30-Minute Meals Archives | The Good Hearted Woman

Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara {20-Minute Dinner}

Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara makes a perfect weeknight meal! This family-pleaser takes just 20 minutes pot-to-plate; plus, it’s vegetarian & budget-friendly!

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Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara is has been a staple on our menu for years now. Back when my kids were young (and half of them were vegetarians), I was always on the lookout for quick, easy meals that didn’t take a lot of effort. If they were budget friendly, even better.

When I worked up the recipe for this 20-Minute Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara, it totally fit the bill! Most importantly, though – ALL five of my kiddos devoured it whenever I made it, which is something of a miracle.

Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara takes about 20 minutes to throw together, making it a perfect weeknight meal. (YES!! You read that right – 20 minutes, pot-to-plate!) Plus, it’s vegetarian and budget-friendly.

DID YOU KNOW?

“Carbonara” means Charcoal Burner in Italian – I looked it up. Surprised? Me too.

I’ll be honest: for the longest time, I thought “carbonara” meant “bacon” – because it’s nearly impossible to find a recipe for Carbonara that doesn’t include bacon (or its fancy cousin, pancetta). 😁

5 from 5 votes

Sun-dried Tomato Carbonara

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time20 mins

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Course: Main Course, Main Dish

Keyword: pasta, sun-dried tomatoes

Servings: servings

Calories: 296kcal

Author: Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Equipment

Ingredients

6 oz. thin spaghetti or angle hair pasta
4 quarts water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil loosely packed
2 large eggs lightly beaten
½ cup half & half or milk
¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese divided
½ ounce fresh basil leaves about large 10-15 leaves
Freshly ground pepper and kosher salt
Additional fresh basil leaves to garnish

Instructions

Cook Pasta

Heat 6 quarts of water in a large pot on high heat. When the water is boiling, add 1 tablespoon of salt and two tablespoons of olive oil. Reduce heat to simmer and add pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally, according to directions until barely al dente. (Just barely done.)

While the pasta is cooking:

Drain sun-dried tomatoes. (Put the oil back in the jar to use later!) Chop the sun-dried tomatoes into 1/4"-1/2" pieces. Set aside.
Chiffonade the basil. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and half of the Parmesan.

Finishing Up:

When the pasta is done, drain it thoroughly in a colander, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid.
Heat a Dutch Oven or other heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 cup of the reserve pasta cooking liquid and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium. Add drained pasta pasta to hot cooking liquid in Dutch oven and stir constantly, using tongs, until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Whisk 1/2 cup reserve cooking liquid into egg mixture. (This tempers the egg mixture. DO NOT skip this step!)
Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the hot pasta, tossing it all constantly with tongs as you do. Continue stirring with tongs until egg mixture thickens to make a creamy sauce.
Remove carbonara from from heat.
I usually remove the pot from the heat when the sauce is just beginning to come together, and let it continue cooking in the residual heat. The trick is to keep the sauce constantly moving until it has thickened.
NOTE: If the sauce is too thick, you can use some of the remaining reserve liquid to thin it. Add about 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until the sauce is the consistency of heavy cream. (You will probably not use all of the reserve liquid.)
Once the sauce is as you like it, toss in half of the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, half of the basil, and half the Parmesan. Mix with tongs.
Finish with freshly ground pepper, and the remaining parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh basil.

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES

Angel Hair Pasta: You can use fettuccine or spaghetti, but angel hair is our favorite, plus it cooks in no time!
Sun-dried Tomatoes: 1 cup of drained, chopped, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes weighs about 5 ounces.
Milk: For a richer sauce, use half-and-half or cream.

Nutrition

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup {with a Sweet Surprise!}

October 7 By Renée ♥ 13 Comments

Loaded Baked Potato Soup is one of my top five favorite “30-minute Meals.” Fast, economical, and super-easy, this recipe has a sweet surprise that elevates the flavors and results in a perfectly balance bowl of comforting deliciousness.

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup is one of my top five favorite “30-minute Meals” – and this one I’ll even serve to company!

“Oh, you’ll be here in half an hour? And you’re starving? No problem!”

The first time I made this soup was when my girls were young and they unexpectedly brought home a few extra friends for dinner. We never turn away a hungry kid, but I had barely enough potatoes to begin with, and so I wasn’t sure we would have enough soup to go all around. I did, however, have a sweet potato, so I threw that into my baked potato soup instead.

Oh, my! What a difference that little sweet potato made! I’ll never make baked potato soup without one again!

Fast, economical, and straightforward, this delicious, easy-to-make Baked Potato Soup has a chowder-like consistency and a sweet surprise on the ingredient list. Check it out!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup: Ingredient Notes

Russet Potatoes

It is important to use and Idaho, Russet or other “starchy” type potatoes for this soup. The Russet has a neutral flavor and high starch content, which gives it a creamy, soft texture that breaks down easily. This all makes them the perfect choice for making a creamy soup like this one.

I have also successfully made this Baked Potato Soup with Yukon Gold potatoes, but the soup required a little more “mashing” than usual to achieve the desired consistency. (See Recipe Notes)

DO NOT USE waxy potato varieties (e.g., red potatoes, new potatoes, fingerling, etc.) for this recipe. Waxy potatoes have a low starch content and have a creamy, firm flesh that holds its shape well after cooking. They do not break down easily when cooked, resulting in a thin, bodiless soup.

White Sweet Potatoes

Bottom Line: Use white sweet potatoes for this recipe.

What’s the difference between orange and white sweet potatoes anyway? (And my Gramma told me the orange ones were yams. Are you contradicting my Gramma?)

I don’t know about you, but I grew up calling orange fleshed sweet potatoes “yams.” However, as I have since learned, it is nearly impossible to find true yams is the United States. Most of the tubers we were fed as children and told were yams were really sweet potatoes. It’s true.

OK, now that we’ve cleared that up, here’s the scoop on the differences between orange and white sweet potatoes.

While sweet potatoes around the world come in many different colors – brown, red, yellow, white, even purple – in the United States, nearly all of our sweet potatoes fall into two categories: [1] golden skin with creamy white flesh, and [2] brown or copper skin with an orange flesh.

Orange sweet potatoes are the heroes of holiday side dishes everywhere. They have a sweet, smooth, soft texture. White sweet potatoes, on the other hand, have a milder flavor and crumblier texture when cooked.

FYI Classroom Teachers: While I was preparing this post, I ran across these nifty (and free) Sweet Potato related STEM resources offered by the The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission.

Garlic

This is for all you cooks who habitually double the garlic in a recipe (I see you). You (i.e., We) are the reason this recipe recipe only calls for one clove of garlic instead of two. One large or two average-sized cloves are perfect, but if I put “2 cloves of garlic” in the ingredient list, someone is going to make this soup with four cloves instead, which is way too much – it simply overpowers everything.

All that being said, if you like a garlicky soup, you can safely add one more clove, for a total of two cloves of garlic.

5 from 4 votes

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

This Loaded Baked Potato Soup is fast, easy, and de-licious!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time30 mins

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Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon, onions, potatoes

Servings: bowls

Calories: 217kcal

Author: Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman