The Slug & Lettuce version is described as penne pasta in a Sheese® sauce with onion, peas and mixed peppers, finished with spring onion. The one I had seemed a little different though. I don't remember any peas or any peppers, but it did have sun-dried tomatoes in it.
Either way, it gave me the idea to make my own quick fajita pasta at home.
I wasn't bothered about keeping mine vegan, so I went for a simple vegetarian version using cream cheese, Cheddar and a ready-made fajita seasoning mix. No measuring out cumin, paprika, chilli and garlic... hence the word cheat.
It turned out to be a lovely tea, and from start to finish it only takes about 20 minutes.
Cheat Fajita Pasta Recipe
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 200g penne pasta
- ½ onion, thinly sliced
- 50–60g sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
- ½ pepper, thinly sliced – optional
- A small handful of peas – optional
- 2 teaspoons fajita seasoning mix
- 100g full-fat cream cheese
- 50g grated Cheddar - optional
- A splash of milk
- A little pasta cooking water
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- A squeeze of lime
- 1 tablespoon oil, ideally from the sun-dried tomato jar
- Black pepper
How to Make Fajita Pasta
- Cook the penne according to the packet instructions. Before draining it, save a little of the pasta cooking water.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan and gently cook the onion for a few minutes until it starts to soften.
- If you're using pepper, add it to the pan and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes, then stir in the fajita seasoning. I used 2 teaspoons, which gave the pasta plenty of flavour while keeping it fairly mild.
- Turn the heat down and add the cream cheese, grated Cheddar and a splash of milk. Stir until everything has melted into a smooth, creamy sauce.
- Add the cooked penne along with a splash of the reserved pasta water. Stir everything together until the sauce coats the pasta properly.
- If you're adding peas, stir them through now and give them a minute or two to heat through.
- Finish with a squeeze of lime, plenty of black pepper and the sliced spring onions on top for decoration.
- Serve straight away.
Chicken or Quorn Fajita Pasta
This works perfectly well as it is, but you can easily turn it into a more substantial meal by adding chicken or Quorn.
If you're using chicken, slice it into small pieces and cook it thoroughly before adding the onion and continuing with the recipe. Quorn pieces can be cooked in much the same way, following the packet instructions.
Either option works really well with the creamy fajita sauce and turns this into an easy chicken fajita pasta or Quorn fajita pasta without changing much else.
A Few Notes
The peas and pepper are both optional. The Slug & Lettuce fajita pasta description mentions both, but the dish I was served didn't seem to contain peas and didn't have much pepper either.
I did use half a pepper in my homemade version and thought it worked well, but the sun-dried tomatoes were the ingredient I definitely wanted to keep. They add a slightly sweet, savoury flavour that works brilliantly with the creamy cheese sauce and fajita seasoning.
You could, of course, make your own fajita seasoning using garlic, smoked paprika, cumin and chilli powder, but that rather defeats the point of this recipe.
This is supposed to be a quick and easy fajita pasta inspired by the Slug & Lettuce Vegan Fajita Pasta, and the ready-made seasoning does the job perfectly.
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