The Veg Librarian

Garlic Lemon Tomato Sauce

dharkskyaz — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:01:59 +0000

When someone says “tomato sauce,” the automatic association is with marinara, a sauce based off tomatoes cooked down until they are mostly unrecognizable goo. I like marinara but I think tomatoes, especially good/fresh/organic/heirloom ones, are fantastic just as they are. Light cooking, lemon, and tomato’s best friend garlic make this a wonderful lively tomato sauce. It is so amazingly quick to make that I make sure I have the ingredients around for nights when I’m tired or get home too late.

Ingredients:

Pasta, 1/2 to 3/4 pounds
Minced garlic, 3 to 5 cloves depending on your garlic preference
Diced tomatoes, 2 to 3 large ones or (if using a variety of sizes) about 2 cups
Juice of one lemon (more if you really like lemon)
Olive oil, 3 to 4 tablespoons
Red pepper flakes or cayenne, a pinch or more if desired
Salt to taste

Cook and drain pasta while making the sauce. (REMEMBER: Use good water; add salt to boiling water before noodles; and it is completely unnecessary to add oil to the water.)

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes; saute until fragrant. Mix in lemon juice and cook 1 more minute. Add tomatoes, cook a few minutes, then sprinkle in salt. Cook for a few more minutes, until the tomatoes are soft and the sauce is pink tinged.

Serve with pasta.

Raw Food Option

If, like me, you are trying to get more raw foods into your diet, this sauce could pretty easily be converted to raw I think. I have not tested this yet, so if someone wants to try it out and let me know how it goes that would be splendid. Either:

Make the Garlic Lemon sauce. Mix with pasta. Serve with uncooked chopped tomatoes on top. (This also works well with pasta in a Pesto sauce.)
Put garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes or cayenne, and enough of the tomatoes to make the sauce a light pink in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Mix with the leftover chopped tomatoes. Serve over pasta (either actual or raw). Salt to taste.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

dharkskyaz — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:56:07 +0000

I love broccoli. Even as a kid I loved it. That being said, since it’s a cruciferous veggie poor cooking can really kill the flavor. For this recipe it is extremely important to not cook the broccoli too much. It should still be a bright green color when you take it off the heat. Using the steaming water adds back some of the nutrients steamed out of the broccoli. Rather than use a nut/seed/soy milk I decided to use avocado to add the creaminess and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out.

This may seem like a really fatty recipe with both the olive oil and avocado but keep in mind that these are healthy fats. Too often people, especially those who had been omnivores at some point, are afraid of the big all-encompassing category of “fat.” I recommend taking a look at Vegan Health’s article about fat as well as keeping in mind that it is possible to suffer from a fatty acid deficiency.

Ingredients:

broccoli, 2 medium size heads are enough for two people as a side
avocado, 1/2 – 1 whole
garlic, to your own garlic taste
water, approx. 1 cup per head of broccoli
basil, approx. 1 teaspoon
parsley, 1/2 teaspoon
olive oil, 1-3 tablespoons
salt & pepper, to taste

Lightly steam the broccoli with the water until just fork tender. Cool slightly. Add broccoli and part of the steaming water to blender. Puree briefly. Add avocado, garlic, basil, parsley, olive oil, salt, & pepper; puree until smooth, adding more water if needed to reach desired consistency. Reheat before serving if desired.

Tofurkey Baste: Jamaican Jerk Flavor

dharkskyaz — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:16:34 +0000

Tofurkey is pretty much the only meat substitute I actually like and only because I used to love those gross turkey breasts in tin foil pans you’d get from the frozen foods section. (Conveniently it was the only kind of turkey we could afford.) Tofurkey actually has a texture a lot like those amorphous blobs. Of course, the more my cooking expands the less I want to consume bland, fatty solids with tan, tasteless goo over it. Tofurkey gives me the texture I’m looking for with the ability to coat food in my own spice concoctions. This go around I decided to try out a jerk-type flavoring.

A great accompaniment would be this recipe from Vegan A Go-Go.

Basting Sauce

Olive oil
Soy sauce
Garlic, approx. 2 cloves
Onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon
Ginger, 1/2 teaspoon grated or to-taste with powdered
Lime juice, a quarter of a lime or to taste
Sage, approx. 1 tablespoon
Allspice, appox. 1 tablespoon
Nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon
Cloves, about 5-6 whole
Rosemary, 1/4 teaspoon
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Some sort of hotness — I used a combo chili powder/cayenne/aji amarillo powder but real jerk uses Scotch Bonnets.

Mix all ingredients, except the hotness you’re going to use, together. Taste to make sure you don’t need to add anything extra — more garlic or extra salt, etc. Slowly add in your hotness until the desired heat level is reached, letting the marinade sit for a few minutes between additions to make sure the hot is distributed.

Most basting directions will tell you to baste twice: once when first putting it in the oven and once in the middle. I recommend doing it more often. You don’t need to keep making the basting sauce; instead, just use the sauce already in the pan. It keeps it moister and I’ve noticed the tofurkey ends up looking kind of herb-encrusted.

Omni-sub Recipe of the Week: Mac-n-Cheeze

dharkskyaz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:26:58 +0000

Most vegan recipes of this type involve nutritional yeast. I hate the stuff and set about trying to find a way to make mac-n-cheeze without it. One thing I’ve noticed about non-animal dairy is that it tends to have a sweet flavor. The garlic and onion neutralize that aftertaste.

Ingredients:

Pasta, 1/2 to 3/4 pounds
Plain, unsweetened soy/rice/oat/nut milk (I always use almond)
Olive oil, several tablespoons
Grated cheddar-style cheeze, equivalent of half a package of Follow Your Heart
Flour, 3 tablespoons
Minced/crushed garlic, equivalent to 1-2 cloves
Onion powder *or* finely chopped onion, 1/4 tsp. *or* a couple of tablespoons
Paprika, salt, & pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While cooking pasta, heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Saute garlic and chopped onion (if using) over medium heat until fragrant. Stir in flour to olive oil until a paste forms — this is called a “roux.” Lightly brown the roux mixture before slowly adding in milk until the sauce consistency has been reached. Use a whisk or, last resort, a fork to stir in cheeze. Add onion powder, salt, & pepper to taste when cheeze has completely melted.

Mix drained, cooked pasta with cheeze sauce.

Pour mixture into a baking dish. Sprinkle top with paprika, salt, and pepper. Optional: Add extra sprinkles of chili or cayenne powder and a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.