Toasted Walnut Spinach Baby Peas Ravioli

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
I do not eat a lot of pasta because it causes my sugar to rise rapidly but every once in a while I do crave Italian food. I decided to become ambitious one day and attempt to make ravioli for the second time in my whole cooking life. I love spinach in anything so I thought I would try to make spinach ravioli with peas and walnuts. I did not want to use a tomato sauce so I blended up some garbanzo beans for the sauce base and the results came out good. I loved it! I planned my food menu very carefully that day because I wanted this. The dish was such a nice change for me. Enjoy!

Toasted Walnut Spinach Baby Peas Ravioli
Created on 1/6/12

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2 cups of baby spinach chopped – equal to roughly 2 handfuls
1 cup of frozen baby peas, thawed
½ cup of toasted walnuts
1 medium onion chopped
1 garlic clove minced fine
1 package of wonton wrappers, – I cheated did not make fresh
1 cup of Ricotta cheese, can use tofu – very good as well
½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Egg
1 tablespoon of water

In a 350 degree oven, toast ½ cup of walnuts. This takes about 10 minutes depending on your oven. The extra effort to toast the walnuts is worth it. Toasting the walnuts bring out a ton of flavor. Set aside and cool.

In a sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and sauté until the spinach is wilted. Add the thawed peas and sauté until peas are heated.

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Put the sautéed vegetable mixture in a food processor and cool. Add the toasted walnuts, and pulse a few times. You want the filling to be chunky.

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Add the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Set aside.

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Crack the egg and mix with the water in a small bowl to make an egg wash. Set aside. On a clean board, prepare the Ravioli. This is a lot of work, but so worth it.

Lay one wonton wrapper on board. Add 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons of filling. Brush the edges with the egg wash. Cover the filling with the 2nd wonton wrapper. Press seams together, and force any air bubbles out of the sealed wrapper so that the ravioli does not break or come apart during the cooking process. Repeat this process until you achieve the number of Raviolis you want.

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Put the raviolis on a cookie tray and cover with towel or a non-stick surface. Put the ravioli in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This helps prevent the raviolis from coming apart and makes it easier to cook.

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In a stock pot of boiling salted water, add the frozen raviolis one at a time. Cook for approximately 5 to 8 minutes just enough to cook the wonton wrappers and the raviolis float to the top of the stockpot.

Transfer the raviolis to a plate and top with your favorite sauce. In this recipe I used a garbanzo bean sauce topped with sautéed tomatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper.

This is a simple sauce that I use instead of a tomato based sauce. I make it to top over bread or pasta or steamed vegetables. Sometimes, I serve this with sautéed cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. The chunky style kind of reminds me of hummus but without the Tahini sauce and lemon.

Garbanzo Bean Sauce
Created 01/06/12

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 can of organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté all the ingredients over medium high heat until beans are heated through. Put beans in a food processor or blender and pulsate until chunky or smooth. If putting on bread, I tend to keep the beans chunky. If I am putting this sauce over pasta it can be chunky or smooth, depends on the dish. If it is pasta I will probably keep the bean sauce chunky but if it is ravioli the sauce will probably be smoother.

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7 Layer Salad Squares

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
A friend asked me for some appetizer ideas for a family get-together for the New Year holiday. I used to be a Pampered Chef kitchen consultant so I thought I would check out some of the cookbooks and see what I could come up with. I found this recipe that I demonstrated at a kitchen show but really wanted to change the recipe to a more healthier version for my parties. Due to the travel time, there were some ingredients in the recipe that could become spoiled I had to figure out a way to make the recipe travel friendly.

7 Layer Salad Squares
Modified recipe from Pampered Chef on 01/02/2010

2 packages (8 ounces each) low-fat refrigerated crescent rolls
1 package (8 ounces) Neufchatel cheese
1 garlic clove minced
6 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled (put bacon on paper towel to drain grease)
1 cup thawed frozen baby petite peas
3 plum tomatoes or ½ pint of cherry tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 cups thinly sliced Roman lettuce
½ cup (2 ounces) 2% milk fat shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup thinly sliced red onion

Salad Dressing (need ½ cup of this)
½ cup 2% Fago Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12×15 tray with a lip or a 12 x 15 stone with a lip. Unroll the crescent rolls with the longest side of the rolls to the shortest side of the tray.  Seams of the crescent roll need to be pressed together tightly using your fingers or a mini roller. Bake 12 minutes until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

In a bowl, combine the Neufchatel cheese, ½ cup of the homemade salad dressing, and garlic, mix until completely smooth. I found using a spoon first and then a whisk later helped gets rid of all the lumps. Add half of the crumbled bacon with half the peas in the salad dressing and spread mixture over the baked cooled crescent roll square.

Spread the seeded chopped tomatoes evenly over the salad dressing. Spread the thinly sliced lettuce over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese over the lettuce and the thinly sliced onion.  Cut the appetizer into 24 even squares.

Eat Healthy!

Cook’s Note
The Greek yogurt… I am just hooked on this. I am using the Greek yogurt for recipes that require mayonnaise and sometimes sour cream. It is a perfect match and much healthier for you with really no difference in texture or flavor.

Another Pam’s Tip
Always remember to remove the seeds from tomatoes when using it for appetizers because the seeds cause juice and it could make the recipe very soggy.

CLICK HERE TO PRINT THE RECIPE

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