Brown Rice Pasta with Vegetables and Capers, Curry Tofu, Tempeh (Gluten-Free, No Added Fat)

I had to put dinner together quickly and pasta was appealing to my daughter. My Dad, visiting for a few months, won't eat garlic so I didn't have as an option the prepared marinara sauce that I had on hand at least for his serving. My wife can't digest tofu, but my daughter and I like it and had picked up some prepared curry tofu from Weaver Street Market earlier.

I decided to try to pressure cook a few vegetables, including tomato, all chopped into fairly small pieces, and serve that atop pasta on my Dad's plate, then mix in a bit of marinara and use that for my wife, daughter, and myself. I cooked some tempeh for my wife, but served tofu for the rest of us (I enjoyed two slices, as well). It ended up being a quick, filling, and good meal. Here is what I did.

Ingredients

• 1 medium carrot, cut into 1/4" slices then quartered
• Approximately a 3" length of broccoli stalk, cut into 3/8" cubes (approximately 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 small onion, cut into 3/8" cubes (approximately 1/4 cup or a little more)
• 1 medium tomato cut into 3/8" cubes (approximately 1/2 cup)
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup water
• Capers; I used about 3T, but more or less could be used, to taste
• 1/4 t dried oregano
• Pasta; I used a brown rice penne rigate
• Marinara sauce - see below for details

Process

1. I put all of the ingredients except the capers, oregano, pasta, and marinara into my Instant Pot and cooked at high pressure for 3 minutes.
2. In the meantime, I set a large stock pot of water to boiling, then reduced the heat and added the pasta, stirring occasionally. The brown rice penne rigate that I used cooked in 9 minutes, after which I drained the water.
3. After the pressure cooking and when I was ready, I slowly released the pressure, mixed in the capers and oregano, and served over the pasta for my Dad.
4. I mixed in about 1/4 cup marinara then served the other plates. Were I not cooking for my Dad, I actually would have included some garlic in the initial cooking, as well as perhaps 1/2 cup marinara, reducing the water to 1/8 cup and possibly leaving out the bouillon cube.
5. I served tofu and/or tempeh on the plates, as well as a little salad of greens, olive, and preserved lemon slices.

Results

Dinner was good - everybody enjoyed their plate.

Ideas for the future

I'd like to try additional melanges of pressure cooked vegetables such as eggplant, yellow and winter squash, fennel (bulb in small quantity), and parsnips. Cubed artichoke hears would have been nice added in at the end, as would have been nutritional yeast.