Vegan MoFo Day 13 - Free Fridays - Creamy green pasta sauce with homemade gnocchi

This week my theme for Free Friday is called Flashback Friday. Back in my vegetarian days I used to make a decadent cream and parmesan based pasta sauce to serve over potato gnocchi on a semi-regular basis which was a favourite meal with my fellows. The gnocchi was hand made if I could afford the time as it was so much softer and lighter than any gnocchi that came out of a packet. In my early vegan days and prior to discovering the almighty powers of cashews I made a vegan version of the pasta sauce which turned out rather well. This dish had slipped my mind until I started to crave gnocchi recently (my gnocchi cravings are similar to pizza and taco cravings, once they resurface they have to be fuelled).

The creamy sauce used to be stirred through sautéed garlic, mushrooms, spring onions, sun-dried tomatoes and wilted spinach leaves before it was poured on top of the gnocchi. I was all set to recreate it this way until Kari from Bite-sized thoughts posted a recipe for a pureed spinach and white bean pasta sauce recently. I adored the colour in Kari's pasta sauce and even though I still made my own cashew based sauce I changed up the method and blended the spinach in with the rest of the sauce ingredients which resulted in a vibrant green sauce.

The mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes were hidden by this colourful sauce and I will be tempted to omit them next time I make this as the sauce is flavourful enough without them. I loved this sauce so much I won't be waiting until I can bothered making gnocchi again as the sauce would be great with any type of pasta. As I don't have time to post a version of the gnocchi recipe right now, here is the link to the recipe I have referred to for many years which always results in extremely soft gnocchi that almost melts in your mouth.

Creamy green pasta sauce 

½ cup raw unsalted cashews
1 1/3 cups soy milk
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
30 fresh basil leaves
100g baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Optional extras
100-150g button mushrooms, sliced
50g sundried tomatoes, drained of oil and cut into thin strips
4 spring onions, sliced
freshly cracked black pepper

Place the cashews, soy milk, nutritional yeast, sea salt, Dijon mustard and lemon juice in a blender and process until no chunks of cashews remain and the sauce is smooth. Add the basil and spinach leaves and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides a few times of necessary to incorporate any stray pieces of basil and spinach.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the garlic for 30 seconds or until fragrant and starting to colour slightly. If using mushrooms, add them to the pan and saute until they have softened and released their juices. Pour in the contents of the blender then rinse out the blender jar with ¼ - ½ cup of water and add this to the pan. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and spring onions (if using) and allow the sauce to heat through. Serve with pasta of your choice garnished with freshly cracked black pepper.

Vegan MoFo Day 11 - Worldly Wednesdays - Stopover 30 - Uruguay

I was pretty excited when Uruguay turned out to be the next stopover on my virtual trip around the world as I haven't had the chance to cover many South American countries so far. The traditional cuisine of Uruguay is based on European roots, particularly Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Britain as well as influences from African and indigenous sources. Uruguayan barbecues, known as asado, are well known around the world. This is also a popular style of cooking in the neighbouring country Argentina.

After searching through my cookbooks I came across a couple of dishes that sounded like they would pair well together, a pie called Torta Pasculina in World Vegetarian Classics and Tempeh asado in Viva Vegan. Tempeh asado was the first tempeh dish I ever made and the only dish from Viva Vegan that I haven't been particularly fond of so I was keen to give it another try using tofu instead.

The original version of Torta Pasculina which is also known as Easter Torte comes from Liguria, Italy. The Italian filo covered pie is usually filled with Swiss chard or artichokes. The Uruguayan/Argentinean version in World Vegetarian Classics contains spinach, marinated red capsicums, olives, parmesan cheese and eggs and uses a shortcrust pastry. I had planned to make a pretty slack replacement for parmesan by throwing in a heap of nooch plus some salt and finally break open my packet of the Vegg to use as an egg replacement.

A number of things went wrong during the making of this pie. The shortcrust pastry I've successfully made before didn't hold together when it was being rolled out so I had to pull some puff pastry sheets out of the freezer to use instead. In the cookbook version of this pie the eggs were broken into indentations made on the top of the filling. I've had no experience with using the Vegg before and and for some reason I was under the illusion that the Veggs would set in the pie when it was baked. When the pie was cut after being baked in the oven the Vegg mixture ran everywhere and made quite a mess!

I didn't hold much hope for this meal given all of my tribulations but by this stage it was late and everyone was ravenous. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise when the pie actually tasted great. The saltiness of the olives paired with the sweet marinated capsicums worked really well together and it wasn't just our hunger talking as the leftovers were just as enjoyable. The tofu asado was much nicer than the tempeh version I don't have fond memories of although there are other recipes in Viva Vegan that hold more appeal for me.

Did you know?

The national anthem of Uruguay is the longest in duration of any country in the world. Orientales, la Patria o la Tumba contains 105 bars of music with a duration of approximately 6 minutes.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 5 - Bosnia-Herzegovina

I'm not sure what the chance of bordering countries being randomly selected in the first week are but it happened to me! After stopping off at Croatia a couple of days ago, here I am back on it's doorstep in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The cuisine is described as being influenced by Turkish, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Central Europe which is quite a large mixture when you think about it, so like Croatia there were plenty of options for me to choose from.

The dish I was particularly drawn to was a type of burek called zeljanica, traditionally filled with spinach, cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs. The only problem with this meal was how to manage such a mammoth project on a work night. Some of the traditional recipes I looked at mentioned that you should set aside an afternoon for leisurely burek making. After further googling I discovered it is also served as a filo encased pie, similar to a Greek spanakopita.

When it came to making vegan replacements I was a bit slack with this recipe. I didn't have any vegan sour cream on hand nor did I have forethought to soak cashews for my preferred style of home-made sour cream. Instead I whacked a heap of ingredients in the food processor and taste tested the mixture in between pulsing. You'll notice that I included fresh and frozen spinach in this recipe which was due to having a small amount of fresh spinach that needed using up otherwise I would have used one or the other. Bosnian salads were stated to be fairly simple and usually made up of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion and capsicum. This combination is what I served on the side dressed simply with some balsamic vinegar.

Regardless of the authenticity of this, it actually turned out to be very flavoursome and the meal was enjoyed by all of us. Burek making is now on my long cooking to-do list and will have to wait for a lazy weekend.


Zeljanica

150g baby spinach leaves
1 x 250g frozen spinach, defrosted
6 spring onions (scallions), roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
500g firm tofu, drained
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tablespoons water)
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 sheets filo pastry (I find the fresh sheets are easier to use than frozen ones)

Preheat oven to 180C.

Steam the baby spinach until just wilted. Allow it cool slightly then combine with the defrosted spinach in a colander and squeeze out as much moisture out as possible. Place the spinach, spring onions, garlic, tofu, salt, nutritional yeast flakes, flax eggs and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until all the ingredients are broken down and combined thoroughly. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides once or twice.

Melt the dairy-free margarine and mix in the olive oil. Using a pastry brush, grease a 24 cm pie dish with the margarine/oil mixture. Place a sheet of filo pastry in the pie dish, tucking it gently into the corners then brush lightly with the margarine/oil mixture (don’t worry if your sheets are overhanging the tin). Repeat this for a further 3 sheets then spoon in the contents of the food processor bowl and smooth out the top of the mixture. Complete the pie by layering the remaining sheets on top, brushing the margarine/oil mixture between each layer. Fold any overhanging pieces into the centre of the pie and press down gently.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. The top of the pie may brown rather quickly, don’t be tempted to take it out early as the sides and bottom will still be soggy.

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Did you know?

There are a group of naturally formed pyramids in a Bosnian town called Visoko which caused an international media frenzy in 2005. There were claims that they were man-made and the largest ancient pyramids on earth which was later proven to be a hoax.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.