Tag Archives: pasta

Nov 18 2013
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Cooking

Hot pot!

When Brent and I are feeling particularly lazy but still want to eat something healthy, we make hot pot. This is an East Asian fun thing that can be enjoyed by small groups of friends or just your family. We use a simple electric wok that’s resistant to tipping over and fill it with our favorite kind of broth. It’s a great way to use just about any vegetables that are available in our refrigerator – broccoli, green beans, baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, tofu, tofu skins, mushrooms, snow peas, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, noodles (we use thin rice noodles and konjac noodles). Napa cabbage, spinach and Romaine lettuce are favorites.

After that, all you need is some fresh veg chopped into bite sized pieces and maybe some dipping sauces. Our broth recipe is as follows
1-2  liters of water

1-2 cubes of bouillon (we use “chicken” or mushroom)

1 tbsp of Szechuan peppercorns (we like spicy, what can I say)

2 star anise pods

15-20 goji berries

10-15 scallion onions, chopped into 2 inch pieces

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

a pinch of ground cumin

2-3 pods of allspice

1 coin size slice of ginger (optional)

juice from 1/2 lemon (optional)

1 tbsp chili or garlic flavored canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

I combine everything but the scallion onions in my pot and boil for 30 minutes or more until it’s fragrant and steamy. Then I add the spring onions and take the pot to our table. You put the veggies into the soup pot and wait for the liquid to return to a boil. Then we remove the vegetables without chopsticks, wait for them to cool or dip them in sauce or not (I like a home-made chili-lime-peanut sauce, Brent prefers a garlic chili sauce) and DEVOUR! Just be careful that the hot liquid doesn’t splash anyone and that the contents don’t spill onto anyone. It’s HOT (hence the name *hot* pot)! This might not be a dish for the faint of heart, but it is for the hungry, adventurous and lazy. Just put down a towel for all the drips and splashes.

As versatile as this particular dish is, there’s something for everyone. Just don’t get hurt when you realize someone ate your mushroom.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Jan 22 2013
4 Comments
Main Dishes

Spinach Pesto!

Brent and I have been pretty lazy lately and that’s mostly burrito kick since we found gluten-free wraps made from teff. This wasn’t one of those nights.

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All you need is the following in your blender.

1 cube of veggie bouillon

juice from a lemon

1/4 cup of hemp hearts (pine nuts work too but hemp is cheaper and more sustainable)

5-6 cloves of garlic (more if you like it spicy)

1 large bunch of spinach (frozen is fine)

1 tsp flake red pepper

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 block of silken tofu (use a cup of dry cashews, soaked overnight if you’ve got a soy allergy)

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BLEND! We served ours with pasta that we tossed with chickpeas, sun dried tomato and porcini mushrooms.

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It was definitely a worth while experiment because it was tasty and loaded with nutrients.

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This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jan 12 2013
2 Comments
Cooking, Recipes

Vegan Pasta Bake

This was an uncharacteristically un-lazy dish for me to make. It turned out pretty good considering that I was winging it from start to finish.

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You may not be able to easily make out the veggies in the bake from the photo above, but I assure you that they’re there. The veggies used can vary, depending on what you have in your fridge or what you’re simply in the mood to eat. I went with zucchini and carrots. Everything from the pasta to the sauce to the ‘cheese’ that you use can be varied. Below are the ingredients that I used.

Vegan Pasta Bake

8oz penne pasta
2 cans tomato sauce (you can use 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce)
1 block firm tofu, pressed and crumbled
1 pack Teese mozzarella vegan cheese
1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 carrot, julienned
1 medium onion, minced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian herbs
salt and pepper

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While the water for the pasta was boiling and the oven was preheating to 350 degrees, I mixed my tofu crumbles with the spices and olive oil, and cut up the veggies, onion, and garlic.

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After the pasta was cooked and drained, I started placing the ingredients in a casserole dish. I tried to do it in layers: pasta, onions and garlic, tofu, veggies, teese. After all the veggies and pasta were in the dish, I poured the sauce over everything. I should have layered in the sauce as well. Duh. But it still turned out okay, so, yay!

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I was only about 95% happy with how this turned out, but I learned a lot of lessons making it. I hope to try it again with other veggies like spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, squash… and I’ll plan to have more veggies than pasta in it next time. –Melissa

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Jan 06 2013
3 Comments
Main Dishes

Pasta a la Fauxlognese

As a kid, spaghetti bolognese was a favorite. It’s a rich meaty sauce wth lots of tomato and onion served with whatever pasta you tend to fancy. In this case, we’re using shirataki noodles and no meat. Shirataki noodles are great for those who are concerned about gluten and calories. If you use regular noodles, your fauxlognese will be more attractive than ours but just as tasty. You’ll want the following

1 onion, diced

3.4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp oregano

1 16oz tin of diced tomato

1 cup of TVP (reconstituted with water) or soy crumbles (Marion tofu crumbles work well here), chopped mushrooms can be substituted for those sensitive to soy

1 cube of “beef bouillon”

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

salt and flake red pepper to taste

olive oil

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Add a dash of olive oil and the onion and garlic to your pan and saute until the onion starts to carmelize, stirring occasionally. Add the tofu crumbles or TVP and the dry spices.

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When everything is hot and fragrant, add the tomato. Mix it all up, stirring occasionally until hot and adjust the seasonings to your taste.

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Your sauce should look deceptively meaty. Top with some vegan parmesan, shredded basil or Daiya or just serve as is.

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This is a very kid friendly preparation of vegan fare, tasty and healthy to boot. I hope you get to try it!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Dec 24 2012
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Thoughts

Christmas Pasta

This holiday season hasn’t felt very holiday-ish. I definitely wasn’t feeling very festive until a couple of days ago. What happened? The weather got frigid, I walked into the State Street Marshall Field’s Macy’s and got overwhelmed by the decor and the crowds, was given a candy cane by a bartender, and then listened to some Christmas carolers over by Cloud Gate. Yay! Christmas! All that’s missing is snow!

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Now, whether or not you celebrate or care about Christmas, I’m willing to bet that you’re gathering with family or friends or, at the very least, getting inundated with baked goods by co-workers. It’s been a challenge for the past couple of weeks. I’ve given in to the cupcakes, the cheesecakes, the coffee cakes, the scrambled eggs. Today is Christmas Eve and it won’t get any easier — but I’ve planned ahead in order to avoid falling into traps. After all, there’s no excuse for me to break my vegan diet if I have perfectly delicious vegan food to eat instead.

I’m going to a gathering tonight and there will be plenty of food, none of which is vegan. So I made some pasta which I am calling Christmas Pasta! Next time, I’ll add spinach or some other green veggie so that it actually looks Christmas-y.

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It’s still in draft mode until I serve it tonight. I hope everyone at the party tries it and likes it! It’s penne in a marinara sauce with lots of garlic, sliced onion, and eggplant. I’m pretty excited about it. Everyone else can have their turkey or beef or whatever!

Happy celebrations, you guys! Stay safe and don’t eat cows. Santa said so. –Melissa

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway!

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Dec 10 2012
1 Comment
Main Dishes

Pasta with a side of protein, please…

I like pasta. It’s easy to make and easy to request with no meat or cheese at restaurants. The problem with veganizing pasta (other than the obvious, which is doing your best to ensure that the actual pasta is vegan) is that it very often will lack a good amount of protein. I like having some Italian sausage or ground turkey or meatballs or chicken or fish with some pasta. I love hot dogs in my spaghetti! But I’m vegan now. I had a pressed block of tofu and some vegan spaghetti waiting for me in the fridge, so I had to get creative.

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I “ground” up the tofu with a fork and mixed it together with the following:

1/2 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
minced garlic
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

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I took my leftover spaghetti out of the fridge, put some on a plate, topped it with some of the tofu and heated it up in the microwave.

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Mix it up a little and it just looks like there’s some cheese in there! It was delicious on the pasta and also on its own. I’ll be making this tofu mix again. –Melissa

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Oct 30 2012
4 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Penne Puttanesca

Puttanesca is terribly underrated and we were cleaning out the fridge this particular day. I started simply and got some of my favorite pasta sauce and a bag of rice pasta. Brent is in charge of making pasta so I was saucy!

I diced an onion and sauteed it with some flake red pepper and basil olive oil. It smelled SO amazing I wish I could make a scratch-n-sniff post.

I added 2 cups of sauce and threw in

1 tin of olives that I drained

1 cup of TVP (omit if you’re sensitive to soy)

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp coriander

1 tin of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

I stirred it up until it was hot and fragrant and when Brent was done making the pasta we mixed it all together and devoured it.

I guess we do this kind of pasta a lot and don’t always post about it. Capers, mushrooms, garlic, basil leaves and just about everything else gets throw into this dish. I recommend it for families with kids who will find the hunt for all the different veggies and beans entertaining.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Oct 26 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Reviews

Speaking of Shrimp…

After posting about lobster mushrooms I did get a hankering for shrimp. So these exist…

I know, right? They look vaguely like the real thing and I’m here to tell you about it.I was excited that they’re gluten-free and soy-free. The ingredients are pretty good, mostly starch and flavorings. They’re low calorie and non-GMO. I thought they were a little expensive at $8 per package, particularly considering the ingredients, but I also don’t know how to make pseudo-shrimp at home.

I decided to cook them like any self respecting lover of shrimp would; I heated up a pan with copious amounts of Earth Balance butter and garlic.

They smelled divine, not fishy. Shrimp shouldn’t smell particularly fishy anyways as long as they’re fresh.

Sauteeing them I got a better idea of their texture. They’re slightly rubbery, like shrimp that you’re likely to find at most restaurants. I personally like the texture a lot.

After adding some pasta, sun dried tomato and Teese mozzarella to the mix, things were starting to look delicious.

We topped it with some fresh basil. It was a welcome change so far as dinner goes. I think they’d be great in stir fry or in gumbo but I’m not sure about as a shrimp cocktail. I’d buy these again. Let me know what you think if you get to try them!

 

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 30 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Spaghetti and Hot Dogs

You may be thinking, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about vegan food?” YES! Even non-vegans are grossed out by the idea of hot dogs and spaghetti, but it’s Filipino food gospel. After trying out some vegan frankfurters, I was anxious to use them in one of my childhood favorites. Oh, who am I kidding? I still prefer hot dogs as the protein in my spaghetti as an adult.

Making this dish is easy. All you have to do is add sliced hot dogs to your sauce when you’re heating it. This only works with marinara or other tomato-based pasta sauce (hot dogs and alfredo? yuck!). Clearly, it works with any kind of pasta. I had penne this time around so that’s what I used.

To prep these vegan frankfurters, I removed them from their casing and sliced them. I chopped some onions and garlic to add to the sauce because why not?!

First, I browned the hot dogs with the garlic and onion. Then I added some tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. You can also use your favorite jar of pasta sauce. Mix together and heat it through.

Not only was this tasty, it warmed the heart of my inner child. Spaghetti and hot dogs. Try it! –Melissa

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Aug 18 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Long Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Yay! Tomatoes are finally popping up in the garden. We have a nice crop of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to throw some of these babies in with sauteed long beans.

First, I sauteed about a cup of long beans in olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Long beans are not meant to be eaten raw, so if you have them, make sure you cook them. They maintain their crunch even if they wilt, if that makes any sense.

I cut up one of the tomatoes. Unlike the other tomatoes that we grow in the garden, these are much more meaty, less juicy, but still sweet and tasty. I love that the tomatoes we grow in our backyard require little to no embellishment to be tasty. You can eat them like apples!

I boiled some penne, coated it in olive oil, and threw in freshly minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and nutritional yeast. I topped it off with the cooked beans and the raw tomatoes.

Easy, delicious, nutritious. The only thing missing is a glass of fine wine! –Melissa

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