This Sundried Tomato and Red Pepper Pasta Bake is so simple and yet so tasty. You could make the pasta sauce and stir it through hot pasta and sprinkle the cheese on to eat it as it is to make it every quicker, but I do like the extra texture you get from baking it in the oven.
There are many sources of vitamin B12, but plant-based sources are limited to fortified foods including some breakfast cereals, dairy alternatives, nutritional year and yeast spreads and some specially grown mushrooms.
With vitamin B12, the more frequently you have it, the less you body needs as it is more efficient at absorbing it. Therefore, if you have B12 less often, your requirements go up to 10μg/day (if only have one intake of B12), or 2000μg per week. Each serving of my pasta provides you with 3μg, which is the daily recommendation if you are having multiple sources of B12 per day. Therefore, this can help you achieve the daily requirement if paired with other vitamin B12 containing foods throughout the day.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 100g sundried tomatoes
- 200g cooked red peppers in brine
- 60g almonds
- 30g basil, stems removed from leaves
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp oil from the sundried tomatoes (or use extra virgin olive oil if you prefer)
- 150ml soya milk fortified with vitamin B12
- 20g nutritional yeast fortified with vitamin B12
- 300g pasta
- 300g broccoli
- 100g vegan cheese fortified with vitamin B12
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Method
- Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook your pasta according to the cooking instructions, adding the broccoli in for the last 4 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200°C convection
- Blend the tomatoes, peppers, almonds, basil stems, balsamic vinegar, oil, soya milk and nutritional yeast together to make a sauce.
- Mix the sauce through the cooked pasta and broccoli, adding the basil leaves, and use a little pasta cooking water to get every scrap of sauce from the blender before pouring into a baking dish.
- Mix the breadcrumbs and vegan cheese together and sprinkle over the top of the pasta bake. Cook for 20 minutes till golden brown and crispy.
Per serving: 704kcal/ 34g fat/ 3.2g saturated fat/ 67g carbohydrates/ 14g fibre/ 25g protein/ 3μg vitamin B12
Dr Pippa 