Stomach-Friendly Spinach Pasta & Tempeh: The Perfect Ramadan Meal

The pasta dish is packed with mild flavour and nutrition.

Credit: Adeline Leong/TRP & Freepik

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There’s nothing quite like that first meal after a day of fasting. After hours of rest, your digestive system needs a gentle reintroduction to food.

If you know what it’s like to have a sensitive stomach, join the gang! We got you covered. The spinach pasta and tempeh recipe my friend and I came up with is built around gentle, stomach-friendly ingredients that are kind to your digestive system without sacrificing flavour and ensures you’re properly refueled.

Here are the ingredients and items you need:

200ml of cottage cheese
100g of baby spinach
1 Tbsp of cumin seeds
1 Tbsp of fennel seeds
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
A handful of basil leaves (optional)
Tempeh slices
Pasta/spaghetti of your choice
Food blender/processor
Spatula

Let’s start taking over the kitchen

It’s really simple to make the delicious sauce to go with the pasta. Toss the cottage cheese, baby spinach, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds into the blender. Drizzle olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper to taste. Blend the mixture until the texture is to your liking. Depending on your food blender or processor, you may need to pause occasionally to scrape down the sides with a spatula.

Once the sauce is done, it’s time to boil the pasta. The process to boil the pasta is straightforward enough, so we’ll skip right on ahead with preparing the tempeh.

To make fried tempeh, start by cutting the tempeh block into thin slices. Cook the tempeh slices in an air fryer for 15 to 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius without any oil. That’s pretty much it, really.

Now with the sauce, pasta, and fried tempeh ready, you can assemble your meal! Mix the sauce with the pasta and top it with delicious fried tempeh. The pasta can be eaten hot or cold from the fridge.

The final product! I apologise for the lack of pictures. We gobbled it all up because it was that good. Image: Adeline Leong/TRP

Why use these ingredients?

Cumin and fennel seeds are traditional remedies for various digestive issues. Both help to alleviate gastric and acid reflux symptoms. This is because it has carminative properties, which means it helps relieve gas, bloating, and indigestion. They act as a natural digestive aid.

Meanwhile, spinach is high in fiber and nutrient content. Fibers help regulate digestion and support a healthy microbiome. What about cottage cheese? Cottage cheese is low-fat and low-sugar, making it another stomach-friendly ingredient, although it contains lactose. The high-protein casein in cottage cheese helps with digestion as well.

Tempeh is also easy to digest because complex proteins are broken down during the fermentation process. Tempeh is a rich source of prebiotic fibers that nourish beneficial gut bacteria.

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