Sunday 16 June 2019

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Italiano

Vegan Italiano, by Donna Klein, is a book that has sat on my shelf for a long time and I have made very little from it. I just... struggle to find it inspiring. But I am trying to make stuff from my underused cookbooks, or if not to rehome them, so I dove in to make a few things. Results varied, though there are definitely some nice things. I haven't done a round up from this book before, though it looks like I have posted a photo of some recipes in this post.

Fusilli with Lentil Sauce: Lentils are one of my favourite toppings for pasta, there is something very earthy and comforting about this. The recipe only has 1/2 cup of lentils in it (I used brown, and soaked them for a few hours first for fast cooking). It also has onion, carrot, garlic, and spinach in it, but I also added some chopped celery and frozen peas. The sauce was quite watery after the cooking time, so I ended up simmering it for 5 minutes without the cover on to thicken it up. I only used 8 oz of pasta rather than 12, but that still made some very big servings. Topped with a sprinkle of FYH Parmesan.
Rating: :)

Fusilli with Lentil Sauce


Linguine with Broccoli Sauce: This recipe was super easy, but a bit bland in the end. The broccoli is blanched and chopped, before being added to a garlicky mix with the linguine. I did leave out the red pepper flakes, so perhaps the flavour is meant to come from here. But still, nothing a liberal dose of nutritional yeast couldn't fix. I also added a tin of white beans to bulk it up a bit.
Rating: :|

Linguine with Broccoli Sauce and Garlic


Penne with Wild Mushrooms and Peas: I didn't have any exciting wild mushrooms for this I'm afraid, it was made with regular white mushrooms. But they are still very yummy. I decreased the pasta from 12 oz to 8 oz, and I added a tin of white beans for protein. This made four big serves.
Rating: :)

Penne with Wild Mushrooms and Peas


Rotelle with Arugula and Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Made with whatever spiral pasta I had on it, this again hit on the bland side of things. It needed more flavour. I always use the semi-dried tomatoes and rehydrate them, rather than using the ones in oil. I did use rocket (arugula) here, but in the future I would use baby spinach because I am just not often a fan of rocket. I served this with salad, bread rolls, and some marinated baked tofu.
Rating: :|

Rotelle with Arugula and Sun-Dried Tomatoes


Rotelle with Mushrooms and Garlic: Made with a different type of spiral pasta. I was worried this might also be a bit light in the flavour department, but actually it was great. It is very simple, with sauteed mushrooms and slices of garlic, which provided lots of flavour. I didn't use the full 1/4 of oil the recipe called for, but it wasn't dry. I used 8 oz instead of 12 oz pasta and added, you guessed it, a tin of white beans. Served over baby spinach, and with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast added as well.
Rating: :)

Rotelle with Mushrooms and Garlic


Lemon-Thyme Polenta with Roasted Vegetables: You can't quite see it in the photo, given it is piled high with roasted vegetables, but the polenta in this recipe is cooked, chilled in a pan, cut into squares, and broiled/grilled. I didn't have any lemon thyme to add to it, so I had to use regular with a smidge of lemon juice. The vegetables are mixed with some broth, oil, sundried tomatoes (I used some tomato paste) and vinegar before being marinated and baked. The recipe says to roast them for 30 minutes, but I roasted them for longer.
Rating: :)

Lemon-Thyme Polenta with Roasted Vegetables


Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Basket full of kittens


Fancy a basket full of kittens? These are Sesame's brothers: Atom (grey and white), Panko (ginger and white), and Papaya (fluffy ginger and white). They are very cute!

9 comments:

  1. The dishes all look beautiful! Maybe I just don't know how to prepare/serve polenta but I just can't get into it!!
    OMG they are all too adorable, but Papaya is calling out to me. So stinking cute!!!!

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    1. I need a lot of flavour in my polenta, I love making it cheesy, or something else very savoury. Otherwise it is underwhelming.

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  2. These snacks all look delicious and kittens are cute too. By the way, if you love French, Italian and American dishes(we have 100 recipes in every region), discover more .

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  3. The rotelle with mushrooms and garlic sounds so simple and delicious!
    The kittens look quite content in their basket, what sweethearts!

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    1. It was the perfect example of something so simple, yet with such great flavour!

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  4. I'm not typically a pasta person but all of these dishes look delicious and definitely are pasta dishes I'd love! OMG kitty basket!

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    1. They love their basket so much, but so hard to get a photo because as soon as you go near them they all start moving around. Cat life!

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  5. So much pasta! Was most of the book pasta recipes? Or was it the only thing you found inspiring? Sometimes I feel like Italian food is just pasta some days. Otherwise it is too close to being Greek lol

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    1. There is a large pasta section, of course, but it has other things as well. I feel like pasta is probably just what I have been drawn to because I love pasta, but also a lot of them were pretty quick and easy.

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