white pasta sauce (also good for hot chips)

I've never been very good at white sauces: they're not a thing I ever ate as a child (unless they were part of a hor fun, which is a different kind of white sauce all together), and I considered white sauce a different, unusual, completely foreign thing. It was a special treat, and certainly not anything I had any experience with at home. 

Since I've been vegan I've failed at every recipe I've turned my hand to; so it was with great delight that last week I was feeling lazy and magically a white sauce appeared as my dinner. 

So I stole this from Emma in talk and texts, and turned it into a recipe. On Friday it was leftovers of pasta with this sauce plus hot chips + potato cakes from the local fish and chippery; tonight I fried thin strips of tempeh and thinly sliced mushrooms in some teriyaki sauce to top it all with. It's versatile and delicious, and next I think I'm going to try it as a béchamel on a lasagne. 

There are no pictures because you've seen an ugly brown/cream sauce before. 

So I present to you, a super delicious but relatively easy white pasta sauce. 

Dice half a brown onion, and brown it (ha!) in 2 tablespoons of nuttelex/margarine, before adding a minced clove of garlic and half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes. Careful with the chilli, I basically killed my flattie Bella this evening by choosing to use about two tablespoons of chilli. I just like chilli, okay?

When it's all brown and delicious smelling, add a heaped tablespoon of (vegan, obvs) powdered chicken-flavoured stock (ILU, Massels), and 2 tablespoons of plain flour. Mix it all in, add a dash or three of milk, stir again, add some more milk and maybe some water and create a roux, then dash to the sink as you hurriedly drain and rinse a can of cannelleni beans. Add these to the pot, then stir and let simmer. Simmer simmer simmer, adding more water or milk as necessary, until you're happy with it. Mash some of those beans up, then simmer a bit longer. Hurrah, a sauce!

Tonight I also added teeny tiny diced carrots in the latter stages, simmering them until softened, and some frozen peas to the cooking pasta spirals, and of course the fried tempeh and mushies. Emma definitely had fresh spinach, basil and kale, all added after the sauce was taken off the heat, and also probably some other exciting things because I remember it being quite bulky. I would love to try this as a sauce over cauliflower and sweet potato. 

slow cooked lentil ragu with fettucine

last saturday i had my very first visit to little deer tracks in coburg, where i had an amazing lentil ragu over linguine and obsessed about it all week, until finally i cracked and on friday attempted one of my own. it was delicious, we finished nearly all of it and i was so sad when i ran out of pasta. 

it filled the house with beautiful, rich aromas and filled my mouth with tastiness and my belly with warmth, i recommend you make this immediately as we now, finally, appear to be commencing our descent into a melbourne winter. 

slow cooked lentil ragu over pasta

ingredients

1 brown onion (diced finely)

2 celery stems (diced finely)

1 carrot (diced finely)

1 field mushroom (chopped finely)

1 garlic clove (diced finely)

1 red chilli (diced finely)

200g puy lentils

600g diced tomatoes (i used canned)

4 cups stock

1 bay leaf

handful of basil leaves (shredded)

splash of dried oregano

long pasta (fettucine, linguine)

what you do

soak the lentils in some hot water while you chop your veggies. 

in some olive oil, brown the onion, then add the celery and carrot with the mushroom. allow to fry until the mushroom starts to release its juices, then add the garlic and the chilli and fry through for a minute or two. drain the lentils and add these and the tomato to the pot. simmer for a few minutes before adding the basil, bay and oregano, as well as the stock. bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, and leave simmering, half covered, for as long as it takes for the lentils to cook through. the longer the better - i simmered for about an hour. top up with stock or wine as appropriate, if necessary. 

cook the pasta as appropriate and serve together. 

i also shredded a small handful of baby spinach leaves and added them in right at the end. if i'd had some some red wine i would have added a splash or five at the beginning to bring out a rich flavour, but it was totally fine and rich without. 

will make this again almost immediately. i'd love to try this as a lasagne sauce. you can barely tell there are mushrooms in it if you chop them finely enough. 

a whole lot of pumpkin pasta

It's been getting cold and it's been getting rainy, and last week I went to the Caterpillar's Dream and had a very disappointing lasagna, and I wanted to do something exciting with my pasta. I remembered that Cate had issued a challenge: Sweet Spices, Savoury Suppers, and I realised this would be a perfect opportunity to try making a pumpkin sauce and throwing everything in the house into it. 

you will need:
1kgish of pumpkin
1 shallot (sliced thin)
some minced garlic
half a zucchini, grated
100g firm tofu
1 cup soy or almond milk
half cup stock
olive oil
small head of broccoli
handful of nuts (i used pecans)
some baby spinach
1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp sage (or more if it takes your fancy) (you could also add a shake or two of cinnamon)
soy sauce
whole lot of salt and pepper
long pasta for four people

what you do:
boil and mash the pumpkin. puree/mash it with the stock and the soy milk until it's all lovely and smooth. add in the minced garlic.

during the pumpkin prep stage, put the pasta on to boil. when it's almost done to your satisfaction, add the broccoli florets and let them boil a little. drain, rinse with cold water, and put it all aside.

dice the tofu, marinate in some soy sauce, and then fry until it's all lovely and crispy. put this aside.

in a little oil, fry the shallot until golden, then add the zucchini and fry for about five minutes. add in the pumpkin mixture, and let it simmer for a while. add the nutmeg and the sage, and as much salt and pepper as you like (i stood there cracking pepper and salt for a while so i'm not sure how long - taste it, but remember you'll also be adding tofu that was marinated in soy sauce). when you're happy with it, stir the baby spinach through, and then combine with the tofu, pasta and broccoli. top with nuts and serve. (i shallow fried and chopped the nuts but raw is fine too)

If you haven't previously checked out Cate's blog, I recommend it - it's not vego but she does lots of great cooking for various dietary requirements, and I have personally had the pleasure of eating all sorts of her delicious creations.

easy good food: pasta salad with marinated tempeh

I've had a few requests lately for easy, nutritious, fast, after-work vegan food, so this is the first post in an occasional series of easy good fast foods. For the most part they're rounded meals on their own, or close enough. They're my comfort foods, my lazy foods, my whatever is in the house foods. I almost always have the supplies, or most of the supplies, in the house required to make these meals.

They do rely in part on pre-prepared things, but no shame, I mean, I'm not gonna sun dry my own tomatoes, am I? (spoilers: I'm not)

We'll start with one of my favourite summer recipes, sun-dried tomato pasta salad with marinated tempeh.

I know! How can something that involves marinating be fast? Trust me on this one. It's great. It's so great I made this salad twice on Thursday last week, and a big batch of it on Boxing Day (not just for me).

To serve two people (maybe three)
Pots and things that will need washing up: two (a pot for pasta, and a frypan, but maybe you can mix the pasta in the pot). Also a colander.
Time: ten minutes for prep, ten-fifteen for cooking
Complete meal: you got your proteins, your fresh vegetables, your grains, your oils/fats, your deliciousness.

You will need:
100g plain tempeh
some five spice powder
little bit of sesame oil (teaspoon or two)
a tablespoon or three of light soy sauce

200g pasta spirals (spirals! very important!)
100g sundried tomatoes (if they're pre-sliced strips, this is easier, but if they're not remember to cut them into strips)
dash of lemon juice
dried chilli flakes to your desired hotness (I usually use about half a teaspoon) (these really should be flakes, by the way, not ground)
big handful of something fresh that you can eat raw (such as snow peas, or capsicum)
handful of nuts or seeds (such as cashews or sunflower seeds)


What you do:
Slice the tempeh thin, like bacon strips or something, then mix together the five spice, sesame oil and soy sauce and marinate the tempeh in it. If there's not enough liquid, add some more. Sometimes I add minced ginger if I have any in the fridge, but it's totally not compulsory. Leave to marinate.

Put on the pasta to boil. Slice up the fresh things (and the sundried tomatoes if necessary) into nice single bite chunks. You will notice this is basically everything. At this point, fry the tempeh in a little vegetable oil until it's nice and brown on both sides.

When the pasta is firm but ready, drain it and then in a bowl (or the pot!) mix together all of those ingredients that aren't the tempeh or marinade, including the things that look like dressing (lemon juice, chilli, and the oil from those sun-dried tomatoes!), and the nuts. Mix well to make sure the dressing is even! Serve with tempeh on top or beside. Eat.


Variations:
This seems oily, I know, but you control the oil via how much of the sun-dried tomato oil you put in. Other than that, you can change up your fresh veggies, your nuts and seeds, and even swap out the tomato for marinated artichokes or capsicum if that takes your fancy! Don't swap out the spirals, they are perfect for grabbing onto the flavour.
I am submitting this to Cate's Cates for the Substantial Salads Challenge. You should submit stuff too!

fancy eats at capital m

I spent most of yesterday in the vicinity of Xuanwumen, suspiciously close to my work despite it being a public holiday (端午节, the dragon boat festival). As a break between meandering around Niu Jie and heading down Liulichang Jie (which is the calligraphers' area), C (my companion for the day) suggested we drop into Capital M for lunch.

I've been to Capital M only once before, to meet Senator the Hon Bob Carr, and acknowledged it was a bit swanky without really taking in quite how swanky it was.

After having a two hour, three course meal, and spending way more money on one meal than I have previously in Beijing, I, uh, now get the idea just how swanky it is.


Unsurprisingly I couldn't eat any of the set menus, but with a bit of negotiation I was still able to get a meal with some amazing moments. Such as this salad, above, with grape fruit, flower petals, and an assortment of leaves, in a light dressing. I hate dressing, and yet I still found this absolutely delicious.



I followed this up with a modified pasta, ordered without the anchovies (ps, things that taste terrible: anchovies), but with everything else: capers, olives, tomato. This was very oily, and C, who is Italian, made fun of me for ordering pasta outside Italy.

Finally, to round out my meal, I ordered the fruits with sorbet, which turned out to be made with a coconut milk base, and was rich and creamy and delicious.

Not pictured here: the Turkish Delight with which we ended, nor my delight over soft, fresh, crispy, and most importantly not-sugary bread.

Capital M

3/F, No 2. Qianmen Pedestrian Street
(just south of Qianmen)
Beijing

前门步行街2号3层

broccoli in my pasta

I feel all out of the habit of writing recipes. It's not that I'm not cooking, it's that what I can do in my kitchen is limited by the equipment and ingredients. Some equipment I'm used to I can buy, but I don't want to purchase only to leave it behind at the end of my twelve months; some equipment I just cannot find. Such as last night's disaster where I couldn't get this bottle of red open. In the end I used a chopstick and pushed it into the bottle, but frustrating was the knowledge that the person who gifted me with this bottle of red had also brought a corkscrew for me, and forgotten to give it to me.


Anyway, PASTA. It's a comfort food for me here in China. As I'm blogged before, it's hard for me to order because very few places in Beijing do a good pasta and they almost always, even if I ask for it without, come with cheese. But I cheat here in Beijing like I never would at home. I've posted a previous cheatery pasta, but this one I cook probably a bit more often. And it's a bit cheaper and easier to get the ingredients.

You know how to make pasta, you don't really need a recipe, but in case you're interested (it's kind of like cataloging what I can get in China):

coloured broccoli pasta

slice three button mushrooms, and fry in a little olive oil. add half a dozen cherry tomatoes, halved, and saute until they start to soften. add some tomato pasta sauce, a little chilli flakes, and one or two cloves of garlic, and simmer on reduced heat for five minutes. in the meantime, cook 250 grams of coloured pasta, and when it's almost done, add one small head of broccoli that has been pulled apart. drain and mix it in with the pasta sauce and two or three or four tablespoons of nutritional yeast. the broccoli should be crisp and everything else should be squishy.

did I mention that in China, cherry tomatoes are considered a fruit, and found in the fruit section?

veggie table iii [lama temple area, beijing]

I've written twice before about my love of the Veggie Table, and I love it, I really do - located close to my house, with excellent cake and good pasta, they have free wifi and don't mind if I sit there working and drinking coffee made with coconut milk.

So it saddens me to say how much I disliked my lunch there on Monday.

I've never taken the opportunity to try any of their specials and, having previously tried everything that interests me on their regular menu, I thought I'd give their daily special of sundried tomato and mushroom pasta with pinenuts a go.







Unfortunately I struggled to eat this, and I regretted that I hadn't ordered the mushroom burger as I'd been planning (it's the best burger I've been able to find so far in Beijing). It was a little too oily for me, and filled with a combination of flavours that I'm not a fan of on their own. I'm perfectly willing to concede that others would like this pasta, and really, I should have known better.

My previous (and extremely tasty) visits: one (includes accessibility details) and two.

Other reviews: Lum Dim Sum had a very mixed experience, and Bespoke Beijing had a much more pleasing time.

veggie table
19 wudaoying hutong
dongcheng district
beijing

timezone 8 [798, beijing]

I really like 798, the art district of Beijing. I've been there twice now (photos), and the second time was even more fun than the first, I came home with all sorts of art and had a really great afternoon. It's not the sort of place you can visit just once and be done with it, it's always evolving and it's massive and it's tiring.

On this visit we wandered in to Timezone 8, a gallery, restaurant, bar and bookshop. There's a soy latte on the menu and vegetarian pasta that I could get without the cheese, and given I thought I was going to be in a vegan wasteland I was happy already.



The pasta (eggplant, tomato and mushroom) was okay. It wasn't spectacular (the eggplant was a little tough), and the coffee was average, but Emilly said her pasta was good (vego not vegan) and her juice was excellent. We were seated at the bar and they juiced the watermelon in front of her! Service was friendly and helpful. I plan to take several of my visitors over the next eight months to 798, so it's good to know there's somewhere I can get food with minimal hassle.

The menu is in Chinese and English, the waitstaff speak a little English.


Timezone 8
4 Jiuxianqiao Lu (opposite UCCA)
798

Get there on the 401 bus. Steps to enter, nice lighting (during the day).

grilled vegetable pasta

One thing I don't get a whole lot of in Beijing is pasta - vegan pasta is difficult to come by in restaurants (though Veggie Table has a couple on the menu that I'd like to sample), and it can be hard to purchase dried pasta. A lot of the really big supermarkets stock a little, though, if they have a 'foreign' section, and of course there are my semi-regular visits to April Gourmet (a Western supermarket near my Chinese school).

Craving pasta, I recently put together this from things mostly picked up at April Gourmet: spirals, a tin of tomatoes, and a small takeaway container of grilled vegetables. It's pricy for a home-cooked meal (about 17Y for the pack of pasta, 15Y for the tomatoes, and 22Y for the veggies), but it was exactly what I wanted. Sometimes a little pasta when you're far away from home is what you really want.




grilled vegetable pasta

Super simple! Set enough pasta for two people on to boil. Slice half a spanish onion, and fry in a little olive oil. When it's softened, add some dried oregano and a little dried chilli, a minced garlic clove, and quickly follow it up with a tin of tomatoes, and leave to simmer for five minutes. Then add all your grilled vegetables, heat through, stir through some nutritional yeast, mix it through with the pasta and serve it all up.

It was worth it to cart that packet of nutritional yeast flakes all the way from Melbourne.

[wa] heavenly plate, applecross

Heavenly Plate is a new(ish) vegetarian restaurant in Applecross. I've heard a lot about it primarily from one friend, and nothing else from any other source, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I manufactured an opportunity to eat there on the weekend.

In fact, what happened was that I was so excited I started tweeting about the menu immediately (using the hashtag #heavenlyplate). Heavenly Plate is vegetarian, and mostly vegan (or vegan options); there is an entire hot chocolate menu featuring items such as 'orange and cinnamon' and 'strawberry' and entrees such as mango bruschetta and all sorts of really exciting and interesting things.

We decided to maximise our tasting opportunities by sharing three entrees (between four people), then ordering our own mains with lots of sampling.



Our entrees were the japanese wedges and wasabi mayo; the avocado rolls; and the murtabak. I wish the murtabak photo had turned out - aside from being incredibly delicious, it was beautifully and artistically laid out. The avocado rolls were encased in spring roll wrappers and fried, then served with a light mint (?) mayonnaise which was so delicious Danni scraped the remnants up with her knife in order to eat it all up. The murtabak was filled with a 'chicken tofu' and it was light and delicious with a lovely sauce and looked delightful, too. The wedges were herbed and sprinkled with nori, and the wasabi mayo had a spicy bite to it which became less potent (but no less delicious) as you continued.



Alas, my bad luck with my photos continued in to our mains, so you only get to see two. Above on the left: my Thai green curry spaghetti. This looked rich, and being Thai green curry, it certainly was; but I didn't find it overwhelming, and I loved the combination. The carrot could have done with being a little softer, but aside from that it was delicious and I thought it was great. Dr G ordered the noodles with cheese wontons (sadly the wontons are not pictured). The noodles were exactly what one expects from a chasiu wonton noodle dish (which I love); the wontons were served in a slightly salty soup. The soup was perhaps slightly too salty, and the cheese wontons were interesting. I'm not sure what was in them, but definitely a cheesy flavour, and definitely worth a try.

Gilly ordered the the Tripple C, where the mock chicken was battered in flour and Diet Coke, and deep fried, served with some lovely crisp chips and a perfectly serviceable salad. Gilly reports that she could taste a slight Coke-y flavour to the batter, but the rest of us were unsure. Danni went for the chilli chicken in red jam, a beautifully presented dish featuring rice and vegetables and mock chicken and cashews. The flavour of this dish was excellent, and not spicy (more flavoursome), with a slight sweetness which I assume was the red jam.



Intrigued by the desserts and chocolates menu, we decided to split two desserts and each order a hot chocolate. Due to the unavailability of the peach pie, we ordered the apple torte and the chocolate sundae. Chocolates ordered to the table were the strawberry hot chocolate and the orange + cinnamon hot chocolate.

The chocolate sundae was So Good icecream with a whole lot of chocolate syrup and sprinkles. This was very fun to eat, but nothing exciting (aside from the experience of the chocolate sundae). The apple torte had a lovely flavour but I found it a little dry; I took this opportunity to combine the two, and this was excellent.



The strawberry hot chocolate had been particularly recommended to me; alas, I found it way too sweet for me, and had to keep cleansing my palate with chocolate sundae. When one needs to palate cleanse with icecream, it is perhaps too sweet! I found the orange + cinnamon hot chocolate much more to my taste, with a light tang and a lovely sweetness. Alas then that I was not the person to order that chocolate!

Total bill for all that food came to just over $130. It was slightly too much food for all of us; each of my dining companions complained of being uncomfortably full, and I was leaning towards that myself. But certainly not disappointed. In fact, I am searching for excuses to dine there again before I depart Perth.



Heavenly Plate
899 Canning Highway
Applecross (WA)

open every day

didn't ask about gluten free options

little ramp up, easily navigable with wide apart tables inside. large, unisex toilets available. get there via the train (about a 5-10 minute walk from canning bridge station on the mandurah line) or a canning highway bus. some parking available.

walnut + mushroom pasta (with bonus tempeh)

I was skeptical, at first, but it turns out a creamy pasta made from walnuts and featuring soy sauce is actually really delicious! I saw this originally at Seitan is my Motor and have modified it a bit, but I suspect the original deliciousness is still there! This wasn't too complicated, though it did make quite a few dishes.



walnut + mushroom pasta
modified from seitan is my motor

ingredients
quarter of a cup of light soy sauce or tamari sauce
200g plain tempeh
three quarters of a cup of walnut halves or walnut pieces
1 chilli
just over half a cup of rice milk
1 clove garlic (minced) (or a teaspoonish of minced jarred garlic)
some oil (canola is fine, though olive is better. margarine/nuttelex is also okay)
1 teaspoon paprika
a shake of thyme
a shake of marjoram
350 - 400g fettucine
eta: and mushrooms!

method
Dice the tempeh small, then soak in the soy sauce for about half an hour. If it soaks up all the soy sauce, add a little bit more. Make sure it's light soy! If you use dark soy then there will be tears. Sometime during this half an hour, set the pasta on to boil. When the pasta is done, drain, but reserve a smidge of the water.

In a blender, blend the walnuts with the milk, the garlic and the chilli. Slice the mushrooms. In a pan, saute the tempeh (with any leftover soy sauce in which it was soaking) in a little oil or nuttelex, until it starts crisping, then add the mushrooms. Saute these until they are almost cooked through, then throw in the walnut mixture, plus the paprika, thyme and marjoram. Simmer for five minutes or so, until it has started to thicken (...more) and then throw in the reserved pasta water. Let it all simmer through, then combine with the pasta and a swish of lemon juice, and serve piping hot.

The soy sauce combined with the tempeh and the walnuts to be amazing, and the addition of the chilli was perfect! If you want to reheat it, toss through a little lemon juice.

japan iii: food at disney

Hey so whilst I was in Japan I went to DisneyLand and DisneySea. It was super awesome. There was a volcano in the middle of an island, and a roller coaster came out of it, and there was a 20 000 leagues under the sea ride, and it was very steampunky, and there was a Monster's Inc. ride, and I bought a ridiculous hat, and it was all very exciting.



I had prepared in advance, food-wise, with onigiri (more on that later) and a big breakfast. I've been to very few theme parks, and I was advised by experienced park goers that vegan food would be thin on the ground. Usually in Australia, I'd assume that I could at least have chips; however I had noticed as I wandered around Japan that this was not often the case, so I didn't want to take the risk and stocked up on delicious onigiri.

I was therefore delighted to find that the Disney Park Guides have a little column for vegetarian food, and where it can be found, where vegetarian means 'no eggs, dairy, meat or seafood but does include garlic and onion.' I am not Jain, so this was super okay by me. Granted there was only one restaurant in each park that had this option, but it was a sure option!



At DisneySea, this restaurant was Ristorante di Canaletto, next to the Gondolas, in "Venice." The service here was lovely, the wait was not too long and we got blankets (for sitting outside at less than 10C), and my pasta was quite tasty! That's it featured above, with the eggplant. Someone very important (or so we guessed - she was the only person in a suit and not a uniform) came out to reassure me that my food would be completely vegan and totally suitable for me, which was kind of cool (and way more reassurance than I had needed, but I really appreciated it).

At DisneyLand, the restaurant we went to was the Eastside Cafe, in the World Bazaar. I was worried, because it was all set menus, but there is a little vegan set menu with a surprisingly tasty green salad and a garden vegetable pasta. The pasta was nothing exciting but again, it was definitely vegan, and it was nice to be inside from the cold, and off my feet. Don't believe the website, though - it is not a leisurely meal, we were whisked away as soon as possible, to clear up the table for someone else.

Disney: it was fun, and tasty!

things that didn't quite work

Here are some recent things I've cooked that haven't quite been as delicious as I might have hoped.



SJ has this really awesome tempeh bolognaise recipe, which I have made several times as the sauce for plain pasta. We thought we'd see how this went as a pasta bake, since it allegedly goes amazingly as a lasagna sauce. I topped this with grated cheezly and some nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes, and it didn't go that well. The sauce was either too thin to hold to the pasta, or too thick with tempeh to hold to the pasta. The very top of it, encrusted with cheezly and nutritional yeast, was quite tasty though.



The texture of this dish was perfect, and given it was brown rice I was quite pleased. However biriyani it was not. I followed this recipe ish, approximately anyway, and doubled the spices and added extra (garamasala, for example, featured heavily), and it was still kind of bland. Could have done with more spice. I might try this one again.



Lastly a curried vegetable pasty. Not sure where I got the recipe for this one, but again it was a bit bland, could have done with some more spices. Puff pastry covers many sins, but not all of them.

glenferrie hotel, hawthorn

The only pub I've been to since we moved to Melbourne is the EBC. This seems a bit ridiculous, I know. I did go to the Workers once for a craft fair, I picked up the greatest necklace ever for Danni, and some awesome vintage scarfs.

So I got to try out the Glenferrie Hotel for the Christmas party. There was one thing on the menu I could eat without modification, and since I was in a pasta mood I decided to go for it. Just a plain pasta with mushrooms, but the addition of caramelised red onion in the sauce gave it a depth that meant I scooped up all of the sauce at the end.



Nothing special, but a perfectly serviceable meal (and alcohol paid for by the company).

Glenferrie Hotel
324 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

cheezy pasta bake

So, yesterday, as I mentioned in my last post, I had plans to use the leftover cheesy sauce from recent breakfast as part of a pasta dish.

I did this, and it was amazing. It was so delicious! I really looked forward to lunch today, when I ate the left overs!



delicious cheezeish pasta bake

We made this up to use up some leftover cheese sauce, but I am happy to make the sauce specifically to put on this dish - it's exactly what my pasta bakes needed.

ingredients
500ish g pasta spirals
5 large tomatoes, diced
half a dozen button mushrooms, cubed
olive oil
dried marjoram and oregano
a shake or three of dried chilli flakes
1 clove garlic (minced)
3 or 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes/savoury yeast flakes
1 cup cheese sauce from Vegan Brunch (pg217) (a variation of which Cindy has blogged here, if you don't have it)

method
Cook the pasta in the usual way.

In a tiny bit of oil, fry the marjoram, oregano and chilli flakes for a minute or two, along with the garlic. Add in the cubed tomato, bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer with the lid on. Stir occasionally. After half an hour, the tomato should have reduced significantly. Stir in two heaped tablespoons of nutritional yeast, and simmer with the lid off for another fifteen minutes.

In an appropriately sized dish, combine the pasta spirals, the mushrooms and the tomato sauce. Pour the cheese sauce over the top (if you have prepared this earlier, heat it first, to make it easier to pour). Finally, shake some more nutritional yeast.

Bake for about fifteen minutes at 180C. Serve, making sure to mix the cheese sauce through.

This made about five portions.

the most delicious pasta ever

This is a big claim, the most delicious pasta ever! Not my claim mind you, but Danni's. This is also her recipe, made up a few weeks ago after yet another (for me) very late end to the working day. It features kidney beans, olives and tofetta in a tomato sauce.



the most delicious pasta ever

This renders down quite a lot, and makes two or three portions.

ingredients
four or five tomatoes (diced)
clove of garlic (minced)
small amount of olive oil and nuttelex
dried basil, oregano, marjoram (about a tablespoon of each)
quarter cup of sliced olives
one can of kidney beans
some tofetta
cooked pasta (preferably spirals or penne) for two people

method
In a little bit of olive oil and nuttelex, fry the dried basil, oregano and marjoram for a minute or two. Don't burn! Add the tomatoes, stir a little, then reduce heat and simmer with the lid on for about thirty minutes. The tomatoes should have rendered down quite excellently. Add the kidney beans (drained), and the olives, and return to simmering for another fifteen or so minutes. Stir through the small cubes of tofetta, allowing it to melt just slightly, then serve atop pasta.

Serve while warm.

the potluck i did not attend plus parsley + cashew pasta and halava

I went to class instead! And turned up late and sampled some things (PIE), and got bitten by mosquitoes and, later, looked at photos of things I didn't get to eat.

The theme of this potluck, hosted by Craig and Bec at their new house, was 'not to kill James.' James requires a salicylate-free diet, and salicylates are in everything, as they're a naturally occurring plant hormone that is in a lot of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. The list of things that couldn't be used was huge, and I spent a few days, on and off, brainstorming ideas. No fruits (other than bananas or pears with no skin), no leafy vegetables, no tomatoes, no chilli...

Pip posted about the potluck already, which helped me name all the dishes I never saw because I got there too late.

Because I got there too late, I don't have any commentary on the foods! But you can see photos of everything at the flickr set.

As I was at work all day, and went straight from work to class, D was in charge of cooking for the potluck. So I take no responsibility for any mistakes in these recipes!



parsley and cashew pasta

ingredients
a big handful of cashews
1/3 block of tofu
1/3 bunch of fresh parsley
nutritional yeast
3/4 cup of soymilk
1 onion (diced)
1 garlic clove (minced)
some extra cashews

cooked pasta

method
Blend cashews, tofu, parsley, nutritional yeast, and soymilk. In the meantime, brown onion, garlic, and the extra cashew nuts. Add contents from blender. Simmer. Add cooked pasta, stir through.

Serve hot or cold



halava (modified from the hare krishna book of vegetarian cooking)

ingredients
not quite three cups of water
one and a half cups of sugar
10 saffron strands
half a cup of walnuts + pecans, chopped
200g butter
and and a half cups of semolina

method
Simmer water, sugar, and saffron over heat. In the meantime melt butter in a saucepan, add semolina, and stir-fry for about fifteen minutes, until the butter begins to separate. Lower the heat, and slowly pour in the liquids, whilst constantly stirring. Stir to remove lumps, then add the nuts. Cover and simmer for three minutes, to soak in all the liquid. Eat hot.

other people's recipes

One of the greatest things about blogs is the sharing aspect - you make friends, you read other people's blogs, and sometimes they post really awesome things!



Carla posted this recipe for lentil stew. I bookmarked it, and then sj made it and said how delicious it was (very!), so it moved up on the 'to make' list.

It is super easy, and really tasty. It was fast, and it filled the house with delicious smells. I skipped the vinegar, and added dried chilli flakes, and used a mix of green and red lentils (mostly green). Delicious, and definitely on the repeat list.



Then SJ posted her lasagna recipe. It is very much not vegan, but she makes a tempeh bolognese sauce for it, and it looked super delicious for a pasta sauce, so I gave it a go, and it was also very delicious! The tempeh is crumbled and fried, and then simmers for quite some time in red wine and tomatoes and herbs and spices, and it has a fantastic flavour and it was an excellent and relatively easy pasta. Grating the carrots and zucchini was a bit of a pain, though. Also, I really didn't notice the carrots or zucchini when I was eating, so - a great way to hide vegetables? I omitted the celery from this recipe, and wilted some spinach at the end in the pasta.

Again, definitely going on repeat. Very tasty!

Hooray bloggers sharing things!

three tomato pasta with mushroom and (vegie) sausage

Wandering through Carlton down Lygon Street on Sunday, we passed many Italian restaurants and pizzerias. So when I turned to D and asked what we should have for dinner, we were both quick to agree on pasta!

We had a couple of Sanitarium vegie sausages in the fridge, so we added them to this easy tomato pasta sauce to bulk it up a little. This is for the most part a standard tomato sauce recipe, just with extra tomatoes for awesomeness. I really liked the extra flavour that the sausages added.



Three Tomato Pasta with Mushroom and (Vegie) Sausage

ingredients
400 grams of dried pasta spirals
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 large tomatoes
a small handful of sun-dried tomatoes, diced
half a dozen mushrooms, sliced
2 plain vegie sausages, sliced into thin circles
1 tbl each of basil, marjoram, oregano
olive oil

method

Heat a tablespoon or three of the oil, add a whole lot of basil, marjoram and oregano. Fry for about thirty seconds, then add the three large tomatoes, diced. Stir through the herbs, then put the lid on the pan and simmer on low for about thirty to forty minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has rendered down.

Prepare the pasta, drain and set aside.

After about thirty minutes, in a separate pan, heat up some more olive oil, and fry the mushrooms. When they are well cooked, add the sausages, and the cherry tomatoes, and fry for a minute or two more. Add to the tomato mixture and stir through. At this point, also add the sun-dried tomatoes.

Leave it all to simmer for another five to ten minutes, then stir through the pasta and serve.

spinach pesto pasta with mushrooms, baby roma tomatoes, and wilted spinach

One of the awesome things about staying with friends is getting to use their kitchen to cook, instead of having to rely on constant takeout. One night it was just D and I pottering around, so I nipped out and picked up some spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes, for a quick and rich pesto pasta. I'm totally in love with pesto pastas at the moment.



spinach pesto pasta with mushrooms, baby roma tomatoes, and wilted spinach

ingredients
one bushel spinach
handful pinenuts
one clove garlic
olive oil
half a dozen mushrooms
one pack of baby roma tomatoes
half a pack of fettuccine

method
Put the pasta on to cook. Take a handful of spinach leaves (no stalk), and pound (or blend), gradually adding the pinenuts, garlic, and olive oil, as well as more spinach (about a quarter to a half of the bushel), until a rich, goopy texture is achieved.

Slice the mushrooms, and saute in some olive oil. When they are soft and have released a lot of liquid, throw in the tomatoes (halved), and some more of the spinach. Stir for a minute or three, until the spinach has wilted and the tomatoes are looking a little bit wrinkly, but don't overcook them!

Drain the pasta, and combine with the pesto, and stir through the mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. Serve hot.