Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Pasta with Asparagus and Chicken Sausage

Sometimes you just need to eat vegetables. And only vegetables. I’ve been trying to work within my constraints of cheap, healthy and relatively quick. I gave the cauliflower pizza phenomenon a try:

As well as Greek vegetable tacos comprised of sautéed broccoli slaw in balsamic topped with mint garlic yogurt sauce and avocado:

When cooking for others, it’s harder to get away with throwing a lot of vegetables on a plate and calling it dinner. Last night I made a couple girls a pumpkin blue cheese pasta dish for our catch-up dinner. It that was inspired by the type of recipe I used to cook with my old (soon to be new again) roommate who loves pumpkin as much as I do.

Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Pasta with Asparagus and Chicken Sausage

1 pound whole wheat penne (or other small pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1 bunch asparagus, chopped into 2” sections
2 chicken sausages, sliced (I used TJ’s spinach and fontina version)
½ can pumpkin puree
½ cup white wine
½ cup chicken stock
scoop Greek yogurt
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (more or less to taste)
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
parmesan cheese and/or parsley to finish

Boil penne per instructions until al dente. Sautee asparagus, 1 clove of garlic and chicken sausage in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until cooked through and set aside. In the same pan, heat remaining tablespoon of oil and stir in garlic. Add pumpkin, white wine and chicken stock and cook down for about 5 minutes. Stir in yogurt and blue cheese for another few minutes. Finish with spices and add sausage and asparagus, before adding in pasta. Top with parmesan.