Orecchiette Onion Pasta with Kale and Garlic Sauce

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a great week. Last night I went to a yoga studio that I had never been before called Shine on Yoga . I had one of the best yoga classes in a long time. They have a great special right now.... $20 for unlimited yoga for 2 weeks for new students, so I am definitely going to take advantage of that. I love yoga, and trying out new classes and instructors.... you learn something new every time and it's a great way to calm your mind. I really think that if everyone did yoga... then we would have world peace.

Anyways... On the way home, I knew I wanted to make something simple and delicious, and had a great idea for a garlic sauce. I also remembered that I had orecchiette pasta in my pantry and knew that I was going to put these two together. Below is my garlic masterpiece:

Ingredients to Roast:
2 Leeks
1 bunch green onions
about 15 shallot cloves

Ingredients to Boil:
3 leaves of kale
Orecchiette Pasta

Sauce:
3 tbls lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt
red pepper flakes
about 10-15 garlic cloves

Start by preheating the oven to 375

Peel the shallots, and cut the big ones in half, but leave the small ones whole. Slice the leeks in half, then slice each half width-wise. Peel and cut the green onions into about 1 inch pieces. My goal was to make the veggies chunky. Also, peel the garlic cloves... using big and small cloves...whatever you have. Place everything, except the garlic, in a bowl and pour some olive oil and a pinch of salt on the onions and mix to coat. Place on the baking sheet, and use a spatula or spoon to flatten out so it is a single layer. Add the garlic to the oily bowl and coat them as well. Place that on the baking sheet in a separate corner. When the oven is preheated, put the veggies in there for about 20-30 minutes. Check after 15 minutes and flip if needed with a spatula. Any garlic or pieces that are too dark...remove and you will add this to the dish later because you do not want to burn anything. When I did this... I only had to remove a small piece of garlic so it would not burn. keep checking and take out when everything is cooked through and slightly brown. The garlic should be browned and soft so you can mash it.

While the veggies are cooking... start the water for the pasta. I added a small amount of olive oil and salt to the water just for taste. While you are waiting for it to boil, prepare the kale. I used 3 leaves.. devained... and I actually just ripped them into pieces rather than cutting it. Maybe I was lazy, but it worked fine for me! Set the kale aside.

When the water boils... cook the orecchiette according to package. I used a box, and I used a little over 2/3 of the box. The only reason for this is because I thought I would save a little extra for some soup. But, you can make as much as you want... you might just have to adjust the sauce ingredients... which is no problem! The box I used said to cook for 11-13 minutes. I cooked the full 13 minutes. When the orecchiette has about 40 more seconds to cook... add the kale to the pot. Just let it cook down in the water... this takes about 30-60 seconds. Just continue to mix and push down....it will cook down quick and fit into the pot. When it is cooked down... no more than a minute.... drain the pasta and kale.

When the onions and garlic are finished... Pour the pasta, kale, and onions into a big enough bowl. Now, you can start to make the sauce. Get a bowl and mash the garlic. Pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. Mix everything together well. You can probably use a food processor, but I just mashed and mixed. It won't be totally smooth because you will have chunks of the garlic skin and won't mash totally... but that's why it's so good! Pour that over the pasta and onions. Add some salt, red pepper flakes, and then mix together. You might have to taste and add more lemon juice or salt to adjust to your liking. It's better to start small and add to it. When you have adusted the taste to your liking... serve in a bowl... and enjoy!


This was the perfect dish for a late night meal after a yoga class. The sauce is not too involved, but has just enough flavor. It was totally simple, but did take some time since there was chopping and roasting involved... but it is totally worth it. Just pour a glass of wine and play sodoku while you are cooking... that's what I did. I hope you enjoy!

Tempeh Piccata with Bell Peppers over Angel Hair Pasta

One of my favorite dishes when I wasn't vegan was a chicken piccata by Giada De Laurentiis. One of the things that i have been doing is going through my old cookbooks and finding my favorite recipes and making them vegan-style. So, for this one I decided to make a Tempeh Piccata with Bell Peppers over angel hair pasta.

Ingredients

• 1 red pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 green pepper
  
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons earth balance "butter" or non-hydrogenated margerine
  
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup capers, rinsed
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 package whole wheat angel hair pasta
• 1 package tempeh (I used garden veggie, but any kind will do)
  

Directions

A. First, remove the tempeh from the package and cut in whatever shape you desire. I cut the tempeh in triangles.

B. In a small saucepan over medium high heat (or in the microwave), melt 4 tablespoons of "butter" with 5 tablespoons of olive oil, add salt, pepper, vegetable stock, lemon juice, and capers. Use this as a marinade for the tempeh, and chill in the refrigerator for at least a half hour.

C. Cut all of the bell peppers in a cube shape. I'm sure thin slices would also be nice.

D. Chop parsley and set to the side.

E. Boil water with a splash of olive oil, and add angel hair pasta. Turn heat to medium, and stir frequently to make sure that it doesn't stick together, and don't overcook. When the noodles are done (8 to 10 minutes), drain the pasta and never run water over it. When pasta is finished it comes out a little starchy and it is a common misconception to rinse with water. The reason that you do not rinse is because when the sauce is added to the noodles the starch helps the sauce stick to the pasta. If it still bothers you that the noodles are starchy after you drain them, then just toss with a small amount of olive oil.

F. When you are ready, add the tempeh and all of the marinade to a large skillet. Cook about 5 minutes on each side, and then add the bell peppers. Cook just until the peppers are cooked through, but still crisp. That should just be about 3 more minutes.

G. Remove the bell pepper and tempeh from the skillet with a slotted spatula and place in large bowl.

H. Continue to stir the sauce, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Add remaining 2 tablespoons "butter" to sauce and whisk vigorously.

I. Add noodles to the large bowl with the tempeh and bell peppers, add parsley, pour sauce over the top, and toss everything together.

J. You're ready to eat!

Delights and Afterthoughts:

This dish is wonderful because it is really easy to make. If you don't have time to marinade the tempeh, then that should be fine if you want to just throw the tempeh and bell peppers in the skillet with the sauce. I just find that you get a deeper flavor when you marinade it a bit. Also, keep in mind that tempeh can be a little bitter and an acquired taste, so if this is your first attempt with tempeh, you may want to start out with a neutral flavor such as original, five grain, or flax. This was my first time using garden veggie tempeh and the flavor was a little overpowering if you are not used to tempeh.

I love this sauce and I think it would really be good with anything. I just used what I had in my pantry and refrigerator. I think that this would also be good with tofu or just veggies such as broccoli, zuchini, mushrooms, and carrots. I have always found that angel hair pasta works best with this sauce, but it would also go well with something like couscous or penne pasta.

There are also many things you can do to incorporate to it to make it your own. For example, adding garlic would be excellent, or adding chilli powder, a jalapeno, or tobasco for a little bit of spice.

I hope you have fun with this and enjoy it!

Pasta Salad with Shells

Serves 6-8

11 ounce bag or box of small shell-shaped pasta (whole wheat if you can find it)
3 cloves garlic
1 yellow bell pepper
About 15-18 red cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1 handful black olives, pitted
2 tablespoons fresh chives
1/3 cup fresh basil
7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sea salt
freshly ground black pepper


Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and garlic. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until al dente, and drain. Put the pasta in a bowl, and take the garlic out and mash. Set aside to add to the dressing.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the tomatoes, cucumber, and black olives into small pieces, about the size of the pasta or smaller. You don't want it pureed, so I don't suggest using a food processor, but just roughly chop, and place in the bowl with the pasta.

Dice the yellow bell pepper, and use the same pot you used to cook the pasta, and cook the pepper in just about 1/2 cup hot water just to soften. This only takes 3 to 5 minutes. You want the pepper cooked, but still crisp. Drain and add to the pasta.

Roughly chop the herbs and add to pasta

Mix the mashed garlic cloves, the oil, lemon juice, and vinegar, and a little salt and pepper together in a separate bowl. Pour over pasta and mix well. Chill for about 2 hours or overnight, and serve. It's so simple and people will love it!

Delights and Afterthoughts:

My favorite salad is actually just quartered cucumber and tomato topped with balsamic vinegar. I thought about making a pasta salad that could use those ingrediants and this is what I came up with. After I first made this salad and tried it, I felt like it was a little plain, so I decided to add lemon juice. I wanted to start small, so I just added a tablespoon, and that ended up being enough. It added just enough flavor to change it from plain to perfect. I brought this pasta salad to my friends Labor Day party, and it went pretty quick. It's so simple to make, refreshing, and quite a crowd pleaser. Try it out, and Let me know what you think!

Butternut Squash Ravioli in a Sage and Brown Butter Sauce

Makes 2 servings

So, this weekend I went to the UCF/USF game, which was a pretty intense. I made potato latkes (pancakes) for the tailgate, which were a big hit. If you're wondering what potato latkes are, they are actually a traditional Jewish dish that is served on Chanukkah, but I thought they would make a good tailgate dish. If you're not Jewish, it's pronounced L-aht-kas. Everyone loved them , and although I thought they were decent, I wasn't fully satisfied with them, so I decided not to blog about them this time. This was my first time making them, and I thought about some changes I wanted to make for the next time, so I am going to make them again later this week , and hopefully they will be blog worthy!

So, after I got over the loss of the UCF/USF game, I was wondering what I wanted to make for dinner tonight. I looked through my fridge and freezer and saw that I had butternut squash ravioli that I bought awhile back from Whole Foods. I use the brand Rising Moon, which makes an organic and vegan ravioli. I have really never had butternut squash before, so I spent a long time thinking about what other vegetable would go well with it, and since it's kind of sweet, I decided on red bell pepper. It's super easy and only takes about a half hour to make. I was really happy with how this recipe turned out, and hopefully you will be too.

Ingredients For the Ravioli:
1 8oz package Butternut Squash Ravioli (preferably Rising Moon)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon salt

Ingredients for the Bell Pepper:
1 red bell pepper
Olive Oil (about 3 tablespoons)

Ingredients for the Sauce:
1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (or margarine)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 sage leaves
2 cloves garlic

Preparing the Red Bell Pepper:
-Preheat the oven to 400
-Take the red bell pepper and cut off the ends
-Coat with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil
-Set aside until the oven preheats.
-Place the red bell pepper in the oven when it is preheated and roast for about 22 minutes or until you notice it starts to just slightly brown or bubble in spots.
-Take the bell pepper out of the oven and slice
-set aside
Preparation for the Ravioli:
-During the time that bell pepper is roasting, bring a pot of water, oil, and salt to a boil.
-Once it's boiling, gently pour in the ravioli and cook between 4-8 minutes. You'll know when the ravioli is finished because it will float to the top.
-Drain and set aside
Preparation for the sauce:
-Peel the garlic and chop
-In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
-It should cook on low to medium heat for about 3 minutes until the butter begins to brown.
-Add the garlic and sage leaves in the butter and cook until the leaves become crisp and fragrant. This takes about 30 seconds.
-Remove from heat fully stir in nutmeg.

Place the ravioli and red pepper on a plate. Pour the sauce over the the ravioli and red pepper, and serve immediately.

Delights and Afterthoughts:
I have never cooked with butternut squash, so I was a little iffy about this dish, but I am more than happy with the outcome. I did actually cook it twice. My first thought was to cook it with the Red Bell Pepper, but then for some reason I decided to use edamame. I don't really know what changed my mind, but it just stuck. I had such high hopes, but it just wasn't that good so it didn't make the cut.

I really wanted an awesome recipe to blog about, so I went back to the bell pepper, and once I prepared that and tried it, it was way more than awesome. The bell pepper was a great addition since it is also slightly sweet. I guess the moral is to go with your gut instinct and don't second guess yourself. I actually believe that with all things in life, but that's another blog!

This would also make a great appetizer at a party. Just cook the ravioli and place the sauce in a bowl as a dip.

It's really simple to make, so let me know if you try it out and what you think.

Orzo and Avocado Salad

Kosher salt
Good olive oil
1/2 box of tri colored orzo
1/2 cup lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
1 avocado
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts
1 cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, medium-diced
1/2 cup small-diced red onion

Fill a large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and a splash of oil, and bring the water to a boil. Add the orzo, reduce heat to medium, and stir occasionally to break up the pasta, until it's cooked al dente. It takes about 10-15 minutes until the orzo is cooked. Drain and pour into a large bowl.

Whisk together the lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Pour over the hot pasta and stir well.

Chop the avacado into medium square pieces. Chop the scallions, dill, parsley, cucumber, and onion, and add to the orzo. Add 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper to the orzo. Toss well. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend, or refrigerate overnight.

Delights and Afterthoughts:

One of my favorite chefs is Ina Garten. She does the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. I own most of them, and I even own her videos. Her recipes are amazing. They are usually never healthy, and definitely not vegan, but delicious! You can really never go wrong with whatever you make. This is one of the recipes that I would always make, but it usually calls for roasted shrimp. I decided I wanted to make this for the tailgate, and instead of shrimp I decided to add avacado. I wasn't looking for a meat substitute or anything that tasted like shrimp. I chose to use avacado because it has a heavier consistancy, and I knew the avacado would definitely mix well with the dressing and other vegetables added to this pasta. Plus, I just love avacado. The original recipe also calls for feta cheese, but I have actually never used it, and this pasta salad is always a big hit. People love it. It's really easy, and now that you don't have to peel, devain, and roast shrimp, it's less time consuming and much cheaper to make. I highly suggest this, so try it out. Let me know what you think!

Spicy Orzo Soup with Fire Roasted Tomatoes

Tonight for dinner I decided to try a variation of a recipe I saw on 101 cookbooks by Heidi Swanson . Her recipe is not vegan, so I ommited and added some ingreadiants to make it my own. I do have to say, I was delighted with the results!






7 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cup tri colored orzo
1 3/4 cups finely chopped spinach
14oz can of fire roasted tomatoes (drained)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
7 green onions chopped (green and white parts)
olive oil
sea salt to taste
3 tablespoons chopped vegan Mozzerella Cheese (Follow Your Heart)
Optional: 1 sliced carrot, 1/4 cup diced turnip, 2 stalks celery chopped, 1/2 chopped white onion

Pour you vegetable broth in a stockpot, and if you choose to add the optional vegetables, throw them in now. Bring to a boil. Make sure to skim the top of the soup if any foam or fat rises to the top. While you are waiting for your vegetable broth to boil, grab a separate pot, boil water, and pour in your orzo until just done. This should take around 10 minutes. I am not a fan of cooking pasta in the broth you will be eating because it makes it a bit starchy. While you are waiting for the broth and orzo to boil, go ahead and pour the fire roasted tomatoes, with about a tablespoon of good olive oil in a small skillet or saucepan, add the red pepper flakes, and set to medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes and set heat to warm. Pour the spinach and scallions in the vegetable broth once it starts boiling. Once the orzo is finished, drain and add the pasta to the broth. Cook for about 3 more minutes to make sure all of the flavors are blended together. Once the soup is finished, ladle into a bowl, spoon a generous portion of the tomato mixture into the soup, sprinkle some olive oil, throw in a pinch of the mozzarella, and add some salt if needed. You're done! YUM!

Delights and After Thoughts:
This recipe is great for improvising which gives you the option to use any leftovers that you may have in your refrigerator, freezer, or pantry. A few weeks ago I made a vegetable barley soup, and used a stock recipe that I found on the Post Punk Kitchen website. I'll have to write about that one sometime too. I had about 3 cups of that frozen, so I used that along with Imagine Organic Vegetable Broth for my broth base. The broth that I had frozen already had vegetables in it (carrots, turnips, onions, and celery), which is why I listed those as optional. Feel free to add a small amount of your favorite vegetables to this soup. I originally wanted to use whole wheat orzo, but I couldn't find that anywhere. But, I did find this tri-colored orzo by Rice Select, and I am glad I did because I think it made a great addition to this soup. I just want to note that you can order whole wheat orzo off of the rice select website in bulk or off of amazon in normal size portions. The fire roasted tomatoes with the red pepper flakes do make the soup pretty spicy, so if you do not like spicy feel free to use any other type of canned tomato (chopped or crushed would work just fine as well) and omit the red pepper flakes. Salt is all about preference. I did add a pinch of salt to taste, but I am not a fan of adding a lot of salt or any if I don't have to. I prefer to taste and enjoy food for its original flavor. But, let's face it, sometimes we need a little salt to bring out the flavor, but not so much that it takes over the dish.

After I was finished, I decided to just throw the tomato mixture into the broth, and poured the soup into soup bowl sized Tupperware (thanks to all the orders of soup from Chinese and Thai restaurants), and freeze. Soup is one of my favorite foods, and this has made it in the top rankings! Make sure to eat slow and really take in the flavor and scent of this soup. If you enjoy it spicy, this soup will be sure to help clear your sinuses and congestion. This soup is great for any occasion, and I hope you enjoy!

Cheers-
Monica