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!

Eggplant Pesto Pizza

Eggplant season is here again and we are eating it every chance we get! With this pizza recipe the time varies widely depending on how you choose to make your pizza crust. You can buy pizza crust from the store to make the process quicker and easier, or you can make pizza from scratch. If you make it from scratch, make sure to check your recipe to get a sense of how much time that will take. Another option one of our friends does is to make dough from scratch and freeze it for later.

Makes: 1 large pizza

Time: 1 hr + additional time if making pizza dough from scratch

Pizza Crust (Anne uses the Joy of Cooking recipe, but any recipe or store bought would do just fine), for gluten-free pizza crust we recommend Simple Mills Brand

1 medium eggplant

1 medium zucchini

1 batch of sun-dried tomato pesto, on the thicker side

3 garlic cloves, minced

(optional) 1/2 bunch of kale, chiffonaded

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If you are making the pizza dough from scratch, check your recipe to see how long you need for dough preparation. Prepare your crust for toppings, remembering to take into account any resting or cooling time it might need. Now we will discuss how to prepare the toppings.

Turn on your broiler. Peel the eggplant and cut it into long slabs about 1/2 inch thick. Brush both sides with olive oil and place on a broiler pan. Broil about 7 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. When broiling, it’s very easy to burn the eggplant, so make sure to set a timer each time and listen to the timer. When the eggplant is soft and browned on both sides, remove it from the oven and set aside. The browning may be splotchy, but that is ok.

Pre-heat the oven according to your pizza dough instructions. If you need to do any more work on the crust before adding the toppings, now is a good time to do that.

Next, mince the garlic and then slice the zucchini into long thin strips. Heat up a pan with oil and sauté the zucchini until it is golden brown on one side, and lightly browned on the other side, about 15 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook an extra 3 minutes until the garlic is fragrant.

If you have a pizza peel and a pizza stone, you will build your pizza on the peel sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina flour and cook it on the stone. If you don’t, it is easy to cook this pizza on a cookie sheet. Or to use a cookie sheet, pizza stone combo.

If you are adding the optional kale, you can wilt it in a pan with a little oil while the pizza is in the oven.

Spread the pesto onto the pizza crust. Cut or tear your eggplant into long strips and cover the pesto with the eggplant.  The combination of eggplant and pesto will make everything hold together nicely.  Top with the zucchini and put in the oven.  Bake about ten minutes and then optionally add the kale.  Continue to bake until the crust is golden (about 5 more minutes, but can vary a lot depending on the crust). Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Apple Crumble

Anne was seven when they were first told that dairy and sugar were making them sick. This meant that many birthday parties were full of food they couldn’t eat and parents complaining that Anne was too difficult. In some cases they were even un-invited from the birthday party because the parents didn’t know how to provide food in a way that would be inclusive (or even allow Anne to bring their own food).

Camille’s mom was the first of Anne’s friend’s parents to cook food with Anne’s food needs in mind. If you have food allergies, you know the sheer joy of arriving to a party finding there is food you can eat because someone thought of you specifically. There is so much joy in a meal that was created with you in mind. It’s receiving love on so many levels.

Apple crumble was the first dessert that Camille’s mom made for us after Anne’s food allergies were identified and we still love it to this day. Cooking the recipe brings up warm loving feelings of home and the joy of not being a burden, but just being loved by family. Eating it is bliss, because, well, it’s a very good recipe.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 1/2 hrs, 45 min active

Ingredients

Filling

4 apples, peeled and sliced

3 T maple syrup

1 T cinnamon

2 T cornstarch

Topping

3/4 cup almond pulp (can use almond flour here)

3/4 steel cut oats (gluten-free option)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

2 T coconut sugar

1 T maple syrup

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts (optional candied nuts if you have them)

1/2 c vegan butter, cold

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Peel and slice the apples into thin wedges. Toss them in a bowl with all the filling ingredients until evenly coated. Put in the bottom of a casserole dish or a deep pie pan around the size of 8X8. Using the same bowl, put the almond pulp, oats, cardamom, cloves, salt, and coconut sugar together and mix until fully incorporated. Next you cut the butter into by using your hands to quickly pinch the butter with the other ingredients until you have evenish small chunks of butter throughout the crumble topping. These chunks should be about the size of a pea or slightly larger. Drizzle the maple syrup onto the mixture and add the pecans. Use a fork to quickly toss this together being careful not to overmix or melt the butter. Spread the topping out over the apple filling and bake for about 40 minutes. After 40 minutes the topping should have become more solid and less like individual bits of oats as well as being slightly browned and crispy at this point bring the crisp out. It is done cooking now so you can try to eat it hot, although we recommend cooling it slightly to avoid burning yourself. Enjoy!