Pasta Bolognaise, Field Greens Salad With Orange & Apple

PASTA BOLOGNAISE

I kinda threw this together yesterday lunchtime, a quick pasta sauce (since my freezer was bare of any at all - catastrophe!) with quinoa pasta, preceded by a Field Greens Salad With Orange & Apple.

About the quinoa pasta: this is really really good! For those who know quinoa, you know how nutritious and tasty it is, and those who don't, well you need to discover it soon! It's usually seen as a tiny grain, and comes usually in white. I discovered the red quinoa recently, and that is a real treat! The pasta I bought is macaroni, made from both red and white quinoa - not together, but half of them are the red quinoa noodles and half made from white. It's delicately pretty to look at and delicious in taste!



The package says to cook for 13 to 15 minutes, but that's far too long imho. I give it around 8 or 9 and find it's good.

Now the sauce:

1/2 cup tvp granules and equal boiling water to rehydrate them
1 small rib of celery, chopped very finely
1/2 carrot, chopped very finely
1 small onion, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 or 5 medium mushrooms, chopped
12 or 14 ounces canned plum tomatoes (and a little of their juice)
Oregano to taste (or an Italian mix of herbs, if you prefer)
black (or mixed, your choice) pepper, freshly ground
pinch of crushed chilies, again to taste
1 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

I boiled the kettle, poured the required water on the tvp granules and chopped the vegetables.

I put the celery, carrot, onion and garlic into a skillet with enough water to soften them.

While the veggies were cooking, I crushed the plum tomatoes and then used the wand blender to puree around 2/3 or so of them - your choice as to how chunky you want it to be.

When the veggies were softened I added the mushrooms, tomatoes, oregano, pepper, chilies, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. After stirring these simmered until they had blended nicely - it depends how much time you have. We were hungry, but not desperately so, so I guess they got around half an hour in the pan. Part way through cooking I realized it was going to be a bit watery, so I thickened with tomato paste. That worked just fine.

We had the salad (see below) as a first course, so I put those to cook while we had that.

When the pasta was cooked, I drained and tossed it with the sauce and garnished it with cilantro (not trad but we like it!). I used a sprinkle of my own cheezy crumby mixture on top, but vegan parmezan-type cheez would be fine.

And here it is:



About the salad:

FIELD GREENS, ORANGE & APPLE SALAD

This doesn't really have - or need - a recipe, but I figure that I pick up ideas from other people's books and websites and maybe someone who sees this who isn't keen on salads might be attracted to trying some of our combinations. Besides, we all oughta eat more salads, and here I am being a good girl and eating mine and I'm taking their photos and posting them, by golly!

One salad looks pretty much like another once you get it reduced to a tiny photo, and if you eat salad as often as we do, then the trick isn't so much in the mix of things (although variety and a few surprise elements help a lot!) but in the dressing. Not using oil in dressings, I find that the lighter the better, but sometimes I break out. This one took a little sweetener - mirin - and orange juice along with some seasoned rice vinegar. Otherwise, you can see that we love to mix fruit into our salads (and match the dressing to it - or even just use a squeeze of lemon juice or a sprinkle of one of the vinegars we keep in.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce

Today I tried a recipe from fatfree.com for a Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce. I had wanted to use up the jar of roasted red peppers I had started a few days ago (for the Rotini, remember? - Rotini with Broccoli & Tomatoes) - and so googled and scouted around a bit. What I found was Mikes roasted red pepper pasta sauce which would use up all but three of what I had left. Made with already-roasted peppers, this was a Quick-and-Easy Fix for lunch.

It took two red bell peppers per person, so for two of use I used 5 of the jarred peppers, plus garlic, onion, sundried tomatoes, herbs and balsamic vinegar. Got all that!

I did as was asked - except my peppers were already roasted - and blended the ingredients, adding in some of the tomato soaking liquid as suggested. heated it and seasoned it and there it was, in no time at all!
It was thick and beautiful and tasted wonderful!

We had it with wholewheat penne and a side salad. A great lunch.

EGGPLANT & MUSHROOM LASAGNA

My own lasagne for our two-person household which always has one of us watching my weight. While this is my standard recipe, I do vary it a bit from time to time - sometimes of necessity. Today I was short on noodles and (gasp!) only had one container of (soft) tofu that wasn't in the freezer, I realized at the last minute. As a result, the topping was a little thin, but the taste was great!

EGGPLANT AND MUSHROOM LASAGNE (includes sauce recipe)
(This serves 2 - and we usually have some left - but can be doubled, trippled, etc. for more. No prob.)

This dish is, however, not recommended for freezing.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Put water on for noodles.

One pound of eggplant - sliced thin and sauteed lightly until tender (steaming works okay) - if I don't have enough eggplant, I slice in zucchini and yellow summer squash too.

One and a half cups homemade tomato pasta sauce (recipe at foot of page - I make up a bunch and freeze mine) OR your favourite commercial sauce (but don't forget to add some chilies or the like).

Quarter pound or more mushrooms - sliced and sauteed/steamed

Half cup mozzarella 'cheez' - grated
Quarter cup parmesan 'cheez' - grated

Half pound tofu (I use firm and thin out with veg. stock) - whooshed in blender and seasoned with salt, pepper, dash of tabasco, half the soy 'parmesan' - other seasonings, your choice.

Quarter cup brown breadcrumbs
Herbs: parsley, thyme, oregano - your pick
salt and pepper to taste.

Lasagna noodles - However many you need for your usual lasagna. I use five or six wholewheat noodles for an 8 by 10 inch baking dish (there are just two of us here) and skimped on the middle layer of noodles). That size dish usually takes 9 or so strips of lasagne.

METHOD:
Cook noodles for around ten minutes while the eggplant is being sauteed.

Lightly sauce the bottom of the baking dish, add layers of noodles, sauce, eggplant, mushrooms, soy 'mozzarella', herbs, salt and pepper, etc. (just as with any lasagne).

Top with tofu mix, then sprinkle on breadcrumbs and soy 'parmesan' and bake for 30 minutes or so or until lasagna is heated through and top has browned.


Let it stand for around 10 or 15 minutes before cutting. Serve with salad of choice.

And now for that pasta sauce I promised you:

QUICK PASTA SAUCE

(I double or triple this amount and freeze in batches)

One medium onion, half a medium carrot, and two or more garlic cloves chopped/grated and sauteed in olive oil.

Two Tablespoons fresh herbs - oregano, thyme - whatever - or use half amt. of dried
1/2 tsp or more to taste of crushed chilies
28 Ounce Can of crushed tomatoes.

Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for around twenty minutes, longer if you have the time. Sauce should be a bit like sloppy porridge in texture.

There you go - use it to layer between the lasagna layers (above) and/or on your fave pasta :)