Flour Tortillas

I've been working on a flour tortilla recipe ever since I had to give up gluten - a long time!  This has undergone a few tweaks over the years and was pretty good, but the addition that turned the recipe into a real keeper was an idea my oldest son had .... use a tortilla press.  Genius!  This gets the tortilla thin enough that it has flexibility and isn't gummy tasting.  I got mine on Amazon for about $25.

Some are pre-seasoned, which you may want to avoid if you're working with various allergies.  With this recipe, you will be using parchment paper to avoid horrible sticking, so the tortilla won't actually be touching the press.

Flour Tortillas

3 cups rice flour - finely ground works best.  If you're buying pre-ground and the tortilla isn't turning out thin and flexible, try using sweet rice flour from an Asian market.
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup palm shortening or lard
1 T vinegar

Mix the first four ingredients together.  Cut in the shortening until it's the size of small peas and well distributed.  Add the vinegar and enough warm water to give you a dough the consistency of play dough.  This varies from time to time for me but is usually a little less than a cup.  Knead a few times and divide into balls the size of a small egg.  Put back in the mixing bowl and cover with a towel.

I fry mine on a dry electric frying pan heated to the top temperature, but any hot pan will work.  Put a piece of parchment on the bottom of the press and liberally sprinkle with tapioca flour.  Put one of the dough balls on top of it and sprinkle with more tapioca flour.  Put a second piece of parchment paper on top and press firmly down.  

Take the top piece of parchment paper off, lift up the bottom piece with the pressed dough, turn upside down and put it on the hot pan.  Press another!  I work with three at a time.  When there are two on the pan, I turn over the one I put on first (it will have small brownish spots) and put on the third tortilla.  After I press a fourth tortilla, I put the first one on a towel and cover it with another towel, turn the second tortilla over, and put the new tortilla on the pan.  Pretty soon you'll get in a rhythm!

These keep well in the refridgerator for a few days, but need to be warmed (I warm mine in the microwave) to become soft and pliable again.

Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet

During our heat wave here in the Northwest, we were all thinking of anything at all to feel cooler - and for me that means ice cream and sorbet!  It's strawberry season all summer long here.  It starts off with the absolutely best strawberries in the world - Hoods.  If you haven't been in the NW or grown them yourself, you've most likely never tasted them because they don't ship or keep well at all.  They start in June for a short few weeks.

But there are plenty of other delicious varieties!  Right now my favorite fruit stand (about 1 mile west of where Hwy. 26 goes down to two lanes on the way to the coast) has Albions - delicious and available usually all summer.  I bought a flat to freeze, eat, and cook with .... and they were gone in a flash!  Not before I saved enough for Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet, though - it combines two of my favorite summer treats, lemonade and strawberries!  Edit:  this is not a recipe for those strictly limiting their histamines.  See the comments below for more explanation.

Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet

1 cup strawberries (about - a little more never hurts!)
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup water
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1T homemade vanilla

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.  When cooled, add in the lemon juice.  Put the strawberries in a blender and puree, add the lemon-sugar-water mixture and vanilla and blend until smooth.  Process in an ice cream/sorbet maker and then let sit in the freezer for a few hours to finish firming up - if you can wait that long to eat it!

Mayonnaise 101

If you've never tried homemade mayonnaise, you're in for a treat!  The flavor is so much better than anything you can buy at the store and you avoid all that processing and the long list of non-food ingredients.  In fact, you really only need three things to make mayonnaise - egg yolks, oil, and an acid.

Understanding a little bit about the science behind mayonnaise can help you see what's happening in each of the steps.  Mayonnaise is an example of an emulsion.  Basically, emulsions are just stable mixtures of two ingredients that don't normally mix, in this case oil and water.  Even if you whisk oil and water until your arm falls off, they will separate after you stop.  So what you need to do is find a way to get them to stay together - that's where emulsifiers come in.

In this mayonnaise recipe, the egg yolk and the mustard powder act as emulsifiers.  Think of an emulsifier as a stabilizer.  Egg yolks contain lecithin, which coats the surface of the oil droplets and prevents them from coming together again.  This keeps them suspended in the water ingredients.  The mustard powder with its very fine particles acts in a similar way.

Besides having emulsifiers, the other big key to making mayonnaise is to add the oil very, very slowly so it has time to disperse.  That's why you'll see instructions to add it a drop at a time or in a very thin, threadlike stream.  I bet the most common reason for not having an emulsion form when making mayonnaise is the oil being added too quickly!  If this happens, all is not lost.  Mix another egg yolk with about a teaspoon each of water and the acid you're using and slowly whisk the unsuccessful mayo (it's usually referred to as being "broken") into this.

One more thing before we get to the recipe - the egg yolk.  Because mayonnaise is not cooked, use a fresh egg that you are reasonably sure is from a chicken that does not carry salmonella.  If you don't raise your own eggs, talk to a farmer who does.  Eat Wild and Local Harvest are two websites that can help you find people near you who raise food.  The other reason you want a fresh egg is that lecithin breaks down as the egg ages and you want lots of lecithin to help your emulsion form!

Homemade Olive Oil Mayonnaise

1 cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 T room temperature water
1 T lemon juice
1 room temperature egg yolk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. mustard powder

I use a food processor - regular blenders work and I know people who use immersion blenders with great success.  I just have trouble holding the immersion blender in one hand while slowly streaming the oil with the other - it's a coordination problem!  If you use a food processor, look at the lid and see if there is a tiny hole.  Cuisinart is one brand that has a small cup insert in the lid that has a tiny hole in the bottom.  This is so you can pour the oil into the cup and it will automatically stream into the mixture in a thin stream - very handy!

Add all ingredients except for the olive oil and give it a short whirl to mix.  With the motor continuously running, begin adding the oil in a very, very thin stream.  Like a thin thread.  Keep doing this and you'll notice the mixture begins to thicken up.  As it becomes thicker, you can begin to add the oil in a little bit thicker of a stream.  But still keep it slow!  You want to give the oil a chance to form tiny droplets that disperse and don't gather together.

Continue until you have used all of the oil.  Occasionally I'll have a great emulsion and still have about a quarter cup of oil left.  I usually stop there and don't add the extra oil.  It's already mayonnaise!

You can get creative with your own, homemade mayonnaise!  Try adding chopped up herbs at the end or a spoonful of pesto.  You can also play around with using different vinegars or wine instead of the lemon juice.  We enjoy adding grated lemon peel and garlic to make a dipping sauce for artichokes.

Raspberry Cheese Pie

Hmmm .... how time flies!  The last year has been filled with a lot of changes - all good and all adding to my full days.  We bought some land in Northwest Oregon a couple of years ago that we are working at turning into a farm and this last year I've been spending more and more of my time living there and working.  Our first grandson was born in October!  He's a darling, calm baby - who happens to live on the East Coast, so I've been traveling, which I love to do.

Some of you found this blog while searching for help when newly diagnosed with large numbers of food allergies, histamine intolerance, or IBS.  The good news for me is that my gut seems to be completely healed and I am having very few problems with histamines.  I'm almost five years into my massive allergy diagnosis and cooking/eating is a lot, lot easier!  Also, I had my DNA run through 23 and Me and with the help of Genetic Genie found I have several methylation defects that predispose me to histamine problems, gut problems, and more but are easily treatable with non-synthetic vitamins.  I highly recommend Dr. Ben Lynch's website here if you're wondering if this might also help you.

What does all this mean for this blog?  I'm ready to post more regularly - spending so much time in the Northwest with all the wonderful, healthy choices for food, I find I have more to share and say.  As has been happening for awhile, not all recipes will be low histamine - they'll be marked if they're not.  However, we do still tend to eat fairly low histamine.  One of the benefits of my cooking low histamine was discovering histamines were causing my husband several problems.  The recipes will continue to be as free of my allergens as I know how to be.  Some allergies, such as corn, seem to be tricky - derivatives or levels of contamination that work for some, won't for others.  I tend to cook completely from scratch without derivatives, but occasionally they do sneak in, so use your best judgment on what will work for you!

This week in my corner of Oregon, the raspberries are ripening!  We have a small area of the canes - we're planning on adding more, but I wonder if there will ever be enough?  They're one of my favorite fruits and one that is so hard to find corn free in stores, between the soaker pads, packaging, and possible sprays for fresh and packaging, cross contamination, and citric acid with frozen.  So I gorge on them in July and ration out my jam and syrup the rest of the year!  I picked our first larger amount yesterday and made this delicious, easy pie - the only hard part is not eating the whole thing!

Raspberry Cheese Pie

Crust:
2 1/4 cups coarsely ground toasted almonds
2/3 cup palm shortening, melted
6T organic cane sugar

Mix all together and spread into a pie pan.  You can use as is or bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes for a harder crust.

Pie:
6 oz. goat chevre
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup organic cane sugar
1T lemon juice
1T homemade vanilla
2t gelatin
About 1 pint of raspberries

Add sugar and gelatin to food processor and give a couple of whirls to mix.  Heat coconut milk to warm and add, along with the cheese, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Process until well mixed and pour into the crust.  Refrigerate for a few hours.  Before serving, spread the berries over the top.

Herb Pestos

In the summer, we enjoy lots of fresh herb pestos!  And then I freeze quite a few to continue enjoying all winter.


Basically, a pesto is just fresh herb leaves processed with oil.  To make pesto from mint, that's all I do - process mint leaves with enough olive oil to make a paste, add salt and pepper, and serve.  For basil pesto, I add a few more ingredients.

So what do you do with pesto?  Add to cooked pasta (with meat, olives, roasted red peppers, white beans, and whatever else you think sounds good), mix with mayonnaise for a sandwich spread, mix with chevre for an appetizer spread, use instead of pizza sauce on pizzas, mix with oil and lemon juice or vinegar for a salad dressing, add to ground meat for hamburgers ..... mint pesto is wonderful on lamb burgers!  Here's my recipe for basil pesto.

Basil Pesto

6 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soaked and toasted almond slivers
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

This is easier with a food processor, but a blender will also work.

Combine 3 cups of the basil leaves with the rest of the ingredients and process until well blended.  Add the remaining basil and process again. 

If you can use Parmesan, you can also add 1/2 cup finely grated (or microplaned). 

Updates

Add:
Jovial rice pasta

Sugar change:
I've changed sugars after finding out that it's a common practice to use Round Up to dessicate sugar cane before processing.  This leaves glyphosate residues and glyphosates negatively affect bacteria, including the good bacteria in our gut - and I need all the help I can get to keep my gut healthy!  Organic sugars are not processed in this way, so I've switched to C&H organic cane sugar and Trader Joe's organic cane sugar.  I'm working at changing the recipes to organic sugar.

Marinated Flank Steak

If you've been eating grass fed beef, you've probably noticed that it has a different texture from grain finished, store beef.  Marinating is one way to tenderize it - this recipe works great to get a steak ready for the grill or you can broil it in the oven.

Marinated Flank Steak

1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup coconut aminos
2T lemon juice
2T olive oil
1T honey
3 cloves garlic
1 large shallot
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

Put everything in the blender and liquify.  Put flank steak in a Ziploc bag, pour marinade over, and put in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.  Grill outside or broil in the oven to medium rare and cut into thin strips on the bias.  We serve it on rice, salad greens, or cooked greens.

Quinoa Biscotti

There's nothing better on a winter evening than biscotti and something hot to drink.  These are delicious!  And if you can eat it, would probably be great with half dipped in melted chocolate.

Quinoa Biscotti

1 3/4 cups quinoa flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup toasted almond slivers or pieces ( or 3/4 cup dried fruit pieces)
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup organic sugar
2T ground flax mixed with 6T water and cooked in microwave 1 min. or 2  eggs
1 T homemade vanilla

For quinoa flour, I grind sprouted, dried quinoa in a small blender (TriBest Personal Blender).  I usually use TruRoots sprouted quinoa.  If you don't have allergies you're trying to avoid cross contamination with, there are already ground quinoa flours you can buy.

Combine all ingredients and knead a few times until well mixed.  Divide dough into two pieces.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and press each section of dough into a 12 x 4 inch rectangle that is about 1 inch high.  Bake at 300 degrees for 25 - 28 minutes or until set in the center and a nice golden color.  Cool until still warm, but not too hot to handle.

Cut crosswise into pieces about 3/4 inch thick.  Turn slices so a cut edge is down and rebake (still at 300 degrees) for about 15 minutes until edges are golden.  Cool completely.

Sunflower Seed Butter Fudge

If you can eat peanuts, this also works with peanuts - use one that is peanut only, with no added oils or sugars.

Sunflower Seed Butter Fudge
2 cups organic sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 T coconut oil + additional for greasing pan
3 T inverted sugar syrup*
1 cup sunflower seed butter (I use SunButter Organic - it has no added ingredients)

Grease a pie plate with coconut oil.  Add everything to a heavy saucepan and cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it boils.  Lower heat to medium and continue cooking, still stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add in sunflower seed butter, mixing thoroughly.  Pour into the greased pie plate and let cool for about 20 minutes.  Cut into pieces and put into the refrigerator (still in the pie plate) to cool completely and firm up.

*If corn is not a problem for you, corn syrup can be substituted.  Otherwise use inverted sugar syrup.  I use the recipe found here, with regular organic sugar in place of the extra fine.

Herbed Gravy

We like this with our herb roasted Thanksgiving turkey!

Herbed Gravy

2 cups of turkey drippings, most of fat removed
1/4 cup white wine
1 large shallot, sliced
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp. rubbed sage or 1 T chopped fresh sage
1 tsp. dried thyme or 1 T fresh thyme
1 to 4 T arrowroot starch (or potato or tapioca starch)
olive oil
salt and pepper

In a saucepan, saute shallot and garlic in a little olive oil until golden brown.  Add white wine, all but 1/2 cup of the turkey drippings, and herbs and bring to a simmer.  Add arrowroot starch to the reserved turkey drippings and stir to dissolve.  Using a whisk, slowly add the starch mixture to the saucepan, stirring until thickened.  How much starch you use will depend on how thick you like your gravy to be - 1 T will be more like au jus and 4 T will be be thick.  I use 2 T.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Maple and Brown Sugar Cranberry Sauce

This recipe doesn't have any spices in it (histamine problems!), but if you do fine with them you can add in cinnamon and cloves.

Maple Cranberry Sauce

24 oz. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
1 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup water

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Keep stirring to prevent burning on the bottom.  Cool and then refrigerate.

Brined Turkey

If you are cooking a farm raised, pastured turkey this Thanksgiving you'll notice it's a bit drier than the supermarket ones, no matter how much you baste.  That's due to no injections of moisture holding solutions!  To make your turkey moister, you can brine it before you put it in to roast.

Brined Turkey

2 1/2 gallons water (you can sub 1 bottle of white wine in for that amount of the water if you have a wine you like - I use Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc for this)
1 1/2 cups kosher flake salt
1 1/2 cups organic sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (or 4 quartered lemons if you have them)
8 sprigs of rosemary
8 juniper berries, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 T peppercorns

Before you begin, decide what you're going to put your turkey in!  If it's not too large, you may be able to get it and the brining liquid in a very large stockpot.  I use Ziploc X-tra large bags - Amazon carries them here.  

In a large container, mix 1 1/2 gallons of the water (sub the wine in here if you're going that way) and all the rest of the ingredients, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar.  Rinse off the turkey and place in your brining container.  This is where I put the open back in my largest stockpot.  Put the turkey into the bag and add the brining mixture.  It really helps at this step to have another person helping so they can hold the bag upright!  Add additional water until the turkey is completely submerged.  Seal the bag (or cover the container you're using) and put in the refrigerator for 1 to 1/2 days - and yes, brining time is a matter of personal preference!  Some people would never dream of brining a turkey for longer than half a day and others don't consider it done before 2 days.  You have leeway!  

I also use packing tape to hold the bag upright above my stockpot as in the photo below.

Rinse and dry off before roasting with your usual recipe.

Updates through 10-29-13

Add:
Dill (may not work for low histamine)
Ginger Ice Cream variation to Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Grass fed and finished beef, water processed only (may not work for low histamine)

Sweet Potato Bread

I love the flavors of fall - pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger ..... with a pumpkin allergy and cinnamon histamine problems, however, I have to get creative!  Sweet potatoes mimic the taste and feel of pumpkin nicely and I've found that using molasses and ginger gives an flavor that satisfies my fall cravings.  This recipe is adapted from one Diane Neuman has on her blog - a wonderful resource for allergy cooking.

We like to eat this warm with a scoop of ginger ice cream on top!

Sweet Potato Bread - makes one loaf

1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup organic sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup sweet potatoes (boiled, peeled, and mashed - peeling after 
      boiling helps keep the potassium)
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
2 T homemade vanilla
2 eggs or 2T flax + 6 T water microwaved for 1 minute

Mix together dry ingredients.  Add with the rest of the ingredients to a food processor (if you don't have one, mash the sweet potatoes well and use a mixer).  Process until smooth and pour into a well oiled loaf pan - I also added a piece of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for a metal pan or 325 degrees for a glass pan for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.  Cool for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool further.

Barbecued Lamb Liver Kebabs

Okay - no eww's until you've tried this!  Next to pate and dirty rice, this is the most delicious way to eat liver ever!

Barbecued Lamb Liver Kebabs
serves 4

1 pound lamb liver, from grass fed and finished, pastured animals
flour tortillas, naan, chapatis, or a similar type bread

Marinade:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine
1T dried thyme
1T dried oregano
1T dried basil
1 clove garlic, peeled and grated
salt and pepper

Toppings:
2 cups sliced red peppers
2 large shallots, peeled and sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
olive oil
salt and pepper

Rinse and dry liver and slice into thin strips.  Mix marinade and pour over liver.  Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Thread liver strips onto skewers and barbecue over hot coals for a few minutes on each side.  Lamb liver cooks very quickly and will be tough and bitter if overcooked - you want it pink inside.

For toppings, heat olive oil and saute shallots and garlic until lightly browned.  Add pepper strips and continue cooking until softened.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Updates through 7-30-13

Add:
Atkins Ranch lamb chops
Apolloni OR wines - chardonnay, blanc, gris, rose
Bare Fruit dried Fuji apples
Dairy Creek Farms honey - http://www.dairycreekfarm.com/honey_store.html
Lazzari lump mesquite charcoal
Trader Joe's baking soda
Organic raspberries - not with a liner in the bottom
Laura Chenel plain goat chevre

Jam Without Added Pectin

If you have many food allergies, chances are good you can't use any of the commercial pectins - although some people have been okay with Pomona Pectin.  Jam is easy enough to make without adding pectin, though, that I just leave it out!  All you need are three ingredients - fruit, sugar, and lemon juice.  And for the most flavorful jams, think small batch and fast cooking.

Jam

About 3 pounds soft fruit, stone fruit, or berries
Juice of 2 lemons
Sugar - how much depends on how much fruit pulp you get, see below. 
Glass canning jars - 3 pint sized or 7 half-pint
Canning rings and lids

1.  Thoroughly wash and rinse jars, rings, and lids.  Place in a pot, cover with water, and boil for 10 minutes.  I just leave these in the hot water until I fill them.

2.  Pit and roughly chop fruit - add to a large pot.  This will bubble up while cooking, so you want lots of room.  Really soft berries don't need to be chopped and with cherries I quarter about 2/3 of them and halve the rest.

3.  Add lemon juice and cook until juices are released - about 7 - 10 minutes.

4.  Remove from heat and measure.  For every cup of fruit mixture, add 3/4 cup of sugar.  

5.  Cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches 220 - 222 degrees F on a candy thermometer.  For every 1000 feet above sea level you are, subtract 2 degrees from this.

6.   Remove jars from the hot water and fill, leaving 1/4 inch head room.  Put on lids and rings and tighten.  If don't have enough to fill the last jar, just keep the jar in the refrigerator.

7.  Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

About the hot water bath - some people don't use it and their jams are fine, some swear they'll be unsafe without it.  I never used to put my jams through a hot water bath, but these days I do better avoiding needing medical attention so I err on the side of caution.  For more information on how to do a hot water bath, see this pamphlet from Virginia Tech.

Cheese Scones

These are totally addictive!  They may not, however, be low-histamine depending on your tolerance for cheese and which cheese you use.

Cheese Scones

2 cups rice flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/3 cup Spectrum palm shortening
2 cups grated cheese - I use Trader Joe's goat gouda (not the one with honey)
1/2 cup coconut milk + a little more for the tops
1 flax egg substitute recipe
Salt for the tops

Measure all dry ingredients into a bowl.  Cut in the shortening.  Mix in the cheese.  Add the coconut milk and egg substitute.  Stir until well mixed, finishing up by kneading with your hands.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, flatten into a flat circle about 7 inches in diameter.  Cut into 16 pie wedge shapes.  Separate the wedges so no sides are touching.  Brush with coconut milk and sprinkle or grind salt on the top of each scone.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes - until golden.

Plum Sorbet and Raw Cherry Sorbet

Summer and time for fruit sorbets!  In the photo, the cherry is the scoop on top and the plum is on the bottom - yeah, they look pretty much alike!!

Plum Sorbet

2 pounds plums - any type, in the photo I used Italian prune plums
1 cup organic sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon homemade vanilla

Pit plums, roughly chop, and put into a large saucepan.  Add sugar and lemon juice and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring.  Let mixture cool a little and then puree in a blender.  Add vanilla and refrigerate until cold.  Freeze in an ice-cream maker.


Raw Cherry Sorbet

4 cups pitted cherries
1/2 cup organic sugar
1T homemade vanilla

Puree everything in a blender and refrigerate until cold.  Freeze in an ice-cream maker.

Pasta Your Way

Jim always says we never have the same pasta dish twice!  That may be true - I don't follow a recipe, but just add what we have on hand.  There is a pattern to what I do, though:

Pasta Your Way - for each 3-4 servings
1.  1/2 package Trader Joe's penne, cooked al dente and drained
1 large shallot - sliced
2 cloves garlic, grated (optional)
Olive oil
About 1 pound of meat - add more or less depending on how much meat you like.  You can even leave it out.  I usually use one large chicken breast or a turkey tender.
Saute the shallot and garlic in olive oil until golden.  Salt and pepper.  Add the meat and cook until done.  Salt and pepper again.

2.  1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup broth
juice of 1/2 lemon
herbs - a handful of fresh or about a Tablespoon of dried (I didn't use any on the greens dish since the arugula and mustard add a lot of bite)
vegetables - here are some ideas:
- paper thin fennel and green beans
- greens - the photo is 2 baby bok choy, a handful of arugula, a handful of mustard greens, and some fresh basil
- sliced red peppers and sliced cauliflower
Deglaze the pan with the wine.  Add broth, lemon juice and herbs and cook down about 5 minutes.  Add vegetables and cover.  Cook until vegetables are as soft as you want them to be - a minute for the greens or already cooked veggies, longer if you use raw vegetables.

3.  Add the cooked, drained pasta and dish up.  You can top each serving with grated cheese (I did in the greens dish above) or chopped, toasted almonds.  Or both!