Spaghetti Vegetaria à la Monochromatica
Right Up My Cooking Alley
I've always been a huge fan of the Monochrome Monday Photo Challenge, put on by my good Steemit friend 
For this entry, I decided to make a Vegetarian Spaghetti Melange, using the following ingredients:
~List Of Home-Cookery Building Blocks~
Onions
Olive Oil
Orange Bell Pepper
Tempeh
Special Odd-Shaped Pasta Noodles
Organic Broccoli
Organic Golden Beet
Home-Canned Tomatoes
Tomato Sauce
Garlic Powder
Teriyaki Sauce
Bragg's Organic Sprinkles
A Bit Of Tender Lovin' Care ( :
Spices and Sauces
The spices and sauces and such that I will use in the dish. Teriyaki sauce, and some garlic powder, as I forgot to buy a clove of garlic when I went to the store. Not ideal, as I prefer fresh garlic, but will do ' in a pinch'. PFI
The Bragg's is a nice little 'all around' spice, kind of like Spike, without all the added salt. There's supposed to be 24 Herbs and Spices in this little jar. Isn't this world of cooking an amazing place? How DO they get all that flavor into one tiny shaker? The wonders of Modern Kitchen Science.
Green Broccoli -- Just What The Good Doctor Ordered
I love vegetables in my spaghetti sauce, both for flavor and a bit of 'heft'. Plus greens add a nice, well, GREEN color to my final sauce. Really adds to the gardenish bent of the final dish. Though you can't tell about all of this in the Black&White photos. You'll have to take my word for it...this broccoli is VERY green.
Golden Beets
Golden beets are very flavorful, and add lots of vitamins, as well as a bit of fun to a spaghetti dish. Plus, they're bright orange, which adds even more of a colorful panache to our concoction. I shred them with the hand grater...makes them easier to cook down. And they fit in your mouth much better that way.
Sweet Orange Bell Pepper
No sauce is complete without some sweet peppers. And I really liked the looks of this one in the store. A really healthy-looking orange Bell. Though it's not organic, unfortunately. But we won't tell the pepper that.
Tempeh
Love this stuff. Nothing says "hearty" in a spaghetti sauce, like a bunch of sauteed Tempeh. It's kind of like meat in consistency, but made from fermented soybeans. And is high in protein, fiber, and vitamins. Plus it's tasty.
I buy the stuff at the store in large, frozen slabs. They look a bit like a rectangular manhole cover. I break the slab up when it's time to cook. Much cheaper in these mass quantities. They even make it with Italian spices incorporated within. I usually use this type, but not this time around. They were out at the store.
The Tempeh was cubed, and marinated in the garlic powder, Bragg's Special Spice and Teriyaki sauce for a time. My homemade mix soaked right in and seemed to work pretty well.
Tomatoes and Tomato Sauce
What makes a sauce a sauce - the bright red, juicy tomato. From a jar of home-canned tomatoes, and a jar of regular old spaghetti sauce. I often make my own marinara, but ran out of time, AND more home-canned tomatoes. So, on to the next best thing -- a combo with some store-bought sauce. I get the low-sodium kind from the Costco store.
Time To Assemble Our Meal
Heavily Shredded Green Broccoli
I like to use the whole broccoli -- head, stem and all. But the stems are a bit 'stiff', and if you don't run them through the grater, they pretty much end up like a big, hard piece of wood, floating in your sauce. Unless you cook them for about 3 days. So...I just shred them up, and saute them with the onions and such. Works pretty well.
Diced Sweet Orange Bell Pepper and That Shredded Broccoli
You can see here, the broccoli ends up being a bit 'stringy', after the grater step. Though when it is finally cooked down, you don't really notice. Before I put it in the saute pan, I often chop up some of the longer broccoli 'strands' into smaller strips and chunks. The pepper pieces tend to cooperate a bit more in the cubing department.
Sauteing The Mix
The whole mess, except without the Tempeh yet added. I just start with the onions, then keep adding more and more of the ingredients, from harder to softer/longer-to-shorter cooking-time duration, into the huge, splash-resistant pot. No muss, no fuss, and once more...NO MUSS! (I tend to really slop things about in the sauce-pan end of cooking. Not sure why.)
Sorry the view above is a bit wispy. The cooking steam really fogged up the lens of the camera, no matter HOW much I tried to blow it away for each shot. Chalk it up to the joys of professional food photography, I suppose.
Once the veggies cooked down, I added the Tempeh last, and then the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Mix it all up, add some more spices, simmer for a while longer, and Vwaalaah!! Dinner is almost served. (We still need the all-important noodles).
Bowl of Odd, Multi-Colored Dry Noodles
I have no idea what these noodles are supposed to 'be'. Extra-long footballs? Large Amoeba? Or maybe just a really cool, "WOW, you really know what you're doing in the kitchen" sort of pasta. Because they sure don't look like anything I've ever seen before. At the store, or in a restaurant. They're VERY colorful as well (see final picture [↓] below).
The "Unique" Noodles -- In The Stainless Colander
The oddly-cool noodles, ready to go onto the plate. Once cooked, they kind of look like little brightly-colored minnows, freshly dipped from the ocean in the colander.
This is a really thick, chewy pasta. Which I like. More 'substance' to the meal, once you add the final sauce on top. Between the Tempeh and these noodles, we're talking a real "stick to the ribs" sort of sit-down meal.
The Final Dish As Served ~ Spaghetti Vegetaria à la Monochromatica
Mmmm-mmm GOOD!! My spaghetti was very tasty, and it made enough for a few more meals. Which I really like, as I'm somewhat lazy in the kitchen cooking-end of things. And also a very firm believer in the "make a bunch at one time" realm of cookery. Why ELSE have a freezer or two? (OK, more Ice Cream!)
But now, I have more Spaghetti Vegetaria à la Monochromatica, only in Living Color, for several more days. Gotta love it. Thanks for stopping in and viewing my Monochrome Meal.
~ Finto ~
What My Meal Would Look Like ~ If This Was NOT A Monochrome Post
A Downright Technicolor Dinner~ Brought To You In Living Vivi-Color
NOTE: The ultra-cool plant dividers were made by the very talented Steemitian 
Thanks for stopping in and viewing the making of a Marvelous Monochromatic Meal. If you have any thoughts about cooking spaghetti, odd-shaped noodles, colorful vegetables and Tempeh, taking meal-prep photos in B&W, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.
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Posted: 03/23/2018 @ 02:20