Ultimate Blog Challenge - One Pot Pasta

Welcome to Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today's assignment is to teach you something.

If you're anything like me, you're always interested in ways to make your life easier.

So I came across a series of cooking videos that promised 15 minutes lunches. 

However, I was soon going to find out that Mike the guy who presents them - Pro Home Cooks is the name of his channel - lives on an estate where he grows his own fruit, veggies and herbs. Plus he raises chickens.

I like that he enjoys gardening and gets to harvest fresh produce, but I don't know if his idea of a quick meal is for everyday people like me. Still, if there are 15 minutes dishes I can learn to make, I'm in!

While the videos are entertaining and satisfying to watch, the spark did not fly. Mainly because I'm a picky eater and would not want to try most recipes myself. Also because I'm realistic and acknowledge that only because ihe, the pro, manages to make chicken, broccoli and rice within 15 minutes, I am not gonna be able to replicate it.

Here's the thing:

Even if the cooking time is below 15 minutes, what makes making lunch or dinner so exhausting is that you need to get and store groceries, you need to wash, chop, marinate, you name it. Then you need to get out boards, knives, pots and bowls, which you need to wash and put back afterwards.

There's not such thing as an easy 15 minutes meal. 

Or is there?

One day he was making a good old one pot pasta. I have tried it once, years before TikTok was even invented. I remember not being super impressed, but I was willing to give it another try.

It starts at 17:25 in this video:

There is no fixed recipe, basically throw in a bunch of pasta, veggies and water and get cooking!

I used spaghettini, spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley and basil. Plus some black pepper and chilli flakes.

Now how much water? Since I doubled the amount of pasta of the video, I increased the water measurements as well, but it may have been a bit too much. Still, I wanted to submerge the whole pasta, right? This is what it looked like about five minutes in.

By the time the pasta was done, which was about after ten minutes plus, I was still waiting for the creamy, starchy pasta-feel from the video. Mine were a bit watery and flat I thought.

Colin gave it a 7 out of 10, and that made my day.

Will you give it a try?