3

Author Akhila

Ingredients

• 1 cauliflower head
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup Marinara sauce
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup mozzarella cheese
• Parsley (chopped, to garnish)

Instructions

• Slice the cauliflower into 1 inch steak cuts.
• In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, pepper and salt, to prepare the marinade.
• Brush the marinade on both sides of the cauliflower steaks, and Air Fry for 10-12 mins at 375 degree F, flipping them halfway through the cook. Check the steaks with a fork for tender softness to ensure they are cooked well.
• Once cooked, remove the steaks from the Air Fryer and spoon 1-2 tbsp of marinara sauce on each steak. Top them with equal parts of Mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
• Air fry again for 2-3 mins until the cheese is melted and brown. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley. Serve hot.

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Pasta is one of my go-to comfort meals and is surprisingly easy to prepare. We love cooking pasta at home, most of the time I prepare it without any sauce; just in a simple olive oil and garlic mix, along with some veggies. But sometimes your stomach craves for that hot delicious creamy pasta, especially if it’s a rainy dinner night. And when you’ve got shrimp and Fettucine in your pantry, what more do you need… prepare a creamy Alfredo sauce and there you go, a Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo in no time…!! It is soo good…super rich and creamy, totally takes your dish to the next level.

I decided to make Alfredo sauce as the star of my dish this time. Béchamel sauce is also one of my favorites and you can check out my post (Chicken Pasta with White Sauce)  which is penne pasta in béchamel sauce, one of my early blogging days recipe and in fact the most popular one in my blog! Both the sauces look very similar at a glance, though there are differences. Béchamel sauce is made with flour, butter and milk, whereas Alfredo sauce consists of butter, garlic, cream and cheese, making it even richer.

The history of Alfredo sauce is quite interesting and goes all the way back to the late 19^th century, when Alfredo di Lelio was trying to cook a dish to please his pregnant wife while she was not well. He made the pasta with this sauce and his wife loved it. Later when he opened his restaurant in Rome, he added this dish to the menu and it became a hit. Alfredo opened another restaurant in America a few years later, and the dish became a favorite among the American people too, popularizing it throughout the world. Though down the years the dish has been improvised a lot, the authentic recipe is still intact and well sought after; and of course, has been fondly named after Alfredo di Lelio…!!

So enjoy this delicious Pasta treat, Happy Cooking!!!

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Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp… A Quick n Delicious Dinner in just 20 minutes…!! 

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword alfredo sauce, fettuccine, shrimp alfredo

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Akhila

Ingredients

• 8 oz fettuccine pasta
• 1 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• 2 tsp paprika
• Olive oil (as needed)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Alfredo Sauce

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
• 4 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

• Bring a pot with water to a boil. Add salt generously. Cook pasta al dente as per its package instructions.
• Drain it and toss in olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking. Keep aside.
• Mix paprika, salt and pepper, and marinate the shrimp. Heat olive oil in a pan and cook shrimp until pink on both sides (6-7 mins). Remove the shrimp from the pan and keep aside.
• For preparing the Alfredo sauce, in the same pan add butter and heat.
• When the butter melts, add garlic and stir until fragrant.
• Whisk in flour vigorously for a minute on low heat.
• Gradually whisk in milk and cream, stirring constantly for 2 mins.
• Add the grated parmesan cheese, stir until slightly thickened. Add more milk if the sauce turns thick.
• Season with salt and add chopped parsley leaves. Your sauce is ready.
• 10. Now add the cooked fettuccine and shrimp into the pan, toss to combine. Garnish with parsley leaves. Serve hot.

The post Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo appeared first on Pepper Delight.

The week started as a really interesting one with so many things happening and me getting totally busy in my “blog world”. I finally got hold of a copy of “Plate to Pixel – Digital Food Photography & Styling” by Helene Dujardin, a book I have been longing to read. If you are serious about food photography, this is the right choice. The simplicity in the writing and the stunning photos are a real inspiration, especially if you are a newbie.

So as I was saying about my week, after a late Friday night at my friends place chit chatting and watching a movie, my Saturday morning turned out to be a slow n sleepy one and all I needed was a “minimal effort lunch”. So I decided, it’s going to be a meatless Saturday with mushrooms as the highlight! Ohh by the way, I love mushrooms and its combination with all sorts of ingredients, like garlic, broccoli, peas or chicken.

And here I have from my collection, one of my few recipes for a comfort food with minimum ingredients. It is super easy to cook and you can vary the ingredients with protein or other veggies per the availability in your pantry.

This time I’ve skipped preparing my white sauce, instead made it simple with only garlic, mushrooms and peas, and topped with some grated parmesan cheese. If you love the creamy texture of the white sauce, you can check out my previous pasta recipe and mix it to this dish. Both taste delicious…!!!

Enjoy…!!

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Spaghetti with Garlic, Mushroom and Peas

A simple no-sauce veggie pasta with Garlic, Mushrooms, Peas and Parmesan Cheese. 

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword pasta, vegeterian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 3

Author Akhila

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of spaghetti/linguine
• 3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 cup peas (thawed, I used frozen peas)
• 1 cup mushrooms (8-10 nos)
• parmesan cheese (grated)
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt as required
• pepper (as required)
• olive oil (as required)

Instructions

• Prepare spaghetti as per package instructions to al dente. Drain it and toss with olive oil to prevent sticking.
• Clean and pat dry mushrooms, slice into small pieces.
• Heat butter in a pan on a medium flame, add sliced garlic and saute for a while until tender.
• Add mushrooms and peas, salt and pepper, mix well and close the lid to cook for 5 minutes.
• Toss the noodles into the pan and stir to combine well. Add grated parmesan cheese and garnish with fresh chopped parsley leaves (optional).
• Serve immediately.

The post Spaghetti with Garlic, Mushroom & Peas appeared first on Pepper Delight.

Fish is my favorite (ha ha, my coastal background pops up again!), yeah that’s the fact, and I cook it regularly at home. But this time for a change I thought to stay away from the usual Indian masala, curry type recipes which I prepare often and try out a non-spicy version, a bread crumbed fish.

This recipe is so simple as it hardly takes a few minutes to prep and another 15 minutes to cook.

I have used tilapia fillets covered in a panko crust (you can also use normal breadcrumbs instead). I was a bit confused with the choice of sides as mostly all of my fish recipes go with rice or flat bread, and so this time I did some research to pick the ideal sides for this tilapia dish. I finally chose a simple rice pilaf and steamed broccoli. And to finish it, a drizzle of lemon juice! Done, your dish is ready!!!

Prep time        : 20 – 25 minutes
Serves              : 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

For Parmesan crusted Tilapia:

Tilapia fillets                                   : 2
Parmesan cheese                           : ½ cup
Italian herbs (dried)                       : 1 teaspoon (optional)
Panko Breadcrumbs                     : 1 cup
Pepper                                               :  1tbsp
Olive oil                                            : as required
Salt                                                     : as required
Fresh parsley                                   : 1 tbsp (finely chopped)
Lemon                                               : ½ of one lemon (drizzle)
Broccoli florets                               : 8- 12

For Rice Pilaf:

Long grain white rice                    : 1 cup
Butter                                                 : 3 tbsp
Garlic                                                 : 1 (finely chopped)
White/Yellow onion                      : 1 (sliced into cubes)
Parsley                                               : 1 tbsp (finely chopped)
Low sodium chicken broth          : 1 ½ cup
Water                                                  : 1 cup

INSTRUCTIONS

For Parmesan crusted Tilapia:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In the meantime clean and pat tilapia fillets. In a small bowl mix the dried ingredients; panko breadcrumbs, italian herbs (dried), pepper, salt, and parmesan cheese.
3. Brush tilapia with olive oil on both sides and dip it in the prepared dry mixture.
4. Top with chopped fresh parsley leaves.
5. Bake for about 12 to 15 mins until the fish becomes flaky inside. Serve with a drizzle of lemon juice.

Steam cook broccoli and keep aside. You can also drizzle olive oil, salt, and pepper if you don’t like plain steamed broccoli.

For Rice Pilaf:

1. Wash and soak rice in water for about 15 minutes.
2. Drain it and keep aside.
3. In the meantime, heat butter in a pan. Add chopped garlic and saute till the raw smell settles down.
4. Add sliced onion, salt and saute on a low flame for about 3 minutes. Ensure not to burn the onions.
5. Add drained rice, and stir and toast well. Toast until the rice become white and starts to crack.
6. Add chicken broth and water, cover and cook the rice till the water dries out.
7. Add chopped parsley leaves, and fluff the rice.

Serve baked tilapia with rice pilaf and steamed broccoli.

Note:

• For this recipe I used panko breadcrumbs which is a Japanese style breadcrumbs commonly used to coat deep fried foods. As it is made from bread without crust, deep frying foods will stay crispy and crunchy. As an alternative you can also use a homemade version.
• Dried Italian herbs consist of Marjoram, Oregano, Thyme, Savory, Basil, Sage and Rosemary, and are readily available in stores.

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