This is one of my go-to dishes and is definitely in my rotation list. Sometimes I leave the potatoes out, if I don’t have any cooked ones on hand and I am in a hurry. I make it quite spicy for me. Adjust the amount of cayenne to suit your taste buds. Enjoy! Continue reading
Category: Main Dishes
Mac & Un-Cheeze with Peas
If you are looking for comfort food in a hurry, this is it. Toss all your sauce ingredients into a blender, cook your pasta and thaw out your peas. Mix it all together, serve it right away or bake it. How easy is that? And did I mention, oh sooo delicious? Continue reading
Chopped Dinner Salad with Creamy Mock Caesar Dressing
This salad is a summer time staple. Adding the chickpeas makes it hearty enough for a meal in itself. Vary the veggies to your liking. The creamy Mock Caesar dressing has a “from-the sea” taste and gives this salad an added flavor dimension. Enjoy!
Pasta Puttanesca
I was craving pasta with this aromatic sauce and was curious about its history. To my surprise, it turns out that it seems to be a rather recent culinary invention. The “original” version is sautéed in olive oil and often includes anchovies. Of course, I wanted to make mine oil-free and all plant-based. The recipe below, which I slightly modified, comes from rouxbe.com (where I received my Forks Over Knives certification). This is a very robust sauce that will please omnivores and plant-based eaters alike. Enjoy! Continue reading
Broccoli Rabe Pasta
Whenever I see a beautiful bunch of broccoli rabe or rapini, I cannot resist. I am a big fan of this slightly bitter, cruciferous green vegetable. Italians have many different names for this vegetable. In southern Italy in Puglia, where I was so fortunate to visit, it’s called cime de rape (“turnip tops”, which makes sense once you know that rapini is in the same subspecies as the turnip). It’s most often prepared with LOTS of garlic and hot pepper. Here’s my version, sans the olive oil! Guten Appetit! Continue reading
Creamy Potato Casserole with Peas
Any potato lovers out there? This casserole is super simple with great flavor. Just potatoes, Oh-So-Un-Cheeze Sauce, peas and a generous sprinkle of smoked paprika. If you are cooking for one, this casserole will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator, if it lasts this long! Enjoy! Continue reading
Rotini Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes, Kale and Peas
This dish has all the flavor components to spell “yummy”: whole grain pasta, fresh tomatoes, kale, peas and beans! Vary the amounts of peas and beans to your liking. With a little bit of prep work, it comes together very quickly. I like it for dinner, but it’s also very tasty as a pasta salad for lunch the next day. Continue reading
Vegetable Jambalaya
This recipe has a somewhat unusual inspiration. Every other week my friend and I volunteer for the dinner shift at a women’s homeless shelter. Part of the dinner menu is always a vegetarian entry. Which of course delights me to no end! So, last week’s veggie option was Jambalaya and it looked really yummy. I talked with the staff person who made this dish about ingredients and seasonings. I liked that he had included beans as well. This got me thinking about making my own version. In researching recipes a little further, I found out about two “jambalaya camps”: one to include the rice in cooking and the other to add it in already cooked. Since I have a lovely rice cooker AND a magic InstantPot pressure cooker, I decided to precook the rice. So, to all of you who grew up on traditional Jambalaya, please, indulge my culinary license and hope you enjoy it! Continue reading
East Meets West Stir-Fry
I really enjoy asian influenced dishes. Until recently, I have never had much success, at least to my taste, with creating a tasty recipe that would bring out the subtle nuances and delicate flavors that are prevalent in asian cooking. But then I took a FOK Plant-Based Cooking Certification class and there it was : a wild rice recipe with just the perfect dressing/ sauce to marry in the right flavors. I knew, I was on my way, the rest was simple. Just a few fresh ingredients and that’s how I created the following dish. Enjoy!
Veggie Neat Loaf
I am always looking to “plantisize” a familiar dish that will appeal to those that may be new to plant-based eating , transitioning or are , like me, in a “mixed relationship”. This recipe definitely fits all the criteria: easy to prepare, very similar in texture to the “m” version and best of all – delicious! If you prefer this over spaghetti and tomato sauce, give the Veggie Neat Ball version try. Either way, this dish does deliver a tasty mouthful and will keep you coming for seconds.. Continue reading