Buttery chicken and Tomato Pasta

Although I am currently trying to reduce our family's grain intake, we still have a pasta dish usually once a week or every other week because pasta is simple and the kids love it. When I was a kid I used to love pasta served with just a bunch of butter. So boring right? But it used to hit the spot. Anyway, several months ago I was searching for a creamy, buttery dairy-free pasta recipe and just couldn't find anything that would scratch my itch for buttery pasta. So I developed the following dish although I am not sure if it is really "buttery" or just creamy. This recipe has a few different steps but is actually pretty easy to prepare and qualifies as a quickie meal in our home.

Buttery Chicken and Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:
* 3/4 - 1 bag brown rice penne pasta
* 1/2 onion diced
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely diced
* 1 C organic unsalted chicken broth
* 1 Tbsp. arrowroot starch (Bob's Red Mill sells this)
* 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (found in bulk bins at health food store)
* 1 tsp salt
* ~1 1/2 C grape tomatoes, halved
* 2 C. cut up cooked chicken
* 1 C frozen peas
* 4 Tbsp olive or palm oil, divided
* Ume plum vinegar to taste

Instructions:
* Begin to cook pasta. Meanwhile add 1 Tbsp oil to small skillet. Saute onions and garlic until onions are tender. Set aside.

* Add broth, nutritional yeast, arrowroot and salt to a pyrex measuring glass. Mix thoroughly. Set aside.

* When pasta is done add peas to pot (an easy way to defrost them :) ), then drain reserving a small amount of water. Return pasta, reserved water and peas to pot.

* Add broth mixture, onions & garlic, chicken and tomatoes to the pasta. Cook on low heat until the sauce thickens, stirring well. Add 2-3 Tbsp oil, mix in and serve. Season with pepper & ume plum vinegar to add a saltier taste if desire.

This feeds our family of 2 adults and 3 little ones.