In honor of my recent -and weird- obsession/cravings for every type of pasta dish known to mankind, I thought I'd post recipes for my three favorite, basic vegan pasta sauces.
So I used to be almost afraid to eat pasta. Yes, I know that's weird. For some reason I was convinced that it was horrendously bad for you in every way, shape or form. And if I ate it, I was going to explode... or something to that effect.
I'm not a huge fan of white flour, or white flour products anyways, which probably added to my pasta weirdness, so when I discovered brown rice pasta my mind was blown. BLOWN. It opened me up to a whole world of more nutritious pasta products including quinoa pasta and mung bean pasta(I haven't actually tried this one yet, but it intrigues me).
But I digress. The star of this blog is the sauce, not the noodles. I also healthified those. And let me tell you, although they are all delicious, the Wowzers White Sauce recipe(which I invented on the spot -not to brag or nothin') is sooooooooooo good. These are winners. And they go really well in my lasagna recipe: Magical Vegetable Garden Lasagna
Balsamic Red Sauce(Makes 2 cups):
Ingredients:
-1 onion, diced
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-2 big tomatoes(I like heirloom), cubed
-1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
-1/4 tsp. salt
-2 tsp. dried basil
-2 tsp. dried oregano
-1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
Method:
Sauté onion and garlic in a little water until softened(you can do this in olive oil as well if you prefer). Add tomatoes, sauce, salt and herbs. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low/medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes or so. Remove from heat and mix in balsamic vinegar.
Pesto With Pizzazz(Makes 1 cup):
Ingredients:
-4 cups packed fresh basil
-4 cups spinach
-1 cup nuts(I've used almonds, walnuts and pecans with good results. Pine nuts are traditional, but too expensive for my sad college student budget)
-1/4 tsp. salt
-4 cloves of garlic
-1 Tbs. olive oil
-2 Tbs. nutritional yeast(I have made pesto without nutritional yeast, but it adds a really nice flavor)
-The juice of 1/2-1 lemon(I use 1 or sometimes more because I like my pesto super pizzazzy)
Method:
Throw all ingredients into your handy dandy food processor and blend until as smooth or chunky as your heart tells you.
Wowzers White Sauce(Makes 1 1/2 cups):
(This white sauce is so good, it'll make you say "wowzers!" Sometimes even I can't believe how amazingly cheesy I am.)
Ingredients:
-2 cups non-dairy milk, up to 3 if needed(I use unsweetened almond milk)
-1/2 cup cashews
-1/4 cup nutritional yeast
-2 cloves garlic
-1 Tbs. olive oil
-1 1/2 Tbs. brown rice flour
-1/2 lemon(1 if you're feeling tangy)
-1/2 tsp. salt
-Pepper
-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
-1/2 tsp. onion powder
-2 tsp. mustard
Method:
Blend first 4 ingredients on high in your vitamix if you have one, or blender if you don't. Meanwhile heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in brown rice flour and cook for a minute or so until browned. Add milk mixture, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders and mustard. Bring to a boil and simmer until sauce reaches desired thickness. If too thick, add more milk to thin out.
Try one of these sauces on its own or mix 2, or all 3 together if you're feeling brave.
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