Vegetarian Recipe: Cheese Tortellini with Spinach, Peas, and Brown Butter

You don't have to be a Vegetarian to enjoy a meal without meat. As with most things, eating Vegetarian is easier when you have a few options at the ready. I often find myself gravitating to the recipes from Real Simple magazine for three reasons. One, they are (as you may imagine) SIMPLE. Two, they are generally healthy (i.e. they use REAL, fresh ingredients). Three, they are tasty and can be easily improved upon by just tweaking the recipe slightly.

Cheese Tortellini with Spinach, Peas, and Brown Butter

by Real Simple magazine

Put a pot of water onto boil. Add tortellini to boiling water and cook according to package directions. This assumes that you do not make your own handmade tortellini from scratch, If you do, you are a true kitchen rock star and don't need this blog. All others, read on!

You can add frozen peas to the boiling water during the last 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan and let it cook until the milk solids begin to brown to create a nutty and intensely rich sauce. Add the spinach and tomato and cook until the spinach is wilted and the tomato starts to soften. Stir in the cooked cheese tortellini and peas. Finish with a dose of lemon juice and a sprinkling of fresh lemon zest.

My Tweak: Add some freshly minced garlic to the butter during browning.

Enjoy!