It’s a Pizzaaaaa Pie-yaaaa…..Vegan Ramp Pesto Pizza!!!!

Woo-hoo!  You know it is springtime when you begin to see fun and new fresh produce!  That time has arrived despite the lower than average temperature.

So…. Drumroll please…..ramps are stampeding through the market I frequent.    If you are fond of the fresh onion/garlic flavor and have yet to play around with these beautiful green spring onions, they are a must!   Ask your local grocer if they have them in stock.  You will not be dissapointed!

Hint:  these suckers are quite potent and may keep the vampires away.  So…having a first, second or third, or heck….just not so comfy in having some extreme garlic/onion breath, maybe stay away until no one gives a bleep about how your breath smells.  I honestly avoided eating my leftovers the next day, for I had a few clients to work on. 

In order to give this pizza a nice balance, I added in sun dried tomatoes, tofu “ricotta”, red onion and mushrooms.  The sweetness of the tomatoes and the subtle flavor of the vegan “ricotta” is a great counterpart to the ramp pesto!

 Vegan Ramp Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:

your favorite pizza crust recipe

for the pesto:
1 bunch ramps (the green part) roughly chopped
1/2 c raw kale, stems removed
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/3 c evoo
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/2 lemon juiced

for the toppings:
tofu ricotta
1/4 red onion sliced
4 sun dried tomatoes sliced
1/2 c sliced button mushrooms

Directions:
In a blender or food processor, add in ramps, kale, walnuts, evoo, nutritional yeast and lemon juice.  Blend until everything has combined.  Note, if the pesto is too dry, add a tbsp of water at a time to achieve your desired consistency.  Add in salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven according to your dough recipe directions.  Roll out your pizza dough into desired shape.  Spoon your vegan ramp pesto over the dough and smooth out.  Top with dollops of your tofu “ricotta”, sliced onions, sun dried tomatoes and button mushrooms.  Bake according and let cool for about 5 minutes. 

Vegan Risotto Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

I don’t know why, but I love all things kitschy, corny, clever, or just all of the above.  Seeing a corny storefront sign always brings a little joy to my day.  Whether it be clever or corny, it really doesn’t matter.  I think it all comes down to being light and playful and not taking life all too seriously.

With all that said, I suppose using the whole portobello mushroom as the vessel of the mushroom risotto is somewhat clever/kitschy.  I just thought it is such a great idea, especially if you want to serve individual people at a dinner party.  It elevates the presentation of a mushroom risotto and looks pretty sexy if I may say so myself!

Remember….risotto’s are quite needy.  They need a lot of love, attention and patience!  But when all said and done, it is sure worth it!  You have that wonderful, melt in your mouth “creamy” goodness, but with no cream at all!  And of course, adding truffle never killed anyone (unless of course if you are allergic.  And, if that is the case, I am truly sorry).

Vegan Risotto Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients:
for the whole portobellos:
2-3 whole portobellos whole
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp evoo
s+p

for the risotto:

6 to 8 cups vegetable stock
1 c chopped mushrooms (either button or portobello)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, minced

2 garlic cloves minced
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 c nutritional yeast (optional)

1/2 tbsp truffle oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven 400.  Scrub the portobello mushrooms and remove the insides carefully with a spoon and discard.  Pat dry the mushrooms with a paper towel and marinate with the balsamic, evoo and salt and paper.  Place in baking dish and bake for roughly 15-20 minutes.  Once done, set aside.

For the risotto:

In a small saute pan, heat evoo and saute sliced mushrooms until soft.  Season with s+p and set aside.

Heat the vegetable stock in a large pot and keep heated with flame on low-medium. 

 In the meantime, heat evoo in a large saute pan and add shallots and garlic and saute until translucent.  Add in rice, and again, saute until translucent (about 3-5 minutes).  Add in white wine and continue to stir until absorbed.  Remember you will be continuously stirring throughout this whole process!  Add in one cup of broth at a time.  Do not add in the next cup until the cup prior is absorbed completely!!  At the end of the process, your rice should have a beautiful creamy texture but not mushy.  Fold in your sauteed mushrooms,  and seasonings (including nutritional yeast if you choose to use).

Spoon in a nice serving of the risotto into your baked mushrooms. Sprinkle truffle oil on top.  And now you have a sexy serving of mushroom risotto!

Vegan & Gluten Free Orechiette

Wow- that was quite the grocery shopping adventure.  I think Ryan and I just set a new all time record of how many stores we had to go to for certain items.  We successfully hit 5 different markets in about 2.5 hours.  With that said, I don’t think we will be needing to go to the store for some time.  I may even dare to say that we over did it.  Oooops.  Our refrigerator is literally jammed packed with fruits and veggies.  It kind of makes me smile though.

Homemade orechiette has been on my to do list for about a month now.  It is time consuming, so it was perfect to make on my day off.  I think making the dough and forming the pastas took roughly 1.5-2 hours.  So, make sure you have some time laid out to complete them!

So, instead of using semolina flour, which is typically used in pasta making, I used Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo Fava Flour.   Not only does this make it gluten free, but is also high in protein, providing 6 grahams per serving.

Vegan & Gluten Free Orechiette

Ingredients:

2 c chickpea flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c warm water
2 tbsp evoo

***note add a bit more water if dough is too dry.  add about 1 tbsp at a time while forming dough***

Combine the chickpea flour and salt.  Using a clean cutting board, place chickpea flour on it and create a well….meaning, create a little hole where you are going to add in the liquids.
Slowly pour in evoo and warm water and quickly begin to combine with hands.  As you can see, the liquid will begin to escape if you wait too long….sneaky little guys!

Continue combining with your hands.  This is where you will notice if you need to add more water or not.  Do this for about 5 minutes or until all the flour and water are combined nicely and your dough is not too dry and grainy.  Form into a ball and cover with plastic wrap.

Allow the dough to sit for about about 30 minutes.  After that time, the dough should be nice and shiny and have a good elasticity to it.  Now it’s time for your exercise!  Knead the dough for about ten minutes.  Put your body into it!  My massage therapy skills really definitely came in handy here.

Once done, divide the dough into about 5-6 sections.  Roll each section into a nice tube about 1/2 inch thick.  Using a sharp knife, cut tube into 1/4 inch discs.

Now it is time to shape those little ears.  Oh right, orechiette in Italian literally translates to “small ears”.  orecchio (ear) + etto (small)….a little food for thought.
With a small butter knife, press down on each little disc, and then, with your thumb gently press the dough over, creating an ear shape.

That is the time consuming part.  But once you are done, it is like magic.  A feeling of true accomplishment.  You can either boil them right away and serve with your favorite sauce or freeze them.  I would recommend that if you freeze them, eat within 2 months.

To cook, bring salted water to a boil and cook for just 2-3 minutes.  You will know they are done because they will rise to the top.

Not so Meaty Meatballs….Vegan Eggplant "Meatballs"

Yes, I have already done a Vegan version of an Italian Meatball with TVP.  But for this recipe, I wanted to create a “meatball” that was soy-free, plant based and fairly light.  I thought that eggplant would be a great vessel for that!

Eggplant has such a subtle flavor and so high in water content, that it holds on to really any flavor that you give it.  I opted to bake the eggplant before forming into balls rather than pan frying it.  This enables me to use far less oil.  Though, if you are tight for time, I would recommend pan frying, since it takes much less time to cook through. 

These are great to serve on top of your favorite spaghetti recipe, or as an appetizer.  If you have a large party, serve with toothpicks and marinara for dipping.  A perfect “finger” food.

Vegan Eggplant “Meatballs”

Ingredients:

1 medium sized eggplant

1 tbsp evoo

1 c panko crumbs

1/4 c nutritional yeast

1 tbsp favorite tomato sauce

1 tbsp fresh chopped basil

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley 

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp liquid smoke

1/4 c diced yellow onion

1 garlic clove diced

egg replacer mixed with water

s+p

Preheat oven 400.  Peel and cut eggplant into cubes, lightly toss with evoo, salt and pepper and bake for about 20-25 minutes.  

Once eggplant is done baking, remove from oven but DO NOT turn off the oven (you still need it at 400 to bake the balls)!  Combine all of the remaining ingredients from above to the eggplant EXCEPT for the bread crumbs and transfer to blender or food processor.  Pulse just a few times.  You do not want it to be completely blended, just partially!

Transfer back to bowl.  Add in bread crumbs and mix thoroughly.  Throw in more if seems too wet.  Season to taste. 

With your hands, roll about 2 tbsp of the mixture into a ball and place on greased baking sheet.  Repeat until mixture is gone.  Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, rotating the balls about every ten minutes.

Serve as an entree with pasta or as an appetizer with marinara sauce!

Homemade Vegan Beet Fettucini with Cashew "Alfredo" and Peas

I felt like I had to redeem myself after my last post of the quick and easy Mediterranean Pasta Dish, so here you have it…Homemade Vegan Beet Fettuccine!  Don’t be scared…it is actually not all that difficult to make your own pasta, just make sure you have a good amount of time to do it.  And yes, it may be timely, but is also quite therapeutic!

 I have been waiting to make pasta until I bought some of the attachments for my mixer, but just said screw it…I can do this without that fancy shmancy stuff.  And, guess what?  You really do not need all those fancy pasta roller machines or pasta drying racks  You can literally do everything by hand and improvise.  It is all very doable! 

If you have some pasta making appliances and So lets call this my DIY pasta making trial!  So, what do you need?  A large cutting board or surface, a rolling pin, pizza cutter (to cut pasta), a dish drying rack (to hang noodles on) and 2 pots (to prop up drying rack).

 So, why go through all this work to make pasta?  The answer is simple:  Fresh homemade pasta is always better than that boxed crap.  It is lighter, is completely fresh and you actually don’t feel heavy and full afterwards.  And best of all, it will always taste better!

Homemade Vegan Beet Fettucini with Cashew “Alfredo” and Peas

for the dough:
1 large beet
2 tsp evoo
2-2.5 c flour, plus extra for when rolling
1/2 c water
1 tsp salt

for the sauce
1 c raw cashews soaked at least 2 hrs
3/4 c unsweetened original almond milk
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/2 lemon juiced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
s+p

Directions:
preheat oven 425.  Lightly brush beet with evoo and wrap in foil.  Bake for about 1 hour or until a knife can pierce the beet easily.
Once done, peel the beet by just wiping with a paper towel.  Cut into pieces and blend in food processor or blender until pureed.  Add a touch of evoo to make more smooth while blending, set aside.
In a mixing bowl, add in flour and water and mix and knead with hands.  Add in pureed beets and continue to mix thoroughly.  Add in more flour if the dough seems too wet.  I should not be wet at all.  Continue to knead with hands for about 10 minutes.  Form into ball over cover with plastic wrap.  Allow to sit for about 15-20 minutes.

In meantime, make your sauce.  Take your soaked cashews and almond milk and blend until completely smooth.  Transfer to sauce pan, and turn to med-low,  Stir in nutritional yeast, lemon juice and seasoning.  If the sauce seems too thick, add in more almond milk.  Once desired consistency, stir in peas, turn off and reheat later.

At this point, your dough is ready to be worked with.  Break apart into thirds and roll out each third on a floured surface.  Try to make the dough just about as thin as you can get it without tearing.  With your pizza cutter, cut into long noodles.  Hang each noodle on your DIY drying rack.  Complete process until all the noodles are cut and are hanging.  Allow to hang dry for about 10 minutes.

Cook noodles in salted, boiling water for about 4 minutes.  Strain and serve with sauce! 

Mediterranean Vegan Pasta

This is a pretty simple, yet tasty dish to make when you are pressed for time and do not feel like making everything from scratch.  But of course, you always can make your own pasta and marinara sauce!

After a long day of work, I really just wanted something easy.  I opted for whole wheat vegan spaghetti, and some pre-made marinara sauce.  But that seemed a little boring.  Lets jazz it up and add some spanish olives, capers and roasted eggplant!  Now we are talking!

Aside from boiling your pasta and heating up the sauce, the only cooking you really have to do is to roast the eggplant.  Pretty simple, eh?

Mediterranean Vegan Pasta

Ingredients/Directions:  (yields 4-6 servings)

1 package whole wheat pasta

1 jar favorite vegan marinara sauce

1/4 c sliced green Spanish olives

3 tbsp capers

1 small eggplant, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp evoo

s+p

Preheat oven 425.  In a bowl, toss eggplant with evoo and seasoning and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes, stir and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes. 

In meantime, boil water and cook pasta accordingly.  In another sauce pan, add in marinara sauce, olives and capers.  Once eggplant is finished roasting, stir into sauce as well.  

Strain pasta, and spoon sauce on top.  Easy as that!

Little Heavenly Sweet Pillows!….Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi!

I am really excited about this recipe.  I almost feel like it is some sort of feat for me because I have always stayed away from trying to make gnocchi, solely out of fear that they would not turn out properly.  But definitely on the contrary!  No fear here anymore.  They are actually a lot easier to make than one would think.

All you need are some delicious sweet potatoes, a bit of salt and some flour.  Seriously that is it!  Your choice of sauce is really up to you.  I did a lemon, vegan butter-thyme sauce.  But, I also think a vegan cream sauce would be nice, or a sage brown butter sauce.

So, why choose sweet potatoes rather than yukon gold potatoes?  Aside from personal preference, sweet potatoes have less calories, carbs and more fiber.

So lets have fun and start making these heavenly sweet potato pillows!

Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients: (yields 3-4 servings)

3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes

3 c flour (plus extra if need be)

salt

 

So to start, I roasted my sweet potatoes in the oven for about 45 min-1 hr.  If you want a quick method, you can cook them in the microwave.  I am not sure of the amount of time needed for that, as there is no microwave in my kitchen…it really is not needed!

Once cooked, you are going to want to peel those bad boys, mash until smooth and then let cool to room temperature.

Then, grab your flour and kneed into the sweet potato mash, doing about 1/2 c flour at a time.  Continue to add in the flour and kneed for about 10 minutes.  To make sure you have enough flour, tear in halves and see if the center is still wet.  If it is, add in more flour.  You want the dough slightly moist, not wet.

Next step is to form a nice ball, and pinch off about 2 tbsp worth of dough at a time and roll with either both hands or on a floured cutting board.  Continue this until all dough as been rolled.  With a knife, cut into about 1/2 pieces.

Finally, with a fork, roll the gnocchi over the spokes to create the ridges.  Or, you can just press the fork on one side of the gnocchi.

Boil a pot a salted water and boil the gnocchi for about 5 minutes.  They should be floating when complete.  Remove with slotted spoon and serve with your favorite sauce!

Vegan Italian Sausage Hot Pockets!

Hot Pockets!  Yup, I said it!  This is a healthy, vegan plant based recipe, instead of the frozen suckers that I am sure everyone has devoured at least once in their lifetime.

Sadly enough, I used to love those frozen hot pockets.  I don’t even want to know what ingredients they use when making those.  I am sure low grade, hormone filled meat and tons of preservatives and chemicals.  Um, no thanks!

Instead, why not make your own?  They are great for adults and kids alike!  Plus, you can make many at a time and freeze the left overs!  Makes for a quick meal when you don’t have time to cook.

Vegan Italian Sausage Hot Pockets

Really, you can make many varieties of a hot pockets.  I wanted to go the Italian route today, so I used vegan sausage crumbles, a bunch of veggies and tomato sauce.  The filling was fantastic!  If you have any filling left over, it is great over some pasta!

You can make everything from scratch, like the tomato sauce and pizza dough, but I opted to take the easier route and buy vegan pizza dough and sauce. 

Ingredients/Directions: (yields 4-6 pockets)
1 package pre-made pizza dough (or make your favorite recipe
1 jar vegan tomato sauce
3/4 c sausage style tvp (or premade ground vegan beef)
3/4 c “beefless” broth or veggie broth (do not need if using premade ground beef)
1/2 red and green bell pepper chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 c chopped mushrooms
2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp crushed red peppers
1/2 tsp cayanne pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
s+p
1 tbsp evoo + 2 tbsp for brushing dough

Bring broth to a boil and add to the tvp.  Mix completely and let sit for 10 minutes.  In meantime, heat evoo in a large saute pan and add in garlic, onion and peppers and saute for about 5 minutes.  Add in mushrooms and continue to saute until everything is cooked (roughly 5 more minutes). 
Add the tvp or premade vegan ground beef to the veggies, and stir.  Add tomato sauce, liquid smoke and seasonings and continue to mix.  Adjust seasoning to taste and set aside.

Preheat oven 425 (this was according to my dough!)

Roll out your pizza dough, on a lightly floured surface.  The thickness of the dough should resemble that of a thin crust pizza.  With a rectangular mold (I used the top of tupperware) cut out as many rectangles as you have dough.  Take one rectangle and spoon in about 3-4 tbsp of your mixture.  Take another rectagle and place on top.  With a fork, seal all around the pocket on both sides.  Lightly brush with evoo on both sides as well.  Repeat this until all your dough or mixture is gone.

Bake in oven for about 12-15 minutes, flipping half way through.  Let cool for about 5 minutes.  Brings you back to your childhood!

A Taste of Northern Italy…Tuscan Kale, White Bean and Barley Stuffed Pepper with Roasted Red Pepper Sunflower Seed Pesto

Whew, well that was a mouthful.  Not only to write but a tasty mouthful as well!

I have been staring blankly at the jar full of barley in my plantry for months.  Aside from making a great soup with it in the past, all my other barley recipes have fallen short.  Alas, I have concocted one that is blog material worthy!

I was actually reading about barley because I did not know much about it, other than that is often used in beer and whiskey making. (I love to read about ingredients in order to understand their origin and how it is/was traditionally used, nutritional value, etc)  Anyway, it is very high in fiber and protein!  A great grain to introduce to your diet if you have not already!  And here is a shocker, only 2% of the barley grown in the US makes it into our mouths (in edible form).  Bet you didn’t know that fun fact!

White Bean and Barley Stuffed Pepper

As far as the pesto goes;  if you do not have sunflower seeds or red pepper, go with your go to pesto.  I just wanted to have a little fun with the items on hand.  Always fun to keep things fresh and new!

Ingredients: (yields 3-4 servings)
1 c barley
2 c vegetable broth
1 tbsp evoo
1 can northern white beans
1-2 cup chopped Tuscan kale
2 vine ripe tomatoes chopped
3 bell peppers (color of your choice)
2-3 tbsp raw sunflower seeds for garnish
1/2 c roasted red pepper-sunflower seed pesto (1 roasted bell pepper, 1/4 c evoo, 3 tbsp sunflower seeds, 2 tbsp basil, garlic clove)

Preheat oven 350.  In a sauce pan, bring veggie broth and barley to a boil, cover and turn to low.  Cook for 30-40 minutes.  Make your pesto in the meantime.  Just blend the above ingredients until smooth.  Add in water if it is too thick.  Salt to taste.
Take each of your bell peppers, cut off tops and remove seeds.  Lightly brush with evoo and season with s+p.
When barley is finished cooking, transfer to bowl and add in beans, kale, tomatoes and pesto.  Mix thoroughly and stuff each pepper with mixture.
Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until pepper is soft.  Enjoy with a nice glass of Italian red!

Vegan Butternut Squash Ravioli with Mushroom Sage Butter Sauce

I have a new found love for all squash.  Growing up, I was never a huge fan.  Most likely due to the sweet taste of these fall veggies.  But year after year, I have come to enjoy them more and more.  Especially when I roast them!  I love roasting rot vegetables!
 

 I mean, really?  How can you not love vegetables.  I cut this sucker opened and just admired it’s natural beauty.  Bright orange, fresh and ready to be loved.  (yeah, i’m a dork.  This has already been acknowledged

So what I enjoy most about this recipe is that they are actually quite delicate and light!  Maybe it is due to the gyoza wrappers that I use???? I’m really not sure why, otherwise.  Usually I cap out at around 3 raviolis, but these are almost like air…

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Mushroom Sage Butter Sauce

 Ingredients: (yields 3-4 servings)
1/2 butternut squash
1 shallot diced
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 tbsp evoo
1 package gyoza wrappers/wonton wrappers (I used the circular ones)
s+p
3 tbsp unsweentend coconut milk (or any nondairy milk)
sauce:
1.5 tbsp vegan butter
1/4 c vegetable broth
1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage

Preheat oven 400.  Spoon out seeds in squash thoroughly and lightly oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place on baking dish and bake for about 1 hr.
While baking squash, heat saute pan with evoo and saute garlic and shallot for about 3-5 minutes.  Set aside.  
Once squash is done, allow to cool until you can handle it.  Spoon out squash and put into food processor.  Add in non-dairy milk and season with salt and pepper and blend until smooth.  Transfer your squash puree to the saute pan that holds the cooked garlic and shallots and mix thoroughly.
On parchment paper, lay out your gyoza wrappers (dust with flour if they are not already floured).  Spoon in about 1/2 tbsp in a wrapper and close with another wrapper.  To seal, wet fingers with water and pinch together the edges all the way around.  *make sure you do this with both sides of the ravioli.  Repeat until puree is gone.  For best results, place in freezer until you are ready to boil.  When ready to cook, boil water and cook for about 3-5 minutes.  While you are waiting for your water to boil, start your sauce.  Saute butter on low-medium and add in mushrooms.  Cook for about 3 minutes and add in vegetable broth.  Turn to medium and let reduce slightly.  Add in sage and season with salt and pepper….that’s it!
Lightly coat your raviolis with the sauce….trust me, you do not need a lot with this dish!
Enjoy with a nice glass of white wine!