MoFo Day 3: Quick and Easy Spinach Pasta

Hello again! Thanks for joining me on day three for Vegan Month of food! Today’s prompt is; Quick, easy and delicious. I’m going to share with you my girls favorite pasta dish that they ask for multiple times a week. Normally I don’t measure anything and simply adjust taste as I go so feel free to change whatever to suit your needs. And to be honest I’d have added at least an extra cup of pasta if we hadn’t been out. This made two  servings though it could be stretched to three had I made side dishes or had soup to go with it. My 10 and 7 year old each had a plate like you see below.

 

 

Spinach Pasta 

~2 servings alone or 3 with side dishes

Ingredients:

2 cups pasta

We like to use cavatappi, elbows or gemelli but you can use any. Unless you are cooking for two people you should increase pasta accordingly; if using cavatappi 1c per person.

1.5c frozen spinach

Sauce:

One large onion (yellow, white, or sweet) or about 1.5 cups  diced

¼ tsp Black Pepper

½ tsp. Salt

1tsp.  Garlic powder

1 to 1 ½ Tbsp. Sweet Paprika

¼ c. water from the boiling pasta or more as needed

Butter or oil; I used the spoonful of earth balance you can see in the 3^rd collage picture

Method:

Depending on the amount of noodles bring the frozen spinach and necessary amount of water in an appropriately sized pot to a boil. Add Pasta and cook per package instructions.  Strain with a fine holes strainer so you don’t lose your spinach down the drain.

 

Dice onions and start sautéing on medium high while water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks. Adjust oil/butter as needed you don’t want the onions sticking but you don’t want them soupy. Cook until fully cooked and most of the onions are getting nicely browned. Reduce heat to low add liquid from the boiling pasta. It’s okay if stray spinach finds its way in; do try to avoid bigger pieces, add remainder of sauce ingredients mix very well. 

You want it a bit gravy like but not too runny (see second picture below) if you cooked the onions in a large enough pan you can simply dump the drained pasta into the onion mixture mix well and serve or you can add the onion to the pasta I refer the first way since you get all the flavor clinging to the bottom of the pan BUT honestly it doesn’t matter which way you do it.

Adjust to taste and enjoy!!

I measured out the spices  like I normally would thinking we had more pasta If I had made the full  3-4 servings I’d have used 2c. Frozen spinach, a full 2c.of diced onion and probably more salt, an extra shake of garlic powder, a touch more oil, and more water from the pasta to make the sauce work with the quantity of pasta, but I wouldn’t double everything.

MoFo day 2: A childhood meal veganized; Stuffed cabbage rolls , green bean casserole, and sweet and sour cabbage.

Day two! Today we were supposed to recreate a meal from your childhood. I don’t know about the homes you grew up in but I ate a lot of cabbage growing up; coleslaw both mayo and vinegar based, boiled dinner, brierocks, homemade egg rolls, sauerkraut, borscht, minestrone-and a dozen other cabbage heavy soups, sometimes even simply fried with kielbasa. Two of my absolute favorites were cabbage rolls and sweet and sour cabbage!  Originally there was always some type of meat or in many cased multiple animal products in all these dishes but they have all been pretty easy to veganize. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of these recipes or my love of cabbage that  makes them so easily adaptable. Don’t get me wrong the new versions are different but they in their own right are as good if not better than the original. Oh and green bean casserole because that was always a super tasty holiday treat that I looked forward to while growing up!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls:

Ingredients:

Filling:

1c. Brown Rice

½ c. Lentils

1oz. Dried Porcini Mushrooms

2 Tbsp. Minced Garlic

3c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth extra for sautéing

2c Diced Yellow Onion

8oz. Button Mushrooms Chopped

½-1tsp. Salt

Sauce:

1- 15oz Can Tomato Sauce

1- 15oz Can No Salt Diced Tomatoes

2Tbsp. Sugar

1Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

Wraps:

1 Large Red Cabbage

Method:

1.Boil 1oz of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes.

2.Add cabbage to electric pressure cooker (Instant pot) with ½ cup water and pressure cook for 1 minute let pressure release naturally. Alternately you can blanch the Cabbage in a large pot of boil water.

3.Meanwhile dice mushrooms, onions and mince the garlic. Measure out rice, lentils and spices.  Strain and reserve porcini liquid- use can use this in place of some of the vegetable/mushroom broth if you prefer a stronger porcini flavor, dice the porcinis.

4,Remove cabbage from the instant pot, and set aside until cool enough to handle, pour out the cabbage water. Add a touch of vegetable broth to the pot and turn on sauté mode. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and sauté until browning and fragrant add broth as needed in small amounts to prevent sticking.  

5. Preheat oven to 350F

6. Add the rice, lentils, spices, and broth and mix well. Set the instant pot to manual setting and pressure cook for 20 min, allow natural release.

7.In a medium sauce pan add all the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover stirring often while you separate the cabbage leaved and make the rolls.

8.Cut around core with a knife and remove leaves if stem is too thick you can shave part off with a knife. Once mixture is cooked, taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Put 3-4 tablespoons of the filling mixture on each cabbage leaf. Fold in sides, and then roll leaves to completely cover the filling.

9. Add a about a half cup of the sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 pan/casserole dish and spread to there is a thin layer you may need to use a bit more. The deeper the dish the better, fill with as many cabbage rolls as you can and pour remaining sauce over the top. Cover with Tin foil, however if the dish is on the shallow side cut a piece of parchment paper to fit over the top before covering with aluminum foil to prevent corrosion from the acidity. Bake for 40minutes, uncover, baste with sauce and bake another 10, serve.

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Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Ingredients:

7 c. Sliced Cabbage

2 Tbsp., Vegan Butter, or Vegetable Broth

3 Tbsp. Sugar

5-6 Tbsp.  Balsamic Vinegar

¼ tsp Kosher Salt-optional

1/4tsp. Black Pepper-optional

*You can double the recipe for a whole cabbage but I used the center of a once very large red cabbage to use it up.

Method:

1. Quarter and remove the cabbage core and thinly slice the cabbage.

2. In a large pot heat the butter or broth and add the cabbage, sauté until starting to wilt.

3. Add sugar and Vinegar stir to coat completely. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook 30-40 minutes, 

stirring frequently until cabbage is tender add salt and pepper to taste.

 

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Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

8oz Button Mushrooms

16oz Cut Frozen Green Beans

½ tsp. Onion Powder

½ tsp. Garlic Powder

½ tsp. Pepper

¼ tsp salt

1c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth, plus more to sauté

2 Tbsp.  Flour

Container French fried Onions, you can use as many or as little as you like.

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 350F

2.Put beans into a medium sauce pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and cook per package instructions. Ours took about 10 minutes, drain.

3.Chop mushrooms fairly fine and add to pan. Sauté until fully cooked adding broth to keep mushrooms from sticking and burning as needed, when the mushrooms have cooked down and released a good amount of liquid add the garlic and onion powder.

4. Mix 2Tbsp flour, salt, and black pepper into the 1 cup of broth. Whisk into the pan with mushrooms and stir until thick; see picture 3 in collage. Turn off the heat and stir in green beans and ¼- ½ of the French fried onions, spoon mixture into an 8x8 square baking dish and cover with remaining French fried onions.

5. Bake until golden 10-15 minutes and serve.