Pumkin and Spinach Brown Rice Penne

I have been trying to move away from the pre-packaged 'gluten free' brands of pasta due to a lot of unnecessary ingredients and I have been playing in the bulk bins at the organic store. My newest find has been brown rice pasta. As with most gluten free pasta it is still a little fragile, but when you get it right it is just delicious. Here is a simple recipe to add as a side to your salad. Remember brown rice is slightly acidic so you want to team it with a big plate of greens so you meal is alkaline :) Try it with my Tomato Quinoa Salad as seen in the picture above.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a side)
1 cup of brown rice penne
2 cups of pumpkin, cut chunky
2TBS coconut oil
2 handfuls of spinach
Optional 1/2 cup cashews
Optional 100g of cubed feta
Flaxseed oil

• Preheat the oven to 175 °C
• Cook the pumpkin pieces on a tray sitting in the coconut oil for 15mins in the oven
• Cook the penne in 2 cups of water for 10mins over medium-high heat or until you get the texture you like
• Drain the penne
• Add the pumpkin, spinach, cashews and feta to the drained penne
• Mix until the spinach wilts
• Drizzle with some flaxseed oil (this is added at the end as you you may have read in our coconut oil post these oils turn rancid at high heats)