pasta

asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

My husband and I both love pasta, but I try to not make it too often. While delicious, it’s high in carbs and always seems better with cheese.  David loves a traditional marinara sauce, but I find that gets boring quickly.

Now, with this recipe, I have found that a vegan pasta dish can be just as delicious without the cheese or a thick marinara sauce.  And, it’s super easy to make, and only takes about as long as the time to boil the water and cook the pasta!

asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

Ingredients

  • Linguine or noodle of your choice, enough for 2
  • 5-6 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
  • 1 bunch asparagus
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • nutritional yeast

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees and set water to boil for the pasta
  2. Trim asparagus, add to a small glass casserole dish, along with tomatoes
  3. Toss with balsamic vinegar, sugar, and olive oil (enough to coat), place in oven
  4. Add the garlic to the dish in the oven when the water boils (assuming 8-9 minutes to cook pasta)
  5. When pasta is done, remove veggies from oven, add to drained pasta, toss, and sprinkle with nutritional yeast to taste.

If you like balsamic vinegar, you can probably increase the amount and/or decrease the sugar/oil. David is not a fan of vinegar, and he finds this recipe tolerable. If it were just for me, I would probably double or triple the vinegar and use little/no oil.

Roasted Cauliflower Alfredo

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

This recipe was adapted from PPK’s Roasted Butternut Alfredo.

I really didn’t intend to modify the recipe very much, but I didn’t have any type of squash, and didn’t want to make a special trip to the store.  Besides, I pretty much had everything else on hand.  Other substitutions were mostly just because, with the exception of tamari in place of miso (since I didn’t have any miso either).

It’s entirely vegan as long as you use vegan pasta, and can be gluten free too (also based on the pasta you choose).

This is the first vegan cheesy type pasta sauce that I have made that David actually liked.  Normally anything with cashews and nutritional yeast and he turns his nose up at the taste and texture.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound pasta (I used linguine, but really, I think any pasta that you would normally put cheesy sauce on would work well, macaroni in particular)

Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours (I skipped the soaking, since I used my Vitamix)
  • 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
  • 2 cups roasted cauliflower  (I think it would be better with less cauliflower, maybe 1 1/2 cups)
  • 2 tablespoons tamari
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

For the rest:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon earth balance or any vegan butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced (I used 1/2 a yellow onion, plus 2 shallots)
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced (I think another herb might be better, just not sure what yet)
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine

For garnish:

  • Extra roasted cauliflower
  • Pine nuts
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Roast the cauliflower.  Coat bite size chunks of cauliflower with olive oil and a dash of lemon juice and salt.  Bake at 425 for about 45 minutes, or until lightly browned and tender.
  2. Make the sauce.  Puree all ingredients in the blender — A Vitamix works great for this.  Add the cauliflower once it’s roasted.
  3. Sauté the onions with the olive oil and vegan butter until soft and slightly golden.  Add garlic, rosemary and wine, and simmer until wine is absorbed.
  4. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
  5. Toss pasta, sauce and onion mix, garnish with remaining cauliflower, salt and pepper, pine nuts, and enjoy!