Arugula Pesto Pasta with roasted Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

This meal came out of wanting to use up leftovers and is especially easy to throw together if you’ve already cooked a batch of roasted brussels sprouts. We put together the pesto with arugula because we had some from a previous meal and wanted a fresh pesto. Many different greens or herbs could be substituted to good effect so if you don’t have arugula on hand, feel free to use the herbs/greens that you do have. We used the almond pulp because it was left-over from making almond milk. Feel free to use any nuts you have around; cashews, walnuts, or pine nuts would go well in the pesto. The brussels sprouts give this pasta dish a lovely filling feel while the tomatoes have a nice fresh burst when you bite into them. We love freshly roasted red peppers, but we also love to use roasted red peppers from a jar. Either would be a good choice.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 batch roasted brussels sprouts

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 lb pasta (gluten-free option, vegan-option)

2 red peppers

For the pesto:

1 bunch of arugula

1/3 cup almond pulp

3 cloves garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

generous squeeze of lemon

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

If you are roasting the red pepper in the broiler, that can be done before the vegetables go into the oven. If you are roasting on the stovetop, you can roast while the veggies are cooking. There are many ways to roast a red pepper. If you have a gas stove, you can place the pepper directly on the burner, turn the burner on and cook, flipping with tongs until all the sides are charred. If you don’t have a gas stove, it can be done in the broiler. Move a shelf to the top of the oven and turn on the broiler. Place the red peppers under the coils of the broiler and allow to cook about 6 minutes before rotating the peppers. The skins should char. Remove the peppers from the oven once the skins are charred on all sides (about 24 minutes). Either way you cook the peppers, once they are charred on all sides, quickly place them in a bowl and cover with lid (this makes them easier to peel). Set the bowl aside.

Roast the brussels sprouts according to the instructions. While these are cooking, boil salty water (should be as salty as the ocean) and cook the pasta according to instructions on the box.

Put the cherry tomatoes on a sheet pan drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 10 minutes until the skins pop open and get a little wrinkly.

Remove the roasted pepper from the covered bowl and remove the skin over the sink, rinsing off the char. Remove the seeds and stems. Cut the roasted pepper into strips.

To make the pesto, add all the pesto ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth. If you need it to be thinner in order to process, you can add 1-2 tbsp of the pasta water.

Toss the prepared ingredients together, serve, and enjoy!

Creamy Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato and Basil

We have recently started using premade gnocchi in our kitchen. We really like having a quick cooking option to add gnocchi to a dish. This dish is one that feels fast to pull together while still feeling luxurious and delicious. We have access to Delallo brand gnocchi and we like it. They make a gluten-free version and a version with gluten. While neither version have dairy products in the ingredients list, the gluten-free version does have an allergy warning saying “May contain milk”.

Serves 4-6

Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 box of gnocchi (gluten-free option, dairy-free option)

1 pint cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

a handful of basil leaves

for the sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cippolini onion

3/4 cup cashews soaked for at least 30 min

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 tbsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch of red pepper flakes

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Cover the cashews with water to soak. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put on a large pot of salty water to boil.

When the water boils, cook the gnocchi according to the instructions on the package. Meanwhile, rinse the tomatoes and put them on a sheet pan. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and then sprinkle with some salt. Put in the oven to roast until the skins pop open, about 12 minutes. Next, drain your soaked cashews and add them to a high powered blender with the water, lemon juice, and garlic granules. Blend until smooth. Finally, slice the onion thinly.

Once you have drained the gnocchi, put the remaining tbsp of olive oil in the pan and return to medium high heat. Put the onion in the pan and add some salt. Cook until the onion is soft and starting to brown, stirring constantly. Add the hot pepper flakes and stir in. Add the cashew alfredo sauce to the pan and stir until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.

Add the gnocchi and roasted tomatoes to the pot. The tomatoes will break down and mix with the creamy sauce. Garnish generously with torn basil leaves. Enjoy!

Pierogies

This recipe makes a whole mess of pierogis.  After boiling them, if you want to freeze them, you can do this on a greased cookie sheet or a piece of parchment paper. Then once frozen, transfer to a plastic freezer bag. Do not freeze them all together in one bag without first freezing on a cookie sheet or they will clump together and be impossible to separate.

Our favorite way to cook them from frozen is to fry in a pan on medium heat and they get a bit crispy on each side.

In these photos, we served the pierogis with roasted broccoli, caramelized onions, and some vegan butter. That’s not included in this base pierogi recipe, but it is delicious! Would love to hear what you serve these with in the comments.

Serves: about 10

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the Pasta Dough:

3 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting

1 cup water

1 egg

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

For the Potato Filling:

1 3/4 lb Idaho potatoes

1 head of roasted garlic

salt

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If you haven’t roasted the head of garlic, do so now. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. There are many ways to roast garlic. Anne cuts the top of the head and pours some olive oil over the garlic and then puts this in a garlic roaster in the oven (if you don’t have a garlic roaster you wrap the head in tin foil). Camille peels the garlic cloves and puts them in a cast iron pan with olive oil and puts the pan in the oven to roast. Roast the garlic until golden brown (about 20 minutes if the garlic is bare in a cast iron pan and about 40 minutes in a garlic roaster).

Peel the potatoes (we don’t often peel potatoes, but for this recipe it makes the texture more delightful for us) and cut into large chunks. Boil the potatoes in a pot of very salty water until tender. Once tender, strain and mash in a bowl with the roasted garlic and season with salt.

While the potatoes are boiling, put the flour and salt from the dough ingredients in a large shallow bowl.  Make a well in the center and put water, egg, and oil in well.  Mix the liquid into the flour slowly until a ragged ball forms.  Knead the dough on a flour dusted surface for about 8 minutes, until smooth, elastic, and supple, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking.  Overturn a bowl on the dough and let sit for 20 minutes.

To shape the Pierogis:

Fill a large pot with water and put it on the stove on high to boil.

Roll out the dough until thin on a cutting board dusted with flour (if you are lucky enough to own a pasta roller this is when to use it). Cut rounds about 3" in diameter (I use a cookie cutter, but a wine glass would work as well).  Put between one half and one tsp of potato filling in the center of each round. Wet the edge of the dough with a wet finger. Fold the dough over the potato, forming a pocket and tuck the corners in. Seal closed with your fingers and then crimp the edges with a fork. Once all the pierogis are shaped, drop them one at a time into the boiling water, about ten pierogis can cook at once.  Stir the pot with a slotted spoon once at the beginning of cooking to prevent sticking, and allow to cook about 3 minutes.  The pierogis should be floating when you remove them from the water.  Drain them.

Note: if it feels good to you, you can also start cooking some of the pierogis before you’ve finished shaping so that you are shaping and cooking pierogis at the same time. If this feels hard, feel free to ignore.

Now you can freeze these for later, or cook up whatever you want to serve with them and enjoy!

Sesame Tofu Noodle Bowl

This is a meal we often make when we aren’t sure what else to make because it is easy to keep the needed ingredients on hand. While the recipe calls for swiss chard, we often use whatever is in our fridge. For us this is often red cabbage (since it lasts a long time in the fridge). We also love this meal with broccolini.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 batch sesame tofu

1 lb pad thai rice noodles

1 bunch of swiss chard

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp tamari

1 tbsp sesame oil

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Prepare the sesame tofu.

While the tofu is cooking, boil the pad thai noodles according to instructions on the package. Important: when the rice noodles are cooked rinse them with cold water so they don’t continue to cook into a large blob of noodle. Stir the sesame oil and tamari into the cooked noodles.

Then, wash the swiss chard and strip the leaves from the stem. Cut the chard into ribbons. Mince the garlic. Heat a pan with some olive oil. Cook the garlic until fragrant, add chard. Sautee until wilted. Toss the noodles with the chard and tofu and eat. Enjoy!

Wild Mushroom Artichoke Heart Pasta

This recipe was inspired from Purple Carrot. We love how easy it is to keep most of the ingredients in the house (canned artichokes shelf stable, pasta shelf stable). Then when we need something quick and easy we pick up some local mushrooms and voila, a fancy hassle free meal!

We often like to double this recipe so that we have leftovers in the fridge to snack on during the week. Because artichokes and mushrooms are expensive, this can be more of an upfront cost which is why we are sharing the smaller portion size. Just know if you love it, it is great doubled!

Camille is gluten free and likes to eat this with Banza chickpea pasta. This pasta, made from chickpea flour, has so much protein that they often will leave out the crispy chickpeas entirely. That means both one less step to this quick and easy meal!

Serves: 2-3

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the chickpeas:

3/4 cups cooked chickpeas (1/2 can) optional

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp

pinch of cayenne

1/2 lb pasta (gluten-free option)

olive oil

1 can artichoke hearts

1/3 lb local mushrooms (shittake, trumpet, chestnut, and oyster, all work really well)

freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tbsp vegan butter (soy-free option, nut-free option)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

pinch hot pepper flakes

salt to taste

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Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Toss the chickpeas with olive oil salt, garlic powder, and cayenne. Spread them out on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven, stirring every 15 minutes until the rest of the meal is done or they turn golden brown. If you are using a can of chickpeas feel free to use the entire can and then snack on the chickpea nuts you don’t add to the pasta!

Boil salty water (water should be as salty as the ocean) and cook the pasta according to instructions.

Slice the mushrooms. Cook them about 10 minutes on med-high heat with oil, stirring frequently until they brown and have an almost crispy texture. In last 2 minutes grind some fresh pepper over top of them. Remove from heat and set the mushrooms aside.

Drain and rinse artichoke hearts. Put olive oil in the pan and fry. Allow the artichoke hearts to sit on one side until brown and then flip on other side until they brown. They are fully cooked in the can, you are just browning them.

Mix the cooked pasta and butter until the butter melts. Add 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine.

Enjoy!

Ginger Lime Tofu

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

2 blocks firm tofu

1/2-1 cup cornstarch

salt

high heat oil for cooking tofu (e.g. avocado)

1 package rice noodles

1 tsp tamari

1/2 tsp sriracha

1 tsp sesame oil

1 bunch of chard or kale

For the sauce:

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp agave

1 tbsp tamari

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 1/2 tbsp minced ginger

loosely packed 1/2 cup mint leaves

1/2 tsp salt

pinch cayenne

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Cut your blocks of tofu in half so that you have four, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can be done with a tofu press.

While the tofu is being pressed, thinly slice the mint and chard into ribbons. Cook the rice pasta according to the instructions (remember to add enough salt to the pasta water that it tastes like the ocean). Once the pasta is cooked drain and rinse with cool water to keep it from getting gluey. Add the teaspoon of sesame oil, the sriracha and the teaspoon of tamari to the noodles and toss to coat.

Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl. Cut the pressed tofu into sticks about 3 inches by one inch by one inch. Toss the tofu a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Start with 1/2 cup cornstarch, if you run out mix up some more cornstarch and salt. If you forget to add salt to the cornstarch you can optionally sprinkle salt on the tofu while it is frying or right when it is removed from the heat and still glistening with oil. Heat 2 tbsp of high heat oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. If you are unable to get color on your tofu, turn up the heat a little at a time until it browns after a few minutes. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately.

To make the sauce heat the 3 tbsp sesame oil in a small pan with ginger just until the ginger starts to become fragrant. Add the ginger and oil into a bowl with the rest of the ‘for the sauce’ ingredients except for the mint leaves. Once the tofu is cooked, put them back into the pan and pour the sauce into the pan and stir until it starts to bubble. Sprinkle mint leaves over this and fold them in, cook for a short time longer (less than 1 minute). Remove the tofu and place over the noodles. Next, wilt the chard with any remaining tofu sauce and add this to the noodle dish as well. Stir and enjoy!

Eggplant Lasagna

Celebration of eggplant season continues with this delicious lasagna. Layers of delicious cheesiness, soft perfectly salted eggplant, and beautiful ribbons of chard make this a summer delight. This makes 8-10 servings making it perfect for a family dinner or just for one if you love lasagna. We also love to freeze the leftovers of this meal. What’s better when you have nothing left to eat than looking into your freezer and seeing some home-made lasagna all ready for you to bake?

Serves: 8-10

Time: 2hr 15min; 1.5 hours is inactive

Ingredients:

2 eggplants (1.5lb)

Salt

Olive oil

1 block of firm tofu, pressed

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp veggie bouillon (We like Better than Bouillon)

1/2 cup hot water

1 bunch chard

26 oz jar tomato sauce (Feel free to use homemade or store-bought)

1 batch cashew cheese

1 box of lasagna noodles (gluten-free option)

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Cut eggplant into 3/4 inch cubes. Salt them generously and leave to drain in a strainer over the sink for at least half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Wrap the eggplant in a kitchen towel and squeeze to remove any surface moisture and some of the salt. Toss the eggplant in olive oil on a cookie sheet and roast about 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes. The eggplant should be soft but not disintegration.

Put a 4-6 quart pot of water on the stove to boil. Add salt generously, it should be similar to seawater.

Press the tofu between two layers of kitchen towel with a weight (like a cast iron pan) for about 10 minutes. Add 3 tbsp olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Crumble the tofu into the hot pan and scramble about 10 minutes until it is starting to color. Add 1/2 tsp salt and the cornstarch to the tofu and cook an additional 5 minutes until you get some crispy bits. Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water and add to the tofu. The water should boil immediately. Mix the tofu until the water has mostly boiled off, about 3 minutes.

Make cashew cheese if you have not already done so.

Boil the pasta in the salted water according to the instructions on the box.

Cut the chard into ribbons.

To layer the lasagna, start with tomato sauce on the bottom, then layer noodles, eggplant, cheese, chard, tomato sauce, noodles, tofu, cheese, chard, tomato sauce, and repeat until you have used all the ingredients. I like to end with a layer of tomato and cheese on top of the final layer of noodles. Bake in the preheated oven 45 minutes or as long as the box of noodles says.

If you plan to freeze, wait until it has cooled completely. Freeze within 24 hours of baking, good for about 5 days after thawing.

Breaded Eggplant

We love eggplant so much and all year we look forward to eggplants being in season. In celebration, this is the first of many eggplant centered posts!

Makes: 2 1/2 sheet pan’s worth of cutlets

Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

3 medium eggplants, cut into 1/4” coins

kosher salt

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

4 pieces of toast or two cups of bread crumbs (a gluten free bread or crumb will work here)

1/2 cup oats gluten-free option

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

2 tbsp garlic powder

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp salt, if your sunflower seeds are salted, you will need less salt.

3/4 tsp pepper, divided

3 or 4 eggs

olive oil

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Cut the eggplants into round slices between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in thickness.  We leave the skins on, but if you want less fiber, skin the eggplant before cutting. Layer them in a colander salting each layer generously. Leave eggplant to drain about 20 minutes. This will pull the moisture from the eggplant allowing it to cook faster and get sweeter. During this time, prepare the bread crumb mixture and pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Rip your toast into chunks before putting it into the food processor with the oats.  Blend them until they are sandy with slightly larger chunks.  Add the sunflower seeds, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Blend until the majority of the sunflower seeds have been cut at least once, but not so far that the mixture looks homogeneous. Leave some sunflower seed chunks. Once the eggplant has been salted for 20 minutes it should have released some moisture that you will be able to see on the surface. Press the eggplant between kitchen towels to remove the moisture and some of the salt. Assemble a workstation with a shallow bowl of beaten eggs, a shallow bowl of cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper, and a shallow bowl of the breadcrumb mixture. Dip the eggplant in the cornstarch, then the egg, and then breadcrumbs. Start with two eggs and add more as necessary to coat all the eggplant.

Lay the coated eggplant out on baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, dab oil onto both sides of each eggplant. If you don’t have a pastry brush you can use a spoon to gently put a bit of oil onto the eggplant at a time. Bake in the oven for 1 hr flipping every 20 minutes.

The photo we’re sharing today is these babies served with pasta, tomato sauce, and Kite Hill Almond Ricotta.  It was fantastically delicious, but far from the only way we like to eat them!  We like to make a big batch of these on the weekend and eat them during the week when it is hard to fit in cooking with work.  We love them on a bagel as a sandwich, or just eating them as a snack.  We have also cut them up and thrown them on top of a salad.

Alfredo Lasagna

We love alfredo pasta and we love lasagna, so we decided to put them together and use up some of the larger zucchinis we’ve had access to this summer!

Serves: 4-6

Time: 2 1/4 hrs (1 3/4 hrs active)

Ingredients

1 large head broccoli, cut in small florets

2 med zucchini, cut in half coins

3 cups chopped wild mushrooms

8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

oil

1 box lasagna noodles, gluten-free option

4 large chard leaves, cut into ribbons

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

salt

For the sauce:

1 cup cashews soaked for at least 30 min

3 cups water, divided

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 tbsp garlic granules

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1 small onion, sliced

2 tbsp white wine (optional)

5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

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Put cashews in water to soak. Boil a pot of well salted water. If you aren’t sure how much salt to use, the water should taste similar to seawater. Once boiling, add pasta and cook to desired consistency (follow instructions on pasta package). Once pasta is done, strain and thoroughly cool down with cold water. Add a little bit of oil to keep the pasta from sticking.

While the pasta is cooking, cut your veggies. Cut mushrooms into small pieces. Cut broccoli into small florets and cut the stem into pieces the size of a penny. If you aren’t using a garlic press, mince the garlic. Cut the chard into ribbons and slice the onion.

Fry the mushrooms in oil at medium heat until you start to get browning. Set the cooked mushrooms aside and cook the broccoli the same way until some of the florets start to get browned. Then add 8 cloves of garlic, minced, or press the garlic straight into the broccoli and cook another couple minutes so the broccoli is browned and the garlic is fragrant but not burnt. Set aside. In the same pan, saute the zucchini until browned. Cook the zucchini long enough that most of its moisture has been removed, otherwise it will release the moisture while baking and make your lasagna soupy. Once this is browned, set aside.

Drain the soaked cashews. Add the cashews, 1 cup of water, lemon, garlic granules, nutritional yeast, salt, and red pepper flakes to a blender and blend until smooth. To test the consistency, put a small amount of sauce on your finger and rub your fingers together. If it is completely smooth then you are there! If it feels at all like there is some sandiness, keep blending.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Re-heat and add some oil to the pan you used to cook the vegetables. Saute the onion until it caramelizes and turns a beautiful brown color. You will need to stir less at the beginning, but as the onion starts to break down you will need to be stirring non-stop. When the onion is close to done add the garlic, and stir for another 2-3 minutes. If the onion starts to stick, de-glaze the pan with a bit of white wine (optional) or water. Add the cashew alfredo sauce to the pan and stir until slightly thickened. Add the remaining 2 cups of water to the blender and pulse briefly to clean out the blender and then add this to the sauce. Once the sauce is slightly thickened, turn off the heat.

Set aside 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. To layer the lasagna, start with a bit of alfredo, then layer pasta, alfredo, broccoli and chard, pasta, alfredo, zucchini and mushrooms, and then repeat. End with a layer of noodles and cover with the reserved 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, swirl it into the top layer of sauce, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top starts to crisp a bit.

Enjoy!

Tangy Nut Butter Noodles

We like to keep carrots and cabbage in the fridge because they take a long time to go bad; if stored well these can keep for many months! Because of this recipe, we always keep the other ingredients (soy curls, thai noodles, and nut butter) stocked in my pantry. During the before times, when we had guests over or have run out of food ideas we always had a back up meal already planned. We also loved feeding this to guests because it makes a lot and is fairly cheap. Plus, white people are often excited that it is not the usual ‘American’ fare. Now, we are happy this is a low effort meal that makes our bodies feel good that we can pull together if we aren’t feeling like putting in much effort.

A note on tamarind. We like to buy jarred tamarind paste and keep it in our fridge, as it is a great acid to add to many meals. If you can't find packaged tamarind paste, however, no worries -- dried tamarind pulp is available at many Asian and Latin American grocery stores, and you can use the pulp to make your own paste. Soak the brick of pulp in hot water until it's cool enough to touch, then break it down with your hands to incorporate the water and release the flavor. Run the thick paste through a sieve to strain out the pods, and keep in the fridge or freezer. You can simmer the resulting liquid until it is a thicker paste, but that is a question of personal preference.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

2 large carrots (3/4 lb)

1 lb cabbage (4 cups, packed)

1 package pad thai noodles

5 tbsp neutral oil for frying vegetables and soy curls, divided

1/4 cup toasted peanuts or almonds, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

for the soy curls:

4 oz soy curls

1 bouillon cube or 1 tsp Better than Bouillon paste

1 1/2 cups hot water

for the sauce:

1/4 cup peanut or almond butter

1 tsp lime zest

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tsp sriracha

1 tsp tamarind

3 tbsp soy tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)

2 tbsp water

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Slice carrots into 2 inch long julienne and chop cabbage. Dissolve bouillon in hot water and soak the soy curls for 10-15 minutes. They will re-hydrate and should soak up all of the water that you put in. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil to medium heat in a pan. Add the veggies and fry until the carrots are starting to brown and the cabbage is starting to crisp. This takes about 10-15 min.

In the meantime put a pot of well salted water on to boil. The water should taste about as salty as sea water so that the noodles soak in the water and are perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water. Once boiling, add the noodles into the water and cook until soft (check noodle package for instructions). Once you drain them, remember to rinse with lots of cool water to prevent clumping. Remove the veggies from the frying pan and set aside. Heat the veggie pan with 3 tbsp of oil and fry the soy curls until brown and crispy, about 15 minutes.

Whisk together nut butter, lime juice and zest, sesame oil, sriracha, tamarind, tamari, and water. If your nut butter is clumpy, we recommend stirring the lime juice into the nut butter first to work out the clumps before adding the rest of the ingredients. Also if your almond butter is very thick you may want to add some water to make the sauce thinner. This isn’t necessary, but makes stirring easier.

Toast the nuts in a dry pan until slightly darker in color. Chop the almonds or peanuts and cilantro. Toss the veggies, soy curls, and noodles with the sauce and serve warm, garnished with cilantro and toasted nuts. Enjoy!

Asparagus Pasta

Spring is in the air, and with that our thoughts are turning towards one of our favorite vegetables: asparagus! With such a short season, we always try to take advantage by eating asparagus on everything. In this recipe asparagus is the vegetable, the garnish, and the sauce for your pasta.

Below: harvesting the last of Asparagus for the season!

Serves: 4-6

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 bunches of asparagus (skinnier is preferable)

½ lb Pasta (for GF pasta, Camille really likes Banza Chickpea Pasta)

1/4 cup olive oil, plus 2 tbsp for frying

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, plus 4 extra sundried tomatoes (in oil) for garnish, chopped

1 avocado

1 cup salted water (take from the pasta water)

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp soy free Vegenaise or JustMayo

Juice and zest from 1 small lemon

½ tsp pepper

Salt to taste

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Cut the bottoms off the asparagus. Set aside 1 fistful of asparagus (you will broil these for a topping). Chop the rest of the asparagus stalks in 1 inch pieces and divide into two piles. It would be good if one pile had softer pieces such as the heads and slim stems and the other pile had the chunkier stalks. Make sure you have 3 cups of chunkier stalks which you will use to make the sauce.

Boil water for pasta. Dissolve enough salt in this water that it tastes like the ocean, for us this is usually around 3-4 tbsp to about 3 quarts of water. This may seem like a lot of salt, but most of it will be washed away when you drain the pasta, and the vegetables and pasta will absorb salt during the cooking process so that the dish will taste well seasoned without needing to be salted much when it is finished. Start to cook the pasta. When it has 3 min left to be fully cooked, add the pile of softer asparagus pieces (heads and slim stalks). Let this cook for about 3 minutes. The goal is to cook the asparagus until it is bright green and tender, but not so much that it starts to lose its color. If you haven’t already, steal about a cup of water from the pot and set aside, you will use this in the sauce. Then, after about a minute or when the asparagus is bright green, drain the pasta asparagus mixture, rinse with cold water, and set aside.

While the pasta cooks, you can start cooking the sauce. Start by braising 3 cups of asparagus stalks. To braise, heat up the pan with 2 tbsp olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the asparagus and cook until browned. Add about 1/2 cup of water and cook until asparagus is soft.

Combine the braised asparagus with the 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, the cup of pasta water, nutritional yeast, oregano, Vegenaise, lemon juice (reserve 1 tsp), pepper, and salt in a food processor and puree until smooth.

While this is happening, drizzle some olive oil over the fistful of reserved whole asparagus pieces. Broil these in the oven until crispy (but not burnt). Drizzle the reserved lemon juice on the freshly roasted asparagus. Chop into inch long pieces.

Finally, combine the cooked pasta and asparagus with the sauce and top with broiled asparagus pieces and minced sun-dried tomatoes. Enjoy!

Romanesco Alfredo Pasta

This recipe was inspired by receiving romenesco and having no idea what to make with it. We love how it pairs with the cheesy Alfredo sauce. Combined with some shittake bacon and wilted greens it’s a perfect pasta night!

Serves: 4

Time: 1 1/2 hrs

Ingredients

2 heads romenesco, cut into small florets (cauliflower or broccoli is a good substitution)

6 tbsp olive oil, divided

salt

1 batch Shiitake Bacon

1 bunch Red Russian kale (or any hearty greens)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb pasta (gluten-free option)

1 onion, sliced

3 tbsp white wine, optional

For the Breadcrumbs:

1 cup breadcrumbs (gluten-free option)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp garlic powder

3 tbsp olive oil

For the sauce:

1 cup cashews soaked for at least 30 min

1 1/2 cup water

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 tbsp garlic granules

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch of red pepper flakes

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 F and soak 1 cup of cashews in water. Start making shiitake bacon since the mushrooms need time to marinate. Cut the romenesco into florets and toss with 4 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of salt. Bake for 45 minutes or until tender and golden brown with a couple of crispy bits.

To make the breadcrumbs, whizz the sunflower seeds in a food processor until breadcrumb consistency. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil. Start the food processor and stream the olive oil into the mixture while it is running. This should clump some of the breadcrumbs together. Be careful not to over blend.

Drain the soaked cashews. Add them and all of the other sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. To test the consistency, put a small amount of sauce on your finger and rub your fingers together. If it is completely smooth then you are there! If it feels at all like there is some sandiness, keep blending.

Boil a pot of well salted water. If you aren’t sure how much salt to use, the water should taste similar to seawater. Once boiling, add pasta and cook to desired consistency (follow instructions on pasta package). While pasta is boiling, cook the shiitake bacon and slice the onions. Next de-stem kale, wash, and slice into ribbons. Mince the garlic.

After straining the pasta, heat the pasta pot with oil and saute the onion until it caramelizes and turns a beautiful brown color. You will need to stir less at the beginning, but as the onion starts to break down you will need to be stirring non-stop. If the onion starts to stick, de-glaze the pan with a bit of white wine (optional). Add the cashew alfredo sauce to the pan and stir until slightly thickened. At the same time, in a separate pan, cook the garlic in a little bit of oil, adding the kale in just to wilt. Set these aside.

Now, it’s time to add it all together! Add the strained pasta back into the pot with the Alfredo sauce and stir to coat. To plate serve the Alfredo pasta topped with the romenesco, wilted garlic kale, and shittake bacon. Garnish with breadcrumbs and enjoy!