Many pasta dishes are light and vibrant, but when we think of dishes made from these carbs, we usually go to the creamy, heavy meals first. Thankfully, Ina Garten has found a way to marry these sturdier dishes with healthy, nutritious principles. She demonstrates this with her spring green spaghetti carbonara. The chef begins her sauce by making a carbonara in a standard way, by combining pancetta with egg yolks and cream. Into that, though, she throws an abundance of vegetables by way of snow peas, fresh peas, and asparagus, which she cooks with her pasta, alongside some scallions and chives for freshness.

Why doesn’t Garten just make her carbonara the classic way? The simple reason is that it can just be way too heavy. “It’s like cream and bacon and cheese, and you want to take a nap afterwards. I mean, it’s delicious, but it’s really rich,” she explains via NPR. By adding vegetables, Garten creates a meal that’s both comforting and fresh, and which contains all-important vitamins and minerals, with minimal effort. “It’s just simple and it’s delicious and it’s got a freshness about it that classic pasta carbonara doesn’t have.”