Turkish Pasta with Beef Sauce

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary but tasty, keep reading! I found this recipe in "Eatin' Well" magazine, but tweaked it quite a bit to get it to our tastes. It was so yummy and easy! It took me about an hour to prepare and cook this meal. I think you could use any ground meat for this recipe and it would turn out good. I know the ingredient list looks long, but it is mostly stuff you would probably have on hand.

Turkish Pasta with Beef Sauce:

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1/2 cup finally chopped celery

1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)

1 Tbl minced garlic

2 Tbl olive oil

1 lb ground beef (or any ground meat)

2 Tbl paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 to 2 tsps Celtic Sea Salt

1/4 to 1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 pomegranate juice or 1/2 plum jam

2 cups diced tomatoes (fresh, frozen, canned)

1/2 to 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro

1 Tbl lemon juice

1 lb whole wheat pasta (fettucine, or penne)

1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

1.) Put pot of water on to boil.

2.) I used my grater blade on my food processor and ran a carrot, a stalk of celery and 1 1/2 onions through it (could also finely chop all with a knife).

3.) Heat 2 Tbl olive oil using medium heat, add ground beef and all the veggies, including mushrooms and garlic. Cover and cook, stirring frequently until meat is brown and veggies are softened (add a little water to keep from sticking if you need to).

4.) Add all the spices, jam or pomegranate juice, lemon juice, tomatoes and cilantro. Bring to simmer, reduce heat and cook uncovered, maintaining a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. If sauce gets to thick, add water, if too thin, boil for a few minutes.

5.) In the meantime, cook pasta until just tender. Drain.

6.) Divide pasta into bowls, spoon sauce over pasta, add a spoonful of sour cream or yogurt, with freshly snipped cilantro if desired.

(Makes 8 servings, can easily freeze leftover pasta and sauce for another meal later.)