Veganomicon Comes Through Again

I've written before about the perfection that is Veganomicon's cauliflower and mushroom pot pie with olive biscuit crust. The other night I had a load of veggies that needed to be used up, but I was also craving something dense and creamy. The pot pie is pretty involved between making the sauce and the biscuit crust from scratch, and I wanted something quick. I decided to make a veggie, whole wheat pasta dish and douse the whole thing in the pot pie sauce. I also wanted to try making it with coconut oil instead of vegan earth balance-  coconut oil is still very high in fat, but at least it's natural.

 I used the same measurements for the gravy, in terms of replacing the vegan butter with coconut oil. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature- and looks a bit like shortening- and melts into a totally clear liquid.

 I didn't change anything else about the sauce prep- here's the wheat flour bubbling into a paste when mixed with the coconut oil...

 and then the almond milk and spices are whisked in.

 I've dumped this over biscuits after crumbling Field Roast sausage into it. Amazing.

 While the gravy making was going on, about 2 cups of veggies- onions, zucchini, squash, carrot, and spinach- were cooking in a bit of olive oil. Whole wheat pasta spirals were boiling too, but let's be honest, boiling pasta doesn't really call out to be photographed.

 I mixed the veggies, sauce, and pasta all together in the gravy making pan. By the way, I *love* this pan. It's deep enough to make sauces and one pot meals, but it's still my go-to "saute something in olive/coconut oil" pan. It's stainless steel, Wolfgang Puck brand, and was $3 at Goodwill.

Dear Goodwill-
Thanks for helping me out in all sorts of kitchen ways. You're a real pal.

As you can see from the above picture and this one, the sauce wasn't really that heavy. Just enough to impart some flavor and coat everything evenly. I really liked this on pasta but I think it would have been improved with some fresh basil and roasted portabella mushrooms. Maybe some pine nuts or toasted walnuts as well. Oh, and I took this picture before I added diced Roma tomatoes. The freshness of the tomatoes was a nice contrast to the density of the pasta and the creaminess of the sauce.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- Veganomicon is a fabulous cookbook and I highly recommend it.

Greatest Hits Compilation

This manicotti involves some of my favorite vegan elements- a delicious tofu ricotta and a sauce so creamy you will forget that it doesn't have dairy. I had never made it like this before but I found myself craving pumpkin sage cream sauce and my spinach and ricotta cheese manicotti, so I decided to combine the two.

I sauteed an onion in two cloves of fresh garlic and olive oil, and then added generous handfuls of washed, chopped baby spinach.

Making tofu ricotta is a treat because I try to limit the amount of soy I eat- even in forms like tofu, because that's still heavily processed. I loosely followed the cashew and tofu ricotta recipe from Veganomicon, which in addition to a block of tofu has cashews, garlic, lots of spices, and lemon juice. It is my favorite recipe because the cashews really make things creamy. Tofu on its own kind of just tastes like food processed tofu with a bit of spices thrown in.

After the tofu ricotta was blended, I dumped it in a bowl with the spinach and onion mixture, stirred it all together, and then started my least favorite part of making manicotti- stuffing the manicotti. Boo. Hiss. It stinks and it's messy and you just have to remind yourself it is worth it.

When they were all stuffed (I don't cook them beforehand because they simmer in the sauce and get soft) I smeared the remaining mixture on top and then started throwing together the sauce.

My friend Gordon had posted on FB about making pumpkin sage cream sauce. I adapted the recipe he gave me by nixing the soy cream and adding a can of full fat coconut milk instead. To this I added one cup of canned, pureed pumpkin.

Then I just seasoned to taste with whatever sounded good- ground and rubbed sage, a bit of marjoram, some white pepper, and a bit a cayenne pepper.

I remembered how great pecans taste with creamy, light sauces, so I sauteed some chopped pecans in a pan with a bit of vegan butter, brown sugar, and more sage.

The pecans were sprinkled on top...

and then the sauce was dumped on top of that. I think I cooked this at about 350 for around 45 minutes, spooning the sauce on top periodically so that it didn't dry out.

This doesn't look very appetizing since it is all so very brown, but when you cut it open the tofu ricotta/onion/spinach mixture oozed out and it was amazing. I was very happy that such a thrown together, making it up as I went along meal worked out so well! If you've never tried pumpkin sage cream sauce give it a whirl with the canned coconut milk- it makes it creamy and thick and honestly just the pumpkin and coconut milk taste so good together that you can't go wrong. Just season to taste and pour it over whatever you might be baking. I think this sauce would work really well on baked penne, or as a sauce with some farfalle pasta and veggies.

Back in the Swing of Things

It's been a long time, I know. The datestamp on the last post is practically waggling its finger at me like a chiding grandmother, and man I hate letting my Granny down! I'll try and work through the guilt and get this post out. I don't want you to think that the lack of posting means that I haven't been cooking- on the contrary, I've been cooking a lot, and taking lots of pictures, it's just the execution that's been lacking. So, let's jump right in with a picture heavy post, shall we? We shall.
Oh, hello there beautiful rainbow beets. What delicious culinary pleasures do you have in store?
If you ever want to coax yourself into falling in love with vegetables, I suggest roasting them in some quality olive oil, freshly cracked black pepper, and a good strong fresh herb- I used rosemary here. This vegetable mix included the beets pictured above, as well as red, orange, green, and yellow bell peppers, red onions, squash, and zucchini.
Here they are after a little visit to a 400 degree oven, for about 45 minutes.
I whipped up a creamy tomato based sauce, but since I wing most of my sauces it's hard to remember everything I dumped in there. I do remember loosely creating a red pepper cashew vegan cheese sauce, before mixing it, in batches, with canned crushed tomatoes. I'm certain a splash of coconut milk went into this mix.
The roasted veggies meet their new friend, creamy sauce.
And then they dogpile some orecchiette pasta. It's things like creating a sauce from scratch, and roasting a large variety of vegetables, that give simple veggie pasta dishes like this an interesting depth. I think that the reason so many people like meat in their pasta dishes is because vegetarian options at restaurants are notoriously boring and bland. I mean, what's fun about getting charged $12 for a pile of noodles swimming in watery tomato sauce that looks deceptively like Prego from a can? Pretty much nothing. Another good variation if you want a fast sauce is to take a portion of the roasted veggies and run them through your food processor with some coconut milk, before adding it to some roughly chopped tomatoes, or crushed tomatoes from a can, and the rest of the roasted veggies. This is a fast way to make an interesting tomato sauce with minimal work involved.

Butternut Squash Filling is Why Ravioli Was Invented, Right?

The first time I had butternut squash ravioli it was thanks to a Lean Cuisine a few years ago. Now, before you question my tastes, just know it was actually really, really good. Lately I have been meaning to make ravioli the kind of homemade/kind of lazy way, using wonton wrappers, but when I found frozen butternut squash ravioli sans cheese in the freezer section for under $4, I figured that would be way better- and way easier. I did, however, go ahead and make a sauce from scratch and fancy it up with lots of veggies to compensate.


So, here's dinner. On the floor. In front of our sliding glass door. Here in Colorado-Land it's about to start getting dark around 4:30, and anything that is even remotely sauce-y looks super gross and slimy under our dining room lights, so I have to work to get any kind of natural light. This photo doesn't do this yummy pile of deliciousness justice though. Despite being pre-made, the ravioli was really good and well seasoned. I made a creamy garlic sauce with about 5 cloves of fresh garlic, half a cup of unsweetened coconut milk, some olive oil, and various spices of paprika, thyme, basil, rubbed sage, and a sprinkle of flour and some vegan butter to thicken it up. I cubed a large 'bella mushroom and thinly chopped three big rainbow chard leaves, sauteed them in light oil, and then tossed them in the sauce. When the ravioli was done cooking it too was tossed in, and chopped roma tomatoes were added at the very end, just so they were warmed through but not cooked down. Everything except the 'bellas came from our CSA, and you could really tell with the tomatoes- they had such a good flavor.


Because the main dish was pretty decadent thanks to the creamy sauce I wanted to keep things light on the side. Broccoli, squash, carrot, and chopped rainbow chard were tossed in a very light coating of rosemary balsamic dressing, then topped with chia seeds and a handful of trail mix- pistachios, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, brown and golden raisins. Everything except the chia seeds/trail mix came from our CSA. I'm going to miss my weekly dose of local, fresh picked, organic food once winter rolls around. There are a few winter farmers' markets, but it's not *quite* the same. While I don't miss living Texas I have to say to those of you that have a year round growing season- you're very lucky.

Check out www.localharvest.org to see what CSA's and farmers' markets are available near you. Usually they're somewhere around $30 a week, and you get a ton of food. Plus you're cutting down on emissions from eating locally, the food is fresh and better for you, and it's often organic as well. You'd be surprised what's out there- Dallas is far, far, away from being remotely "green and crunchy" and yet there is a CSA with drop off points in 3 different areas of the metroplex. You might discover an entire underground of local food advocates right under your nose!

Clapping over a Pot

Forgive me kittens. Even with a good camera and somewhat ok light, it is terribly difficult to take an attractive picture of a creamy pasta dish. This doesn't come close to capturing in photo form just how good this was. The sides are simple- asparagus pan fried in a smidge of olive oil, seasoned with only black pepper and a hint of salt. The potatoes were roasted in the oven with sage, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil. The pasta sauce was made up of 3 colors of bell peppers, zucchini, squash, red onions, beets, and leftover swiss chard all sauteed in fresh garlic, red onions, and olive oil. Then it simmered in a light covering of homemade tomato sauce. In the end it was all doused in the red pepper cashew cheese sauce I discovered a while back. This velvety veggie goodness was piled on top of tri-color pasta, and served with onion poppyseed bread.

If you're eating vegan and you miss that creamy, rich mouthfeel and taste of buttery pastas, I highly suggest playing around with the hundreds upon hundreds of variations of cashew cheese out there in the wide world. Yes, nuts are fatty and higher calorie, but so is a pile 'o cheese and butter. In the end, you don't use that many nuts- this had 1/4 of a cup of raw, unsalted cashew nuts in it, and it fed 4 adults with two meals left over. So, very low nut to person ratio. Plus, the fat in nuts is the kind of fat that would make your body happy, and it would give you a high five for it, but really you'd just be standing in your kitchen clapping over a pot, so maybe don't do that ;)

Don't worry if your first tries at cashew cheese fail, I tried two recipes before I just kind of made up my own based on two others I combined. Any Google search of "vegan cashew cheese" will happily return heaps of pages for you to sift through. One thing I've found out- most include lemon juice, in copious amounts. The lemon gives it a necessary tart element, but I generally like using about half of what they suggest. I usually just squeeze out one lemon and call it a day. Let me know if you try any cashew cheese recipes!