Vegan Pesto Pizza

Like many, I love pesto. And luckily, pesto can be made vegan really easily. It's so easy that I can make it in under 10 minutes. Yep, this dish can be thrown together and be ready to eat in less than a half hour. Who doesn't love a simple, quick recipe that even carnivore friends will love? 

Vegan Pesto Pizza

 

Sauce Ingredients: 

3 garlic cloves 

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 

1/3 cup pine nuts 

4 cups basil leaves 

1/2 small lemon, juiced 

1/3 cup olive oil 

salt and pepper 

 Topping Ingredients: 

a few grape tomatoes, thinly sliced 

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced 

Anything else you think might work, for example sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and olives would be delicious. 

 Everything Else: 

2 large pizza crusts (30cm) 

 Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

 2. Add all sauce ingredients to food processor and blend until the sauce is smooth. 

 3. Distribute sauce over two pizza crusts until covered evenly. 

 4. Scatter toppings over pizza. 

 5. Cook in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the pizzas are browning around the edges. 

 6. Let cool for 2 minutes before slicing. 

 7. Serve with olive oil if needed.

Vegan French Onion Soup

Been busy lately. Or so it seems. Anyway, here's another tasty soup recipe. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!


Vegan French Onion Soup
Source: neverhomemake.com

Takes about an hour and 20 minutes total and serves about 5-6 people.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of sliced thinly onions

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 olive oil for the onions and 2 tbs olive oil for the roux mixture

2 tbs maple syrup

salt and pepper (to taste)

1 tsp ground coriander

8 cups vegetable broth

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

wholegrain sourdough bread (or your favorite), cubed

Directions:

1. Slice onions very thinly.

This takes a while, and I guarantee will make you cry like a baby. I have proof.

See...

2. Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 to 10 minutes -- stirring often -- until softened.

3. Add the maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Stir well -- being careful not to burn the onions -- for 20 minutes, until golden.



4. Add in the garlic, coriander, and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 30 minutes.

5. During those last 10 minutes of waiting, (and yes, the waiting is super annoying... While I waited all I could think is, Can I eat this already???) heat the olive oil into a shallow pan on medium-low and wait for the it to get to a hot, but not too hot (shouldn't be smoking).

By the way, this is how your onions should look at this point...

6. Add the flour to the 1/4 cup oil and stir continuously for 10 minutes -- until flower is deep brown and smells nutty.

7. Add roux to the soup and let cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with cubed bread and enjoy!

Split Pea Soup

Been craving soup, soup, SOUP lately!  Perhaps because it finally feels like WINTER!  There's snow on the ground at last. As much as I hate being cold, I love the beauty of snow, particularly fresh snow.  Anyway, here is a recipe for a hearty winter soup, slow cooked split pea soup.  It turned out great and it was super easy (I...love...you...crock pot...!)

Slow Cooked Split Pea Soup
Source: food.com 

Takes 5-8 hours depends on if you cook it on high or low. Serves 6-8 people.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz split peas
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 -1 1/2 cup white onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , smashed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbs salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 6 cups hot water

Directions:

1. 
Layer ingredients in order listed above.  Do not stir. 
2. 
Cover and cook until peas are soft. (High: 4-5 hours or Low: 8-10 hours)

3. Remove bay leaf and garlic (if it has held together) before serving.

The cleanup factor:

"The cleanup factor" is a new part I've decided to add to my blog, since cleaning up is the worst part of making any recipe. As implied by the title, I will just mention how light or rough the cleanup was after making the recipe. The slow cooked split pea soup's cleanup factor was very light.  Just some scraps to go down the garbage disposal and a few dishes, like the knife used to chop the veggies, measuring cups, cutting board, and the crock pot itself to wash.

Pesto Lasagna

Lots of work went into this one.  I'm ever so grateful for my friend, Amanda, for helping me!!

Pesto Lasagna
Source: The Accidental Vegan by Devra Gartenstein

Takes about an hour and a half total.

Ingredients:

• 12 to 15 lasagna noodles
• 2lbs soft tofu
• 2 cups pesto (see appendix a, below)
• 4 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup faux cheese (see appendix b, below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over medium-high heat, and add the lasagna noodles.  Cook until noodles for about 8-10 minutes (or until noodles are soft).  Drain and set aside.
2. While the noodles are cooking, crumble the tofu into a bowl with the pesto.
3. Then layer the ingredients in a 9 x 11 pan as followed:
• 1/3 of the tomato sauce
• 1/3 of the noodles
• 1/2 of the tofu/pesto mixture
• another 1/3 of the noodles
• another 1/3 of the tomato sauce
• the rest of the tofu/pesto mixture
• the 1 cup of faux cheese
4. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until the "cheese" starts to brown.  Let cool for a little while, and serve hot.

Appendix A: Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 cups loosely packed basil leaves
• 1 cup raw walnuts
• 2tbs extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, until softened.
2. Put the garlic in a food processor and pulse several times until chopped finely.  Drain the sun-dried tomatoes and add to the garlic, along with the basil, walnuts, olive oil, parsley, salt, and pepper.  Process until smooth.  Note: If you mix this with pasta or veggies that have just been cooked, don't reheat the mixture further, as you may risk burning it.  You can also serve pesto cold, as a spread on bread or crackers.

Appendix B: Faux Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or any flour will do)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, preferably large flake
• 3 cups water
• 1tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp prepared mustard

Directions:

1. Gently heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat.  Then whisk in the flour and nutritional yeast.  Turn the heat down to low and cook, whisking constantly for a minute or two, or until the mixture is reasonably homogenous, with few lumps. 
2. Add the water and raise the heat to medium.  Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking until it is relatively smooth.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pea soup.  
3. Remove from heat and whisk in the salt and mustard.  Be sure to use immediately, as this mixture forms a layer on top.

When Amanda and I finished our dinner, we finished up some vegan sugar cookies Amanda started earlier in the day.  Sorry I don't have the recipe for this one, but I wanted to share the pretty pictures: