Mushroom & Lentil Penne

Comfort food meets powerhouse nutrition—rich in fibre, flavour, and feel-good anti-inflammatory benefits.

This fast pasta dish is so nourishing and delicious!

Once you have the ingredients in your kitchen, it takes roughly 15 minutes to cook.

I like to use a higher protein pasta such as lentil - you can use any type of pasta you like such as buckwheat, chickpea, or whole wheat. I also really like the penne shape for this dish, but it also works well with others.

Once the pasta is happily cooking away, I cook the vegetables, so by the time the pasta is cooked, the whole dish is ready!

The onions, garlic, mushrooms, and greens all provide beneficial vitamins, including plenty of vitamin C, great for skin heath as well as whole body health. Plus all the vegetables contain polyphenols. Those polyphenols are so good not just for us humans but for our gut microbes to thrive too.
In perimenopause and menopause the gut can become out of balance due to the hormone changes, so it is good to focus on gut health as well.

If you'd like to see a video of the making of this easy pasta recipe, where I swapped miso for lemon, head over to my YouTube channel here.

4 portions of uncooked pasta - I like lentil penne pasta because it has loads of gentle fibre 
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large/160g red onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
4 large/275g portobello mushrooms
2 large handfuls chopped greens eg chard, kale or cavalo nero
1 teaspoon miso paste or powder
Salt and pepper to taste or juice from 1 lemon

To finish: Toasted seeds, or crumbled feta cheese, or cooked chickpeas, or chopped cooked egg.

Pop your pasta on to cook following packet instructions.

In a large fry pan add the oil and onions. Cook on a medium heat until the onions are softened. Add the mushrooms, miso, greens and garlic to the pan, toss around to lightly wilt the greens and soften the mushrooms slightly.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain out almost all the water, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the base to use to ‘moisturise’ the dish.

Tip the vegetables into the pasta and toss to combine.

Add salt and pepper to taste, or squeeze over some lemon juice. Divide into serving bowls and top with whatever extra protein you would like to use.