Protein Packed Veggie Pasta & Sauce

This is really good.  A variation of this sauce (without the veggies) can be used in other recipes, such as a veggie lasagna, eggplant parmesan or just by itself on noodles.  I plan to post another protein-full sauce using TVP soon that works well with a veggie lasagna and easily tricks meat-eaters into thinking it's filled with ground beef.

I need to mention that this recipe is made of two parts - the sauce that you blend up cold and which fills the blender, and the veggies that you saute with garlic and onion. The sauce gets added to the veggies.  This recipe, as written, will make far too much sauce for the veggies.  We usually use about one third of what is in the blender to go with this amount of veggies, then freeze the leftover sauce for future meals and different veggie combinations.

The final sauce is a lovely rosé colour, with lots of flavour - beats any tomato cream sauce I've ever had!

1 16 ounce jar roasted red bell peppers (or roast your own! So easy! I use about three peppers)
9 ounces silken or soft tofu
1.5 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups veggie broth
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Italian seasoning (or a tsp+ each of basil, oregano, etc.)
1/2 onion, chopped
10 spears asparagus, sliced on the diagonal
8 ounces fresh mushrooms (any), sliced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 (16) ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp hot chili sauce (sriracha or chili flakes to taste)
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
dash of red wine (optional)
parmesan cheese

Cook pasta in one pot to al dente.  In a blender/food processor, puree roasted peppers, tofu, tomato paste, broth, vinegar and Italian seasoning. Set aside. (This is the base sauce - Yummy and FULL of protein.) In separate pan, cook onion, garlic and asparagus in oil until desired tenderness (5 min). Add mushrooms and cook a few more minutes until mushrooms are soft.  Add in approximately one-third of the tofu sauce, tomatoes, salt, pepper and chili paste to desired amount with the vegetables. Reduce heat to low and simmer til heated through, adjusting seasonings to taste. I like to then add the pasta to the sauce and cook a bit longer to really distribute the sauce and cook the flavour in.  Serve with parmesan cheese.

We made this last night and have enough sauce left for at least two more meals. I'm going to make it with fresh spinach next week and more mushrooms, although the asparagus was REALLY good.  Apologies for the picture, there was a lot of steam rising off the dish so it looks kind of "dreamy" - and it was!