Recipe Round-Up: Blissful Basil

The final in my trilogy of Blissful Basil round-up posts, at least of the recipes I have cooked so far. You can see all the previous posts I've made from this book here.

Shaved Carrot Reuben with Special Sauce and Swiss Cheese: This recipe is one of the reasons I bought the book. Wide, shaved strips of carrot are simmered with all sorts of spices to give a pastrami flavour. And while it in no way resembles meat (which the book kind of claims it will), it is a delicious and fun addition to a sandwich. The sandwich also has a special sauce (based on hemp seeds) and a cashew based swiss cheese. For the special sauce, I left out the sriracha and I mixed in some gherkin relish rather than chopped pickles. Of course, some sauerkraut joins the mix on what should be rye bread, but I only had wholemeal. The flavours meld together really nicely, and it is surprisingly filling. A note on the swiss cheese, it is super fast to make and totally DELICIOUS!
Rating: Sandwich :), Swiss Cheese :D



BBQ Pulled Jackfruit with Cashew Cheddar Cheese and Cheese and Seeded Ranch Dressing: These are meant to be served on the Puffy Spelt & Potato Buns, another recipe from the book. Which I tried to make and which were a total disaster. So bad. So I served it on toasted bread instead. BBQ pulled jackfruit isn't anything new these days, but it was a nice cersion and wen't nicely with the hemp-based ranch dressing (she loves hemp, but there are often options, in this case you could use pepitas instead) and a cashew cheddar cheese. The book says to put raw onion on the finished product, but I left that off. The cashew cheddar cheese follows a similar formula to the swiss cheese, and which not quite as mindblowing in flavour is still great.
Rating: Sandwich :), Cheddar Cheese :)



Kale, Artichoke & Leek Mac n Cheese with Herbed Oat Crumbs: I'm always up for mac and cheese. This is cooked in a lovely white cheddar cheese sauce, and topped with some easy herby oat crumbs made from whizzing up rolled oats with some dried herbs and olive oil. One thing I am realising about myself as time goes on is that I don't really love artichokes, and I definitely felt they overpowered the other flavours in this dish. I only used 8oz instead of 12oz of macaroni, as I like things saucy, but even so the sauce was a bit thick as is and I needed to add a splash of water from cooking the pasta to thin it out enough to stir through the pasta nicely.
Rating: :)



Roasted Mushroom, Cilantro & Walnut Pesto Pasta: This is a fun combination. I could only get regular white mushrooms, rather than creminis, but they still roasted and tasted great. The pesto is a mix of the roasted mushrooms (with some saved for garnish), walnuts, coriander, and lime. The lime added a nice brightness. I don't love how oily a lot of pestos are (nothing to do with health, just a person taste preference), so I used some of the pasta water in place of the oil to blend it. I used 8oz instead of 12oz of pasta, which mde about three servings.
Rating: :)



Cashew E Pepe: This dish is super simple but super delicious. I halved the amount of pasta from 1lb to 8oz, which I am glad I did because I made the full amount of the cashew cream and cheese and it coated it perfectly. You could use any long pasta, but I used bucatini, which is thick hollow spaghetti and is very satisfying to eat. The cooked pasta is tossed with cashew cream, 'grated cashew cheese' (which is ground cashews, nooch, and salt), and lots of pepper. This is creamy, savoury, and cheesy. Perfection.
Rating: :D



Velvety Mac 'N' Yellow Split Pea Cheese: This is not the first recipe in the book that uses yellow split peas to make a cheesy sauce. The sauce is made from cooked split peas, steamed potato and onion, and a bunch of seasonings. I added an extra 1/4 of nooch to make it even cheesier. And of course I decreased the pasta from 1lb to 8oz because I like that higher sauce ratio.
Rating: :)



Baked Mostaccioli with Walnut Bolognese and Cashew Mozzarella: Stop what you are doing, buy this book, make this. It is SO GOOD! This is a project for a day when you can take you time putting it together, it has a few components. I made a half recipe of this so that it would fit in an 8x8 inch casserole dish, but as soon as I saw it out of the oven I instantly regretted not making the full amount. First up, a delicious walnut bolognese. I am not a big fan of walnuts on their own, but make them into a taco or bolognese mince and they become magic. I couldn't find the fancy pasta, so I used regular penne. Mix cooked pasta and bolognese sauce together, cover, bake. You make a really simple cashew mozzarella sauce, and then take the pasta out of the oven and mix half through it. Drizzle the other half all over the top, return to bake uncovered. I did bake it for a bit longer uncovered (15 minutes instead of 10), and I also did use some extra nooch in the cheese sauce. Take it out, sprinkle with some parmesan (I used a storebought one, or there is a recipe in the book), throw on some parsley. Then eat this amazingly delicious meaty cheesy carby perfection! Oh, so good.
Rating: :D :D :D



Easy Does It Sunday Evening Chili: This recipe also takes a while, the final product needs to simmer for an hour (or more!) to really meld the flavours. The full recipe has two tins of kidney beans and one of black beans, I made a half recipe and just used a tin of kidney beans. This chili has a great umami kind of flavour. Of course I left out the chiles and added just the teeniest sprinkle of chilli powder for the tiniest gentlest heat. You can top it with whatever you want, I used sour cream and avocado.
Rating: :)



Just Beet It! Red Velvet Shake: I have to admit, I don't get red velvet itself as a flavour, it seems to just be chocolate with red food colouring added as much as I can tell. But I do like the mix of beetroot and choicolate. In this recipe you can use either beet juice or grated beetroot, but I just chopped up some beetroot and my blender took care of it. It is also based on chilled coconut cream, which I replaced swith a handful of cashews and some oat milk. The recipe calls for quite a bit of ice, but why? Ice just dilutes everything. I did just add a few handfuls to help with the chilling. And of course I decreased the amount of dates it called for. This makes a small glass, but has a really nice and earthly chocolatey taste. Plus, pretty!
Rating: :)



Double Chocolate Cherry Chunk Ice Cream: This is made with frozen bananas as the base, which I don't mind but I don't call ice cream. Come on friends, we can tell the difference. Regardless, this is a really nice chilled treat, it is sweet but not overly sweet, and I love cherry and chocolate together. The double chocolate is thanks to both cacao (or cocoa) powder and cocoa nibs (or you can also use mini chocolate chips, but I love the crunchy bitterness of cacao nibs because I'm that weirdo).
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Yesterday I watched several hours of online lectures from a feline medicine conference. It was way better than actually having to go to a conference because I could sit in a comfortable fashion, get snacks and pee when I needed, AND DIM SIM JOINED ME! Much more fun learning about cats when your own cat is right there.