Millennium Pasta Carbonara

This delicious and healthy recipe is easy to prepare. The original recipe is available in Dr. Neal Barnard’s NutritionMD web site, www.nutritionMD.com. It is a recipe submitted by the Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco, which is recognized as one of the finest gourmet vegetarian restaurants in the world.

This creamy and spicy pasta recipe is low in calories and total fat content, high in fiber, and high in vitamins and minerals.

Total calories = 250; Fat calories = 34; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 12% (3.8 g), Protein = 18% (13 g); Carbohydrates = 70% (50 g)

With more than 20% of the RDA, it is an excellent source of Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Iron, Magnesium, and Niacin; and with between 10% and 20% of the RDA, it is a good source of Calcium, Folic Acid, Pantothenic Acid, and Selenium.

It fits the nutrition guidelines recommended for a low fat, whole foods, mostly plant based diet strategy. These nutrition guidelines are included in the “Nutrition Analysis - by the numbers ... ” post on the Foodie and Friends blog (www.FoodieandFriends.com). Its ingredients are high in nutrient density and fiber and are in Dr. Dean Ornish’s classification of healthiest ingredients, which can be found in his books, including “The Spectrum”.

The goal of a low fat diet is to keep fat content below 20% and preferably closer to 10% of total daily calories. For a 2000 calorie diet, a Fat content of 33 grams to 44 grams, represents 15% to 20% of total calories. With 3.8 grams of total fat, this is a suitable recipe to be included in a daily low fat menu.

Preparation demonstration and nutrition analysis after the jump:

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Millennium Braised Garlic

4 cloves - Raw Garlic
1 cup – Vegetable Broth (low sodium, organic) Pacific Natural Foods
0.5 tsp - leaves Dried Thyme
1 tsp - Fresh Rosemary

Cut the top off Each head of garlic, about ½ inch from the top.

Place the garlic heads in a small baking dish, and add the vegetable broth and spices.

Dry white wine or non- alcoholic wine could be used in pace of the vegetable broth.

I really like buying spices in small quantities from markets that sell them in bulk.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

I cut the top off a sweet yellow onion and paced it in the baking dish to braise at the same time. I’ll use it in another recipe.

Bake them for 1 ½ hours – until the heads are soft and slightly browned.

Set them aside to cool. Then squeeze the soft garlic cloves out of open tops.

Millennium Pasta Carbonara

3 cups - soy milk - plain Silk
2 tbsps - Nutritional Yeast Flakes Red Star
2 tbsps – Miso (white)
1 tsp - leaves Dried Oregano
0.5 tsp - Black Pepper
0.5 tsp - Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp - Fennel Seed
2 tsps – Paprika (Spanish)
0.33 tsp - Cayenne Pepper

1 recipe - Millennium Braised Garlic Recipe


Blend all these ingredients together.

Be careful with how much Paprika and Cayenne Pepper you use. With too much, the recipe could become too “spicy”.




12 oz - Penne (Whole Wheat) Davinci

While cooking the Whole Wheat Penne Pasta, keep the sauce warm in a 150 degree oven.






Spoon the sauce over the pasta.





The original recipe does not call for adding any cheese topping. I chose to add hard parmesan cheese.

If 1 oz of hard parmesan cheese is added to the entire recipe, it adds 19 calories to the total, increasing it to 268 calories, with an additional 11 Fat calories, increasing it to 46 Fat calories, raising the Fat content by 1.2 grams to a total 5.1 grams.

If a low fat Parmesan cheese is used, it increases the fat content by 0.24 grams to a total of 4.1 grams.



This delicious recipe could be served alone, or with a salad, or topped with grilled shrimp or salmon, or with a side of vegetables, or topped with a skewer of grilled vegetables – or any of these kinds of variations.

How would you serve it?

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Nutrition Variations

There are small variations in fat content caused by changing ingredients. The original recipe specifies light soy milk. But, it also could be made with whole soy milk or skim milk. And, different toppings could be added.

Basic Ingredients

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Light Soy Milk
Total calories = 235; Fat calories = 27; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 10% (3 g), Protein = 17% (12 g); Carbohydrates = 73% (50 g)

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Soy Milk
Total calories = 250; Fat calories = 34; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 12% (3.8 g), Protein = 18% (13 g); Carbohydrates = 70% (50 g)

Some people might prefer to use skim milk. This would reduce the fat content, but introduce animal protein, casein, into the recipe.

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Skim Milk
Total calories = 243; Fat calories = 19; Fiber = 6.7 grams
Fat = 7% (2.1 g), Protein = 19% (13 g); Carbohydrates = 75% (52 g)

Toppings

The original recipe does not specify any toppings. If 1 oz of hard parmesan cheese is added to the entire recipe, it adds 19 calories to the total, increasing it to 268 calories, with an additional 11 Fat calories, increasing it to 46 Fat calories, raising the Fat content by 1.2 grams to a total 5.1 grams.

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Whole Soy Milk and Hard Parmesan Cheese Topping
Total calories = 268; Fat calories = 46; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 15% (5.1 g), Protein = 19% (14 g); Carbohydrates = 66% (50 g)

If a low fat Parmesan cheese is used, it increases the fat content by 0.24 grams to a total of 4.1 grams.

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Whole Soy Milk and Fat Free Parmesan Cheese Topping
Total calories = 267; Fat calories = 37; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 12% (4.1 g), Protein = 20% (15 g); Carbohydrates = 68% (52 g)

If 3 medium shrimp per serving are added to the basic whole soy milk recipe, it adds 0.26 grams fat per serving and raises the cholesterol from 5 mg to 25 mg.

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Whole Soy Milk and 3 Medium Shrimp per Serving
Total calories = 264; Fat calories = 37; Fiber = 7.2 grams
Fat = 12% (4.1 g), Protein = 20% (15 g); Carbohydrates = 67% (50 g)

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Millennium Braised Garlic

Millennium Pasta Carbonara
With Soy Milk