Spicy pineapple pasta with oil-free seasoning

Culturally, we tend to associate vegetables with salty and fruits with sweet dishes. There is some logic to it: some vegetables aren’t very sweet, and lend themselves to savory sauces and dressings. Others, like celery, even naturally contain some sodium. Fruits, on the other hand, are naturally sweet.

However, mixing and matching is also very common when it comes to sweet and savory flavors. That’s what today’s recipe is about.

When I lived in Asia, I came across a few dishes which used pineapple as a slightly cooked ingredient, at least served hot. These dishes were also spicy, and included rice or noodles, and sometimes animal products. This vegan pasta dish takes inspiration from these by combining pineapple, pasta and noodle with hot sauce, but without fish, meat or dairy.

It is also oil-free, relying solely on the flavors from balsamic vinegar, mixed with the rest of the ingredients. The experiments of the moment in recipes on my site focus on whole foods, plant-based, no oil (abbreviated WFPBNO). Some people call it vegan, low fat, which is also accurate. According to Dr Esselstyn, the lipid content of a plant-based diet which does not include oil averages to 10 to 11% fat, relative to about 30% fat for the traditional Western diet. I haven’t measured precisely the fat contents of this particular recipe, but it follows the input variables: no animal product, no oil, whole foods.

I think this spicy pineapple pasta with oil-free seasoning works well. When testing hot sauces I added sriracha for visual and for flavor, and felt that Tabasco hot sauce, while less pretty on the pictures, matched better with the balsamic vinegar and pineapple. Obviously, this is a subjective call, like so much when it comes to eating. Bon appétit!