This is a recipe I came up with mainly out of necessity. I was on vacation at the home of some good friends of mine. They don’t like to cook as much as I do (which isn’t a difficult criteria, as even most people who like to cook don’t make a whole website about it), and their kitchen is a bit limited compared to mine in terms of equipment.
Both of them had been making an effort to eat healthier and both were tired of meals that took an hour or more to put together, so I suggested we use mainly ingredients they already had, add a couple of other vegetables, and make something not a million miles away from a stir-fry. The final dish here has a few things going for it:
- An abundance of fresh vegetables
- A mix of fresh, flavorful ingredients and easy prepackaged ones to save a significant amount of prep time
- A flavorful sauce made of a mix of a pre-bottled Teriyaki sauce coupled with a quick, in-pan tomato sauce
- The beef and sauce mixture all comes together in a single pan, making it easy put together in a short time
All-in-all, it’s all the ingredients I would hope for in a tasty weeknight meal. Nothing extremely fancy but tasty nonetheless.
Asian-Style Tortellini
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 2 cups julienne carrots
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 large zucchini or twice as many small ones quartered and cut in half-inch pieces
- 1 12-ounce bottle teriyaki sauce
- 10 rings pickled banana peppers roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 10-ounce package cheese tortellini
- 1 8-ounce package spinach
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil and salt generously.
- In a large skillet, sear beef on high heat on both sides. Crumble and cook through, then add salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic.
- When garlic is fragrant, add carrots and tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes begin to wrinkle, at which point they can easily be burst with a wooden spoon.
- Add soy sauce and deglaze pan.
- Reduce heat and add zucchini. When zucchini is partly cooked but still toothsome, add teriyaki sauce, banana peppers, and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Put the tortellini in the boiling water, then wilt the spinach into the hot sauce. When the tortellini is ready, put in with the sauce and vegetables and stir to combine.
Make it? Love it?
