vegan cooking

i’ve been really busy lately what with the end of the school semester and working more hours, so i haven’t had much time to cook. here are a couple of quick and easy recipes that i’ve come up with through trial and error (and more error, then more trial) in the kitch’.

Uh-oh, Spaghetti-abcs

i adored spaghettiOs as a kid. i couldn’t stand anything chef boyardee - it had to be the original pasta in cheese sauce. occasionally the Garfield or Where’s Waldo? shapes were acceptable. i think it started at my babysitter’s house. ah, Maria was the best. she’d serve everything with chocolate milk. spaghettios, spanish rice, pan dulce…man i miss that lady. anyway, i know they’re ridiculously high in sodium and devoid of nutritional content, but i still pine for that mild and delicious childhood comfort food. i’ve made a recipe of my own that comes pretty close to the original, and it’s pretty easy to make. enjoy!

you’ll need:
2 cups of tomato juice - i prefer lakewood organics because it’s about the only one i can find that has absolutely no salt added to it. trust me, you don’t want one with salt added in this recipe. it’d be too much.
about 1/2 a block of FYH vegan cheddar cheese
1 cup of vegetable broth
1/2 cup of small pasta - i like Eden’s multigrain alphabet pasta. if loving little pasta letters makes me immature, so be it
1/2 cup (to taste) plain soymilk
1-2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced

in a large saucepan, heat the oil to medium-low and sautee the garlic until just sweated. meanwhile, slice or shred the cheese into manageable pieces. (it’ll melt either way.) when the garlic’s nice and glisten-y, add the tomato sauce and cheese and turn the heat up to medium-high. make sure to stir it often so the cheese melts and doesn’t scorch at all.

in another saucepan, heat a cup of water and one cup of vegetable broth to boiling. i like to get these little single-use containers because if i get a quart of it i’ll never use it all before it goes bad.

good stuff.

nice action shot, huh? man i need to clean my stove.

stir the pasta often and only cook it until barely tender. at this point you can add some soymilk to your soup to make it a little creamier. i like plain unsweetened soymilk for this because it doesn’t overpower anything or drive the calorie count too high.

when the pasta’s tender, drain it (but don’t rinse!) and add it to the soup. reduce heat a little and simmer just a little more if you want, or serve right away with crackers and veggies. mmmm, spaghetti-abcs.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

one thing that i hear a lot of vegans whine for is ranch dressing. i never was a huge fan of the stuff until some Oregonian cousins of mine introduced me to dipping pizza in it, of all things. if you’ve never tried this, you probably think it’s gross, but just fyi you also HAVEN’T LIVED. it’s the only way i’ll eat pizza now. i make french bread pizzas all the time, and i have to have my vegan ranch to go with it. it’s really easy to make, and you’ll want to always have some of this stuff in your ‘fridge for dipping veggies and just about everything else.

you’ll need:
a few plops (this is very scientific) of vegan sour cream
1 or 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
spices to taste:
dill (essential)
garlic or garlic salt
“salad herbs” mix (usually dill, garlic, onion, chives, etc)

from here, place the sour cream (i use toffutti non-hydrogenated but any brand works well, or make your own) in a bowl and add vinegar little by little, stirring to make sure you don’t add too much. if the stuff gets too liquid, it won’t have the right consistency and will taste too tangy. best to start with little amounts of it and add more or less of either vinegar or sour cream until you’ve got the taste you want. add dill, and go heavy with it! do the same with garlic - i like to use both garlic powder and garlic salt. if you use just garlic salt it’ll be wayyyy too salty, whereas you need just a pinch of it anyway. if you’ve got both around, go for it. if not, just use garlic and add a dash of sea salt to taste.

and that’s it! serve however you want. i like to make it in a recloseable container to save my leftovers (assuming you have any). it goes great with Follow Your Heart’s friday night deep dish special.