National Nutrition Month Recipe: Healthier Pasta

For many of us, there are elements of food that are comforting. Take your favorite pasta dish for example – while comforting, it’s also convenient to make because the turnaround time is usually 15-20 minutes. Oftentimes however, dishes like this can be loaded with hidden sugar and sodium, suddenly making it a not-so-healthy dinner option. In this week’s recipe, we took on the challenge of making over our favorite, easy to assemble, pasta dish. Instead of adding meat, we’ve finely chopped some nutritious veggies and subbed regular pasta for whole grain pasta. We also snagged some lower-sugar, organic pasta sauce (also a cost-saving generic brand!) plus some low-sodium tomato paste to pack some extra flavor punch. Here’s what you’ll need so you can make it at home:

2 cups uncooked whole grain pasta
1 jar of your favorite, low-sugar pasta sauce
2 medium carrots, grated or shredded
5 large mushrooms, grated or diced
1 medium zucchini, grated or diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon low-sodium tomato paste

And follow the instructions below!