Fresh Vegan Basil Spaghetti with Roasted Tomato Garlic Sauce

Ok - so I know most people think that making your own spaghetti is just too hard, and truthfully I used to be one of them. But I recently discovered the other day that it is ridiculously easy! Home made fresh pasta has such a great delicate flavour and means that you can get creative with the pasta. Once you can make your own gourmet pastas you can make the pasta the star of the dish and complement it with a nice simple sauce. So go and borrow somebody's pasta rolling machine and give this a try - once you realise how easy and delicious it is you'll go and buy one of your own :) This spaghetti is fine to eat the same day but the longer you dry it the better it will hold together when you cook it - so overnight is ideal!

On the other hand - if you don't feel like making your own spaghetti then you can substitute some spinach fettuccine or other special store bought pasta.

Ingredients:

Basil Spaghetti

1 1/2 cups fine semolina

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1-2 tbsp olive oil

2/3 cup water

1 loosely packed cup fresh basil leaves

Roasted Tomato Garlic Sauce

6-7 fresh tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

1 onion

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp raw sugar

8-10 pitted kalamata olives

3 tbsp chopped oregano

To Make:

1. Preheat the oven to approximately 180 degrees Celsius.

The Pasta

1. Shred the basil in a food processor. Add the semolina and flour and process briefly to combine. With the food processor still on gradually add the water and olive oil. The mix will begin to look like breadcrumbs and then as it mixes will turn into a thick dough. 

2. Dust the a workspace with some flour and turn the mix out onto the flour. Knead very briefly to add a bit more flour to the mix, if the dough is too sticky add some more flour.

3. Cut the mix into 8 equal portions and put through your pasta roller according to it's instructions. You will probably find you need an extra set of hands to help.

4. As you roll out the spaghetti lay them flat carefully on a piece of greaseproof paper (try not to make the strands too long - try for about the length you would get in a packet of ready made spaghetti) and leave to dry. I would advise that you leave it for a minimum of half an hour but I actually recommend several hours. The best would be overnight, the longer you leave it to dry the more the pasta will stick together when you cook it. I dried my first batch for 30 minutes and it broke up into short lengths when I cooked it, then I dried my second batch for 5 hours or so and it stayed together beautifully. 

The Sauce

1. Chop the tomatoes in half and then chop each half into 4-6 pieces. Slice the onion into thin wedges and peel and roughly chop the garlic.

2. Drizzle a baking dish with olive oil and add the tomato, onion and garlic. Stir well to coat with oil. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the onion is cooked and the garlic has softened.

3. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and return to the oven for about 5 minutes while you make the pasta.

And then..

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Once the water is boiling add your basil spaghetti to the boiling water and stir gently to prevent sticking. Fresh pasta doesn't take long to cook and your spaghetti should be cooked after about 1 or 2 minutes of boiling. Drain.

2. Serve topped with the Baked Tomato Garlic Sauce!

Lentils with Artichoke and Mint

The addition of mint to red lentils gives this dish a Turkish element and makes a slightly different flavour - with delicious results. You can also add extra water and make it into a soup.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped roughly

2 zucchinis

1 cup red lentils

6 cups vegetable stock

1 large carrot, diced

1 tbsp soy sauce

4 whole un-marinated artichoke hearts

1 cup very small macaroni (or other small soup pasta)

Half a bunch of mint, chopped finely

To Make:

1. Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot, add the onion, garlic and ¼ cup of chopped mint. Sauté until the onion is soft. Coarsely grate the zucchini and add to the pot. Cook gently for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add the lentils, vegetable stock, carrot and soy sauce. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are soft.

3. Chop the artichoke hearts roughly into eighths and add to the pot with the soup pasta and the rest of the mint. Simmer with the lid off for 5-6 minutes until the pasta is cooked. Season to taste with pepper and serve with a sprig of mint as garnish.

Vegan Salad Medley: White Bean Salad, Garlic Artichoke Hearts and Almond Date Couscous

Sometimes when people come over you want to impress but you really don't feel like putting a lot of funds and effort in - well, a great solution is a collection of awesome salads, which are very easy to knock together and can comprise of what you have on hand mixed with a few touches that make it really special. These salads make a great complete dinner when made together but of course the nice thing is that you can break them up and just make 1 or 2 of them for dinner any night of the week.

White Bean Salad:

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of white beans (such as Great Northern Beans), soaked in water over night

2 tomatoes, chopped

400g pumpkin

1 tbsp capers

8-10 black olives

Big handful of baby spinach

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

To Make:

Boil cover the beans in water and boil in a saucepan with the lid on for 1-2 hours (until beans are cooked to the way you like them, their skins should be slightly split but the bean still firm). Chop the pumpkin into cubes, coat in olive oil and roast for 10-15 minutes in the oven until cooked.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and drizzle with some of the oil that you cooked the pumpkin in.

Garlic Artichoke Hearts

Ingredients:

1 cup marinated artichoke hearts

¼ Spanish onion

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

½ clove garlic

1 green lettuce

1 purple lettuce

To Make:

1. Chop artichoke hearts in eighths and dice the onion very small. Combine the artichoke, onion, lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic. Leave aside to marinate while you make the other 2 salads.

2. Just before serving break the lettuce into leaves and arrange on a big serving platter alternating the colours. 3. Spoon the artichoke mix into the centre of the plate and drizzle the dressing at the bottle of the bowl over the lettuce leaves.

Almond Date Couscous

Ingredients:

1.5 cups couscous

2 cups vegetable stock

½ cup dates, chopped finely

1/3 cup of slivered almonds

To Make:

1. Preheat an oven or grill to 180 degrees.

2. Put the dry couscous in a bowl and cover with the boiling hot vegetable stock, leave to soak until the couscous is fully expanded and there is no more liquid in the bowl. Fluff the couscous with a fork and mix the dates through.

3. Spread the almond slivers on a tray and toast for 2-3 minutes until slightly browned – keep a close eye on the suckers because they are really easy to burn. Once toasted mix through the couscous mix. Serve.

   Note: this couscous also goes great as an accompaniment to curry or roast vegies. To add a bit of colour to it you can also add a handful of chopped coriander.

Pumpkin, Leek and Garlic Soup

This one has a bit of a difference with the addition of the garlic right at the end so that the garlicy flavour really comes out.

Pumpkin, Leek and Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

7 cups of vegetable stock

500g Butternut pumpkin, chopped

500g Jap pumpkin, chopped

300g cauliflower, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

Cracked pepper, to garnish

To Make:

1. Heat some olive oil in a soup pot and saute the onion, leek and one of the garlic cloves until soft and transparent.

2. Add the vegetable stock, vegetables and spices and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 20 minutes or until all the vegies are well cooked (this will vary depending on how big you chopped your vegies). 

3. When the vegies are cooked transfer the soup to a blender with the remaining clove of raw garlic and purée in batches. Add back to the rinsed soup pot and heat gently.

4. Stir through the soy sauce and lemon juice. 

5. Eat! (Tastes great with fresh bread rolls!)

Temporary Vegan Trifle

Why temporary? Because the combination of chocolate brownies, berry compote and chocolate-coconut ganache in trifle form is almost certain to disappear as soon as it's created.

Vegan Trifle

Chocolate brownie ingredients:

1 cup of soymilk

1 tsp of apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup of rice bran or canola oil

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of dark chocolate, chopped and ready to melt

2 cups of plain flour (you can replace this with gluten free flour if you wish)

3/4 cup of cocoa powder

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of salt

Berry compote ingredients:

400gm of fresh or frozen berries of your choice (I used mixed)

2 Tbsp of raw sugar

Chocolate-coconut ganache ingredients:
2oogm of dark chocolate

3/4 cup of coconut milk

How to make:

Brownies:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (c)

2. In a large bowl, whisk the soymilk and apple cider vinegar and let stand for a few minutes.

3. Melt the chocolate (boil water in a saucepan, place the chocolate in a bowl and place the bowl in the saucepan, making sure no water enters the bowl. Whick chocolate until it is melted.

4. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and salt to the soymilk mixture and whisk.

5. Add the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

6. Stir the melted chocolate through the mixture.

7. Line a 33x23cm baking tray with baking paper, pour the brownie mixture in and bake for 30mins.

Berry compote:

1. Put the berries into a small saucepan over a low heat, sprinkle with the sugar and cook until they have released their juices. The mixture should look like a lumpy jam (in a good way...). This should take no longer than 10minutes.

Chocolate-coconut ganache:

1.Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan until just boiling, take off the stove and whisk in the chocolate until all melted.

Trifle assembly:

1. Find/buy/steal 4 martini glasses.

2. Fill 1/4 of the glasses with the berry compote

3. After cutting the brownies into squares, place one in the glasses.

4. Cover brownie with ganache.

5. Add another brownie

6. Cover with compote.

7. Add a layer of ganache and top with some sliced almonds. Refrigerate for an hour.

Finally, eat it, eat it good, eat it real good.

Vegan Baked Lentils with Sweet Potato and Cauliflower

There is something so hearty about baked lentils in winter and I'm always a fan of meals that you just throw together and leave in the oven for a while!

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced finely

1/2 fennel bulb, diced finely

500g button mushrooms, stems trimmed

1.5 cups puy lentils (also called bule lentils or French lentils by differernt companies)

5 cups of vegetable stock

500g sweet potato, peeled and diced

250g cauliflower (or however much you have in the fridge that you want to use up), chopped small (makes about 3 cups)

1 bay leaf

8 or so cherry tomatos

a small handful of pine nuts

To Make:

1. Preheat your oven to about 180 (you know your oven better than I do... or do you?).

2. You can start this dish by putting your casserole/baking dish straight on the stove to make this a one pot dish. Heat some olive oil in your baking dish and saute the onion and fennel until soft.

3. Set aside 8-10 of the mushrooms and slice the rest in thick bits. Add the mushroom to the cooking pot and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the lentils and the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes.

4. Add the sweet potato and cauliflower and remove from the heat. Cover and put in the oven for 30 minutes, removing the lid for the last 10 minutes.

5. While it is baking you can wash and trim the mushies you set aside. Put them on a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil.

6. When your 30 minutes is up take the casserole dish out of the oven and put it aside to rest. Put the tray of mushrooms in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes throw in a the whole cherry tomatos and the pine nuts and cook for a further 2-3 minute - keep your eye on it so they don't burn.

To serve, place some lentils in a bowl and top with the baked vegies and pine nuts. Serves 4, or two with leftovers. 

Winter Fennel and Pasta Soup

This recipe is a great base to adapt to whatever you have in the fridge and is so quick to make. It is great and warming on a winter day and never lasts very long when I cook it!

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped finely

5 cloves garlic, chopped roughly

1/2 big fennel bulb (or 1 small fennel bulb), chopped finely

2-3 sticks of celery, chopped finely

2 carrots, chopped finely

2 potatos or a small sweet potato (whichever one you have in your pantry that you want to use up)

4 cups (1 litre) vegetable stock

5 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tin mixed beans

1 cup small macaroni or any other soup pasta

To Make:

1. Heat some olive oil in a big soup pot. Add the onion and soften for 2 minutes. Add the fennel and garlic and saute for 3-5 minutes until fennel and onion are well aquainted and transparent.

2. Add the rest of the vegies, the tomato paste and the stock and bring to the boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes until vegies are cooked (this will take longer if you have chopped your vegies larger, but that's your own can of beans). Speaking of cans of beans, drain the can of mixed beans now and rinse the beans before adding to the pot with the pasta.

3. Simmer gently until the pasta is cooked and then eat in copious amounts!!

This soup is also great with leeks, peas, pumpkin or anything else you have a little bit left of and want to use up. The last friend I made this for now asks me whether I'm making soup every time she comes over :) It's a very simple but very impressive thing to knock up (not in that way....) for friends!

Enjoy indulgently!

A love of Food: Amazing Vegan Recipes and Menus

Dear All,

We are such great lovers of food that we wish to share with you the wonderful food that we eat every day. Some people seem to think that special and delicious food is simply something for special occasions but we firmly believe that fabulous and cruelty free food should be eaten every day. We are starting this to share with everyone how great everyday vegan food can be.

If you like the look of our recipes please post them to facebook/twitter or whatever else and/or become a 'follower' of our blog. You can also follow us on twitter @Gormandize_AK.  Also if you do cook one of our babies (note:  not actual babies.) at home please post a comment and tell us how it went and what you thought because we love hearing feedback!

Therefore we invite you to gormandize with us!
Yours tastily,
A-dizzle and K-bobo

gor·man·dize

verb \ˈgȯr-mən-ˌdīz\

intransitive verb

: to eat gluttonously or ravenously