An Easy Weeknight Meal From Aldi
If you need a quick, easy weeknight meal without a bunch pots and pans to clean up I have you covered. What is even better is you can keep all these ingredients on hand in your panty or freezer so you can always have an easy go-to meal when you don’t know what to cook.
Aldi Pasta
Aldi has a lot of options when it comes to pasta and most of them can be swapped in or out in these recipes. You will just need to adjust the cooking time and the amount on pasta/water.
If you are looking for a premium experience I highly recommend the Priano Bronze Cut Pasta from Aldi. It is a bit more expensive that Aldi’s other noodles but they are very high quality for the price.
Aldi also carries organic pasta, gluten free pasta, soybean pasta, chickpea pasta, along with a variety of standard pasta noodles. Pick a pasta variety that you like and adjust the recipe to fit.
Aldi Pasta Sauces
Aldi’s jarred pasta sauces are really good in my opinion especially for the price. Even the organic tomato sauces are generally less than brands I would buy at other grocery stores. I like the Simply Nature pasta sauces and the Specially Selected.
With any jarred sauces I like to add a little more flavor with some fresh garlic sauteed in olive oil. Sometimes I will throw in some additional fresh or dried herbs as well. And a little crushed red pepper flakes or fresh cracked black pepper help amp it up a little as well.
Proteins, Toppings, and Add-Ins
There are a ton of options to add to your pasta but I will list out some of my favorites to give you some ideas to make it your own.
- Earth Grown Meatless Meatballs (great to keep in the freezer even if you eat meat!)
- Sausage or brats
- Shrimp
- Spinach
- Ground beef or Ground Turkey
- Cured Meats: prosciutto, bacon, salami, or some of the other specialty meats
- Chicken: left over chicken, Red Bag Chicken, rotisserie chicken
- Your favorite cheese
Vegan/Vegetarian Meatball Pasta Recipe
One Pot Chickpea Pasta and Meatless Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 Package Simply Nature Chickpea Rotini (12 oz) Can replace with you favorite pasta
- 1 Jar Simple Nature Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce Can swap with another jarred sauce or homemade
- 15 Meatballs Earth Grown Meatless Meatballs Can swap with regular meatballs (precooked)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil (optional)
- 3 Cloves Fresh Garlic (mince or use a garlic press) (optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot boil about 5 cups water (will be drained later), add salt if you want
- Cook chickpea pasta about 5 minutes until al dente. Follow package instructions if using a different pasta.
- Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Strain pasta, rinse with cold water if using chickpea pasta or if you are making pasta ahead of time and set aside. If using regular pasta do not rinse, you can drizzle some olive oil on it to prevent sticking.
- (Optional step): In the same pan over low-medium heat add olive oil and garlic. Cook until fragrant and then add meatballs and cook for about 3 minutes.
- Over low to medium heat add the pasta sauce to the same pan. If you skipped step 4 add your meatballs now.
- Cook meatless meatballs in the sauce for 10-15 minutes until cooked through and hot in the center.
- If the sauce starts to get too thick add some of the reserved pasta water a little at a time to thin it out.
- Once the meatballs are finished cooking add the pasta back to the pot and stir to incorporate. You can also put the pasta on a plate and top with sauce if you prefer.
- You can add any optional toppings now. Some good options are cheese, vegan cheese, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, or black pepper.
Notes
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