Vegan Basil Pesto

I think its time to introduce you to my favorite little kitchen helper... my Magic Bullet. I'm willing to bet that most of you have seen the infomercials and I'm also willing to bet that at least a couple of you were tempted to buy it. It may not be the miracle that the infomercial portrays it to be, but its always been a big help to me. I mean, I use it to grind my coffee, make smoothies, and as a make shift food processor. Its cheap too. I can't really afford a nice food processor and I don't really have a lot of room for a ton of different appliances, so a magic bullet is convenient for us college-age, tight-budgeted, or small-kitchened cooks. Another thing I love about my personal magic bullet... it was free. I won it at my high-school senior picnic and its still going strong about 3 years later.

Here he is! And notice the outlet converter... yes, I packed my magic bullet and carried it all the way to London.

This is my latest magic bullet creation: Vegan Basil Pesto. It is really good with pasta, or spread on a sandwich, or for anything really.

If you don't have a magic bullet, you can use a food processor obviously. And all though I hate to be disloyal to my little helper, a food processor is probably better because you can better control the consistency and how much you blend everything.

Vegan Basil Pesto

Ingredients

2 cups packed basil leaves

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

juice of 1 whole lemon

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons miso paste

1/2 teaspoon salt

The cast of characters

*if you can't find miso paste or don't want to use it you don't have to, but it adds the flavor that the cheese would have given it in a non-vegan pesto

And once you have all of the ingredients out, it's super easy to prepare. You simply add all of the ingredients into your magic bullet/food processor and blend until its a creamy consistency.

Here's the sauce, all jarred and ready to go. That's one green sauce.

Another note about pesto- the basil can brown when heated so I would add the sauce after everything is cooked and try not to heat it too much. The taste isn't affected but a brownish-greenish sauce just isn't pretty.

pesto tossed with some pasta and topped with dairy-free parmesan and pine nuts

Langostino Scampi Pasta

The other night my roommate Morgen and I wanted to make shrimp scampi for dinner, so after we picked up FREE cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (yes, you should be jealous). We stopped by Marvelous Market to get sourdough bread and then Trader Joe's to get the rest of the things we needed.

While we were looking around TJ's we saw frozen cooked langostino, and they looked good, so we decided why not just try that. Then, I became curious about what a langostino is exactly so I consulted the ever-useful Wikipedia when we got back to the room. They are small lobster or crawfish like animals and apparently what the original scampi was made with- Perfect!

Langostino Scampi Pasta

1 pound brown rice linguini or spaghetti

4 tablespoons vegan butter (Earth Balance)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large shallot, finely diced

5 cloves garlic, sliced

pinch red pepper flakes, optional

1 pound cooked langostino tails (can easily be found pre-cooked and frozen)

salt and pepper

1/2 cup white wine

1 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

To start the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil then add salt and pasta. Stir the pasta to separate then cover the pot. Once the water comes back to a boil, cook for about 6-8 minutes, until the pasta is not quite done. Drain the pasta and reserve a cup of the pasta water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter with 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Then add the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes and saute until shallots are translucent (about 3-4 minutes). Season the tails with salt and pepper and add to the sauce to heat and absorb the flavors (about 2 minutes). Remove the tails then add in the lemon juice and wine. Bring to a boil then add the remaining butter and oil. Once the butter has melted, add the tails back in as well as the parsley, pasta, and pasta water. Stir well and season with additional salt and pepper.

**This post was edited on 12/12/10 to make it gluten and dairy free.

On the Lighter Side: Vegan Lasagna

When looking for something to serve for Christmas Eve dinner, we decided on a classic family favorite- lasagna. So, the search for such a lasagna recipe began. Where do I look first? Recipezaar.com of course, only the most addicting website to anyone interested in cooking and baking. I simply type dairy free lasagna in the search bar and this is what appears: http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Dairy-free-Veggie-Lasagna-96659 . Perfect. No meat, no dairy, and seems simple to me. This recipe also works for vegans! And its lighter and healthier than a normal lasagna. I didn't follow the recipe exactly but did use it as a starting point, so here's what I did:

Also, you can use gluten free lasagna noodles. They are not always easy to find but you can definitely order them online or I am sure if you used a different kind of gluten-free pasta you could make a free-form lasagna-like dish that would taste just as good.

Vegan Lasagna

1 28 oz jar marinara sauce

6 uncooked gluten-free lasagna noodles

2 cups sliced vegetables (I suggest eggplant and squash)

1 (12 1/3 oz) container extra-firm tofu, broken up

1 (8 oz) package soy mozzarella, shredded

4 tablespoons vegan parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray and 11x7 baking dish with nonstick spray.

Spread 1/3 of the sauce over the bottom of the dish. arrange 3 noodles over the sauce in a single layer. Add another 1/3 of the sauce, all of the veggies, all of the tofu, and half of the mozzarella. Then, top with the 3 remaining uncooked noodles in a single layer. Spread evenly with remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake for about an hour. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and cook, uncovered, about 5 minutes until cheese melts.

Sorry no picture for this one!