Recipe: Creamy Vegan Pesto

It's not easy being green. Or having too many greens in your fridge. So I decided to use up some of the greens I got in a recent Fresh Fork Market CSA bag by making pesto. I loosely followed this recipe for simple vegan pesto, but I improvised. A lot. Mainly because the basil plant in my garden is growing at a snail's pace, but still...

The result? A frighteningly green but amazingly delicious pasta dish.

Creamy vegan pesto over farfalle pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basil leaves
• 2 cups greens - kale, swiss chard, etc.
• 3/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or sunflower seeds
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• almond milk - add as needed to create a creamy texture/consistency

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in food processor of blender and mix until creamy and smooth. Add almond milk as needed to create thinner consistency.
2. Serve over pasta, on bread, or any other way you like to eat pesto. 

This was possibly the easiest recipe ever. We had to do some finagling to get the taste right. Depending on the greens you use, your sauce could taste too green. If you add too much garlic, the sauce can be overpowering. Add nutritional yeast at your own discretion, too. A little goes a long way, but if you like the flavor of it, by all means, add more. I've read that this recipe is good if you add vegan parmesan cheese into it, but I didn't have enough on hand to try it. But I did sprinkle some on top of my pasta and it definitely enhanced the flavor of the pesto. Overall, this was a quick and easy way to make up some fresh sauce and use up a lot of our greens. I'll definitely be making this again!

Recipe: Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil

My cooking streak continues thanks to attempting to eat better/cleaner and maintain a mainly vegan diet. I've found a bunch of neat recipes that have turned out really well, and I'll be sharing them in the coming weeks. I've tried some clunkers, too, but...I'll spare you from those recipes. I've been on a spaghetti squash kick lately, and when I saw an interesting looking picture recipe come across my facebook feed, I decided I just had to try and make it. So here goes...spaghetti squash stuffed with tomatoes and basil. 

Ingredients:

• 1 large spaghetti squash

• 2 tbsp. olive oil (preferably garlic olive oil)

• 1 large Roma tomato, finely chopped OR as many grape tomatoes, halved, as you can handle

• 2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil (or more - I really like a lot of basil)

• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Using a large knife or a cleaver, slice slits in the spaghetti squash lengthwise down the middle. 
3. Place the squash on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, check to see if the squash is soft. If it's still hard, cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut in half. 
4.  Use a spoon to remove the seeds and center strings. 
5. Scrape and fluff the stringy squash with a fork. Place "spaghetti" in a large bowl. Mix in olive oil, tomatoes, basil, and garlic powder. 
6. Re-stuff squash shells with "spaghetti" mixture. Top with cheese. (optional)
7. Turn the oven up to broil. Place squash in the broiler for 3-4 minutes, until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving the squash.

This was a tag team cooking effort. My boyfriend and I made this together. He picked some fresh basil from the garden and I cooked and assembled the stuffed squash. I didn't use as much oil as I should have (trying to be healthy...boo) and my squash definitely could have used some more. I also forgot to add the garlic salt. Whoops. But I definitely liked the way this turned out. It was a light and healthy - yet filling - dinner that didn't take too much time to prepare.