Wild Garlic Pasta With Miso Tahine Mushrooms

April 20, 2016

It’s wild garlic season, everyone! And it only lasts, like, a month, so you need to cook something with wild garlic RIGHT NOW or you’ll miss it and have to wait ANOTHER YEAR to be able to forage for/buy garlicky greens you don’t know how to use anyway!

I’m kidding, of course. You know what to do with wild garlic. You pesto it, obvs.
Yeah sure. Bought the t-shirt.
If you want to go for something slightly more interesting and instagram-worthy than the same old boring old wild garlic pesto with, to pick something at random, avocado toast (a-hem!), try this wild garlic pasta with miso tahine mushrooms.

• 10 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 2 tbsp tahine
• a squeeze of lemon
• 5-10 wild garlic leaves, depending on your (partner’s) tolerance for garlic smell
• handful mixed salad leaves
• pasta (I used edamame pasta – no carbs! Or feel free to substitute zoodles)
• dash of olive oil, salt and pepper
• mace flowers or nutmeg

Sauté the mushrooms in some olive oil while cooking the pasta al dente. The mushrooms will almost certainly take longer to brown than you think they do, so plan accordingly (just sayin’).
Meanwhile, mix miso paste, tahine and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice into a creamy marinade. Once the mushrooms are lightly browned and almost done, add the wild garlic and the marinade to the pan. Season with pepper, mace or nutmeg.
After a minute or two tip the drained pasta into the pan and let the flavours mingle (at this point I always imagine a networking party where the nutmeg is trying to get at the pasta while the miso paste is busily distributing its business cards to inattentive mushrooms…). Anyway. Let the flavours do their thing for another minute or two, then serve on a bed of salad.

If this leaves you wondering what else to do with your miso paste, might I suggest Roast Pumpkin, Pickled Radish Chicken Soup or a simple Quinoa Lunchbox base?