Your Vegan Mom

Simple Creamy Pasta

Did I tell you that on our first date, I invited Paul up to my apartment at three in the morning and made him dinner?  I was so young and naive, but fortunately so was he.

That night, almost 16(!) years ago, in my very first kitchen, I made pasta with bell peppers and tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.  (I didn't ditch the cheese until a couple years later.)

This pasta here is just the sort of dish that you could casually whip up at three in the morning with what you probably have on hand, all while sipping a glass of wine, shooing away your college roommate, and looking like a domestic goddess.

Incidentally, it is also a perfect lunch to prepare for two hungry children under the age of five because you need to go grocery shopping and you're out of bread and this will only take about 3 more minutes than pb&j anyway and you're still wearing your sweaty gym clothes from your visit to the Y fives hours previous.

But also, I was thinking we're all going to need some almost instant dinners in our arsenal as the days get shorter and the back-to-school schedules get more harried.  

This pasta is perfect for all those scenarios.  It's flexible.  I used spinach because it's what I had (and of course it cooks quickly) but you can use whatever vegetable odds and ends you have in the house.  Mushrooms or broccoli or kale would all be delicious.   

Almost Instant Semi-Fancy Pasta
makes: 3 grown-up servings 
takes: about 12 minutes

• 8 ounces whole wheat penne (or half a bag)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 big handfuls of baby spinach
• pinch of salt
• 2 heaping tablespoons sliced sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
• 1/3 cup vegan parmesan
• about 1/3 cup pasta water
• black pepper 

About 5 minutes before your pasta is done cooking, heat the olive oil and garlic in a big skillet over medium-low heat.  When the oil is hot and the garlic smells wonderful, add the spinach and a pinch of salt to the pan.  Toss it around with the oil and garlic until wilted.  Add the tomatoes with their oil.  It's probably time to scoop the pasta out of the water and into the pan with the vegetables - if you don't have a big slotted spoon called a spider, well you should probably get one - they're cheap and useful - but if you don't have one, drain your pasta, but reserve about a cup of the pasta water for the sauce.  Add the parmesan to the pan and stir it around to coat the pasta.  Drizzle in enough pasta water to give it a creamy consistency.  Stir.  Taste for salt.  

Serve (grown-up portions) with a few cracks of black pepper.

Notes on kid-friendliness: No, neither of my kids ate the sun-dried tomatoes, but the oil they're packed in gives this dish a nice flavor and the tomatoes are easily avoided and saved for me.  Felix ate around the spinach, sigh, but Desmond ate it.  If I had had more time I would have chopped it finely - that will sometimes work with the 2-year-old.  

Fake Meat (and Side Dish Spaghetti)

 

A couple months ago Desmond brought me an overturned frisbee/platter heaped with plastic farm animals.  "Here Mommy, soy chicken.  Soy piggy."

To my horror, he seems to have a pretty matter-of-fact, three-year-old understanding of what meat is.  He gets it.    

It makes me think of that story in Eating Animals*, where Jonathan Saffron Foer talks about that defining childhood moment when a teenage babysitter asked him, "You know that chicken is chicken, right?" 

I'm not sure how I feel about him having this understanding so early.  It's an interesting side-effect of raising a vegan kid, that he's ironically not-sheltered from the reality of meat.  

He sometimes tests my reaction by adding animal products to his "recipes."  He will slowly list the ingredients in his cake, "sugar...flour... and... cow milk," as he coyly watches my reaction.  I respond, again, "Could you make mine with soy milk, please."  And so soy has become the magic vegan modifier.  When I decline the imaginary animal ingredient, he'll hastily add soy, as if duh, that's what he meant all along.  The word soy turns anything unpalatable into a mouth watering food stuff.  Soy spiders have become a popular ingredient in his cooking.  

And he nows claims that, "Soy chicken is my favorite," despite the fact that this is something that we rarely eat and were making a concerted effort to not even say, with the idea that that sort of terminology would be unnecessarily confusing for a kid that had no experience of chicken as a food.

But as Paul is fond of saying, "Parenthood is where your good intentions go to die."  (Desmond is watching TV while I write this.)  And so when the nice Gardein people offered to send us some of their new fake meat products, I said, heck yeah, my kid will totally eat that.  

 

 And he did, a bit.  I find that these sort of foods are more for the grown-ups with the nostalgic food cravings, than for the nice clean little palates of children.  But we were all fans of the crisp breaded chicken strips ("7 Grain Crispy Tenders" in Gardein parlance) that you bake in the oven.  The thin chick'n scallopini made great sandwiches.  The beefless tips were perfect in a quick beef with broccoli style stir fry one night, and I imagine would be super-satisfying in a hearty winter stew.  The buffalo wings were way too spicy for Desmond, and just not enticing enough for Paul and me.  On the other hand, the grown-ups hogged the marinara and daiya cheese stuffed cutlets to ourselves along with some side dish spaghetti after the kids went to bed.  Ah, tasty, oozy nostalgia.    

And in case you find yourself in possession of some of that fake chicken or just in need of one of those somewhat instant meals that you can pull together when you don't think you have any food in the house, have some -

Side Dish Spaghetti  

This is not the sort of dish that you follow a recipe for.  Let's just talk it through.  

You'll need:

•  spaghetti (This tip recommends a nickel-size serving for your average adult, a dime for a child and a quarter for a big eater.  That's if you're gripping the uncooked spaghetti in the ring formed by your thumb and index finger.  But with practice, you just know.)   
• olive oil or non-dairy butter (About a tablespoon per serving, but just swirl or scoop it in until it looks right.  You can add more or less to your own taste.  Because you're going to add moisture with the starchy pasta water you have wiggle room on how much oil you add.)
• minced garlic (About a clove per serving, more or less depending on how much you like garlic.)
• nutritional yeast (About 2 teaspoons per serving - this will add some body to the sauce as well as a bit of nutritional heft and that mild cheesy flavor.)
• pasta water (about 1/4 cup per serving, but add more if it seems dry.  Conversely, if it's too wet, either add a bit more nutritional yeast, or cook it off.)
• italian parsley (about 2 teaspoons minced per serving - if you don't have this on hand it's not the end of the world.  You can make do without, or maybe you have something else green you can replace it with?  A handful of shredded baby spinach would work.)

While your spaghetti boils, gently heat a swirl of olive oil or a pat or two of butter in a big skillet (or a small one if this is just for you).  Add your garlic and stir it around until it smells delicious.  Don't let it brown.  Use tongs or one of those big claw-like spaghetti spoons to fish the pasta out of the pot and into the garlicky oil. (If your pasta isn't just al dente at the moment that your garlic is fragrant, take the skillet off the stove and wait for the pasta to catch up.)  Scoop some pasta water onto the pasta.  (Add a little bit more than you want in the end because the pasta is still going to absorb a bit of water and some will cook off.)  Add some nutritional yeast and minced Italian parsley and stir it around.  Let the whole thing simmer for a minute until the pasta is toothsome-tender and the flavor bits are clinging to the pasta.  

 

*Did you read it?  I really don't like reading about sad animals, but I really do like good writing and Jonathan Saffron Foer, and I think this book is shockingly good.  He coaxes you in with warm writing and funny stories and then sneaks in all sorts of important information.  It's so well done.  What did you think?    

Pasta with Smoky Eggplant and Tomatoes

There was a brief period in our lives before Desmond and Felix, before we were married, when I had my first grown-up job, and there was no mortgage, when Paul and I went out to eat whenever we felt like it.  It was pretty great, and obviously, fleeting.  We were even regulars.  There was this little Italian restaurant in that mini mall across from the Beverly Center where we ate every week or so.  The waitress knew us and we always ordered the same thing - I can still taste it - it was this perfectly luscious, summery pasta with smoky eggplant.  It was so good.  And so worth making our own.

Pasta with Smoky Eggplant and Tomatoes

Serves 4 - 6

 1 lb fusilli
 about 1/4 cup olive oil (divided)
 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
 2 1/2 lbs tomatoes (I used 2 big fat heirloom tomatoes)
 1 medium eggplant
 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
 about 1 T red wine vinegar (optional, depending on your tomatoes)
 a few leaves of basil
 salt 
 smoked sea salt (optional)

Boil pasta.  In a large skillet gently toast the garlic in 2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  When the garlic is lightly browned and fragrant, add the chopped tomatoes and a good pinch of salt.  Let simmer until the tomatoes have grown saucy and begun to reduce.  In the meantime, slice the eggplant about 1/4 inch thick, brush with oil, sprinkle with salt, and grill over medium heat until squishy and nicely browned.  

Once the tomatoes have reduced a bit  (They’ll still be more watery than you would like in the finished pasta dish.) stir in the nutritional yeast and the eggplant.  

When the pasta is just al dente, drain it and toss it into the sauce to finish cooking.  Just before serving, stir in another swirl (about 2 T) of olive oil.  Taste for salt.  If you happen to have it, you could add a pinch of smoked sea salt at this point, but it's just a little bonus.  And if your tomatoes are very sweet and mild you might want to add a little swig of vinegar.  

Garnish with fresh basil and serve. 

Vegan Baked Ziti

I recognize that it is not hearty pasta bake season.  And yet still, somehow, I have made this bubbling casserole twice in a week (and I'm eating some leftover right now at 8:45 AM on June 26th - I'm pregnant and looking at food photos, okay?)  It is just such a simple crowd pleaser.  And this past weekend, out in the desert to visit Paul's family there was a crowd to be pleased.  With new babies (the niece, this one's not due til September) to be snuggled and stories to be shared and many, many back issues of food magazines to be read, I did not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  So, I came with my giant tub of cashew ricotta and my jar of sauce and my bag of pasta, and all that was left was for Paul, despite the fact that we were there to celebrate father's day, to assemble it.  (Have I mentioned lately how much I love that dude?)  

After lots of running around and ducking of father-son water wars and playing toddler rules pool, there was a gaggle of hungry cousins and aunts and uncles and a nana and tapa to devour this super simple pasta dish.

So tuck this recipe away for when you're ready to turn your oven on again.  Or, if that happens to be right now, then let me suggest you start by doubling the ricotta recipe.  It will keep in your fridge for about a week, and that creamy cashew cheese goes really nicely scooped into half a juicy ripe summer peach.  

Baked Ziti

Way easier than lasagna, but packing that same crowd-pleasing punch, this will serve 6 - 8.

1 lb. tube pasta (such as ziti, penne, or rigatoni)

2 1/2 c. tomato sauce (psst, that's how much is in your favorite jar)

1 c. cashew ricotta (see recipe below)

olive oil

topping:

1/4 c. bread crumbs 

2 T. nutritional yeast

1/4 t. salt

1 T. olive oil

Heat oven to 400 and smear some olive oil around a 9 by 13 inch casserole dish.  Boil pasta until just al dente.  In a small bowl, stir together ingredients for topping and set aside.  Toss cooked and drained pasta into prepared casserole dish.  Pour in tomato sauce and cashew cheese.  Stir gently to coat pasta while still leaving pockets of cheese in tact.  Sprinkle bread crumb mixture on top.  Cover and bake 25 minutes, until heated through.  Uncover and bake 5 more minutes.  

Cashew Ricotta

This is the same cheese you made for the fig topped pizza last fall.  And if you didn't listen to your mom and make that pizza, well figs are getting ripe again, and I did already tell you to double the recipe, right?  Also, I'll mention again that this recipe is adapted from my favorite vegan cookbook, Nonna's Italian Kitchen by Bryanna Clark Grogan.  

1 (12.3 oz.) box firm silken tofu
1/3 cup whole raw cashews
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt

Grind the cashews in the food processor until very fine.  Add the tofu, lemon juice, and salt, and process until smooth.  

Mark Bittman's Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe

I feel my cooking mojo coming back.  After the nausea of the first trimester which lingered into the beginning of the second with stomach-turning sensitivity to delicious smells like garlic and onions and then just plain exhaustion for a couple weeks (There's all sorts of crazy stuff going on in there like the formation of extruding ears!  I think if your body is producing a brand new pair of ears, you deserve to sit on the couch and order takeout.), I am now ready to return to the kitchen, and for more than just inoffensive sweet stuff.  

Just last Saturday, I sauteed onions, and then I did it again on Sunday.  Last night I toasted garlic to make this pasta for dinner.  By the way, when I'm making a really simple pasta like that, the sort that usually calls for parmesan cheese, I mix in a bit of the salty pasta water and a scoop or two of nutritional yeast to give the minimal sauce a bit of body and nutritional heft.  And of course, taste for salt, because that parmesan you left out is salty.  And then it's nice to serve your pasta with a wedge of lemon if you have it laying around.  It looks pretty and gives a simple dish like this that little something it might be missing.  

I always enjoy Mark Bittman's Minimalist column (and Desmond's a fan of his short cooking videos) for simple meal ideas, but lately they've been particularly vegan-friendly or at least easily adaptable. Plus, his quick and creative recipes are a really good way to motivate my big fat teetering baby steps towards the stove.