PASTA CARBONARA

In another examination/investigation into vegan creamers we also made this pasta from Vegan for Fun. This is a veganised version of the meaty, ‘eggy’, creamy Pasta Carbonara. It uses soy creamer to mimic the sauce and smoked tofu for the bacon. I never ate Carbonara when I was a meat eater, as I haven’t ever really liked eggs, but Mike used to enjoy it. In it’s traditional form it is pretty full of fat, dairy and eggs; it isn’t very healthy! This recipe isn’t exactly low fat either with the addition of soy creamer and some margarine but it’s much better than the original. In this pasta I decided to use soy creamer as I thought the oat one would be a little to strong. The oat one worked well in the Quiche but I wanted something milder for this recipe. There isn’t much to this pasta but, soy creamer, margarine, smoked tofu, onion and parsley. Cook and combine those together with cooked pasta and you have it. So it is really, really simple. We both enjoyed it but I don’t think we were blown away, we enjoyed our Autumn paste more. I definitely will make it again though when I need a quick pasta dish and feel like something creamy.

This recipe comes from:

Vegan for Fun: Vegane Küche die Spass macht

by Attila Hildmann

Language: German

AUTUMN PASTA

We’re very lucky, we live in a great location. Almost right outside our front door there are three fruit and veg sellers and just down the road is a Bio/Organic Supermarket. Everything is within walking distance and the underground subway is almost on our door step too, which is great because we don’t have a car. Every night Mike walks past the fruit and veg stalls and reports back on the nice mushrooms they have and what he would like to eat. This week he said they had really nice King Brown Mushrooms (also known as King Oyster Mushrooms or Kräuterseitling in German) and I decided to use them. This recipe was inspired by a recipe in My Kitchen by Pete Evans, a book I also managed to pick up at the book fair – pretty sure the sellers were pocketing the money as they weren’t meant to sell them. Of course his recipe was not vegan so I tweaked a few things.

I love simple pasta dishes. This is super simple and doesn’t take much longer to cook than the pasta takes to boil. This is a really earthy pasta. It is hard to describe the flavour. The mushrooms and rosemary give it a really, grounded, forest, Autumn flavour – if you can imagine that. We also use a Multigrain wholemeal pasta, which would add to this flavour. The mushrooms provide a nice chewy texture, similar to squid, but don’t overcook them as they can go a little sour. They are not overpowering and the smokiness of the tofu comes through nicely. We really enjoyed the simple flavours of this pasta and will be cooking it again when the mushrooms look nice.

Serves 2 – easily doubled to serve 4

Ingredients

• 2 tsp oil 
• 1 onion 
• 2 garlic cloves 
• 1/2 block (250g) smoked Tofu, cut into thin cube/strips 
• 3 large king brown mushrooms, cubed
• 75g vegan margarine, splint into 2 equal portions 
• 30g pine nuts 
• Salt and Pepper 
• 1-2 sprigs of Rosemary, finely chopped
• 200g linguine (we love Rapunzel Linguine Multikorn)

Directions

1. Cook the pasta to the instructions on the package.
2. Heat the oil in a fry pan over low heat and sauté the onion and garlic for 5-10 minutes. Add the smoked tofu, mushrooms and half the butter, continue to cook for 10 minutes or until the tofu and mushrooms are cooked. Season to taste.
3. Once the pasta is cooked added it to the mushroom mixture and stir well to make sure the pasta is coated in the mushroom sauce. Divide into 2 bowels.
4. In the same pan used to cook the mushrooms and the remaining butter, once it stats to bubble and forth add the rosemary; cook for 1-2 minutes. Pour this over the bowls of pasta and mix through. You can also cook the butter, add to the pasta and sprinkle the rosemary over the top, without cooking it. Serve with some more cracked pepper.

LEEK QUICHE

Mike and I went to Venice last week and I meant to blog this post before I left but ran out of time!

This is another recipe from Vegan for Fun we both wanted to try as soon as we saw it. I haven’t made a quiche/tart in so long that I thought it was time to fix that. This quiche is a little different to many vegan quiches in that it uses vegan cream (oat or soy based) as the sauce and thickening agent. I was really interested in the quiche for this reason, there are quite a few vegan creamers here; oat, soy and rice based. I haven’t used them for any purpose other than ice cream so I was interested in giving them a go in different meals. Where I can, I try to reduce soy products so I tried the oat creamer this time round. Using the creamer means it stays gooey and doesn’t have the same consistency a tofu based tart would. This quiche holds together nicely but is a bit runnier than most vegan quiches – that may also be because I used too much leek. The addition of the cream made the quiche quite rich but lecker. I served it with a side of Nutty Greens.

My favourite part was the addition of smoked tofu. The smoked tofu we get here is so nice and it went really well in the quiche. I think the trick is to not over do the tofu though. The chilli also gave it a nice touch of heat. Apart from the pasty, creamer, leek, tofu, chilli and seasoning there wasn’t much else in the quiche, so it was quick and easy to prepare.

The pastry was really easy to make and didn’t require blind baking – score!

Mike and I reheated this the next day after storing it in the fridge which I think gave it a firmer consistency. It was great on both days and fairly simple to prepare. I think I will be making this one again when I feel like a creamy, indulgent tart for dinner!

This recipe comes from:

Vegan for Fun: Vegane Küche die Spass macht

by Attila Hildmann

Language: German

PINEAPPLE BAKED TOFU with SEARED PINEAPPLE, NUTTY GREENS & COCONUT RICE

Every Saturday Mike and I sit down and make a shopping list. I usually plan the meals in advance but find it easier to have him read the ingredients out as I try and work out what I have in the pantry and write the list. This usually leads to him flicking through the pages of the books and demanding 100’s of recipes at once; “Can you make these?”, “Look at these, don’t they look good”, “Mushrooms, you know how much I love mushrooms!”, “I haven’t had biscuits in so long, when are you going to make me biscuits?”. Let’s just say it can take a while and his meal choices for a week night meal aren’t always practical. When we sat down this week to write out the shopping list, Mike found this recipe on the way to another recipe and said “Oooo pineapple; I like pineapple, we should try this!”.

This recipe was pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of pineapple and don’t really like it in meals (me and sweet and sour are not BFF’s), but it went really well with the baked tofu and marinade. I didn’t have any old bay seasoning, and although I could have made some, I decided to use Creole Seasoning, as the recipe didn’t use much. The Creole Seasoning worked well but it probably would have been better with Old Bay Seasoning. I haven’t tried Old Bay Seasoning, so it’s hard for me to say. I also served it with Caribbean Coconut Rice from Vegetarian times. The recipe suggested serving it with just plain brown rice, which I though was a little boring – who doesn’t put coconut and pineapple together? Madness!

The biggest problem with this recipe is it does use a lot of dishes. First you baked the tofu in the marinade and then you put the tofu on a baking sheet and bake for longer. You then make a sauce, rice and sear the pineapple and cook the spinach. In total you use about 5 cooking pots/dishes to make one meal. Not a problem on the weekend when you have some one to help you clean but a little overwhelming when you’re on your own on a week night. I also have a tiny kitchen and very limited bench space (my kitchen is smaller than a display model at IKEA) so 5 dishes is a bit of a nightmare (unless you’re cleaning as you go, which isn’t possible in this recipe as the timeframes between each step are short).

The best thing about this dish? Nutty Spinach! I certainly haven’t been over using this side dish. All you do is wilt the spinach and chuck in some chopped nuts, my favourite is almonds. It’s so easy and tastes great. I am super amazed by it.

This was a nice dish but I’m not sure it was worth all the effort. Next time I think I’ll forget about making the sauce and just let the tofu cook in the marinade for the whole 40 minutes. I definitely think we will make it again when Mike gets a pineapple craving.

This recipe comes from: Vegan Yum Yum: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-Free Recipes for Entertaining and Everyday By Lauren Ulm Recipe can be found here.