Vegan Squash Mac 'n Cheese with Spinach

Oh man, this was delicious and not too difficult, just required a bit of planning. This takes a bit longer than my normal meals but was a nice, relaxing process. Very rich and flavorful - a complete meal. 

For 4 servings, you will need:

• 1 c raw cashew pieces, soaked in a bowl of water at least 3 hours (this is what takes the planning)
• 1 carnival squash
• 1 t garlic powder
• 12 oz bag of pasta - I used veggie radiatore
• 1.5 c plain almond (or soy) milk
• 3 t apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 c nutritional yeast
• salt & pepper
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 c fresh spinach, chopped
• 2 T coconut oil
• paprika
• some vegan parmesan, optional

The steps:

1. Measure out raw cashew pieces into a medium bowl and completely submerg in water. Let soak for at least 3 hours. This will soften the nuts so that you'll get a smoother sauce.
2. About an hour before you plan on eating, preheat the oven to 350
3. Slice squash in half and remove seeds. Sprinkle garlic powder and salt on the squash.
4. Place squash sliced side up in a casserole dish with a bit of water in the bottom (about 1/2''). Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until fork tender.
5. Remove squash from oven. While squash are cooling, start pasta cooking according to directions on the bag/box. Aim for al dente.
6. While pasta is cooking, measure out cashews, 1 c of almond milk, vinegar, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and garlic cloves and place in food processor. When the squash is cool enough to touch, scoop out the insides and place it in the food processor.
7. Now, really process that sauce very well until it is very smooth. I did it in about 4, 3 minute bursts. Scrape down the sides with a spatula as needed. Taste and add salt if needed. Add more almond milk to get it smoother about halfway through the blending process.
8. Once pasta is done cooking, drain.
9. Heat coconut oil in a skillet and quickly saute spinach for about 3 minutes, until just wilted and bright green.
10. Return the drained pasta to its pot, add cheese sauce and spinach, and gently fold in.
11. Serve into bowls and sprinkle with vegan parmesan and paprika.

Enjoy!

Roasted Veggie Caprese Salads

These are the Caprese salads I made for wine night guests using the roasted veggies and candied tomatoes I made several days ago.  They are delicious appetizers that are a little bit fancy.  Goes well with a glass of Pinot Noir (in my non-trained opinion).

You'll need:

• roasted eggplant
• roasted yellow squash
• fresh mozzarella (the soft kind that comes in a ball)
• fresh basil
• candied tomatoes
• olive oil leftover from roasting veggies/tomatoes
• balsamic or red wine vinegar
• Italian seasoning
• kosher salt

The steps

• Assemble the salads in this order, from bottom up: roasted veggie, one or two leaves of basil, mozzarella, tomato.
• Using the leftover olive oil, add vinegar, Italian seasoning, and kosher salt until it tastes like a good salad dressing.  Go heavy on the vinegar.
• Drizzle this dressing over the top & serve

You can also assemble these salads over slices of fresh tomatoes and not use roasted veggies or candied tomatoes.  I still have roasted veggies, mozzarella, dressing, and basil left.  I plan to make a creamy pasta sauce using those leftovers.  More on that in a few days when I have more time to cook.

Roasted Summer Veggies

Several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, yellow squash.  And that weird little greenish white thing to the left of the squash is actually a cucumber.  Who knew?  Didn't roast that.

I heard about making candied tomatoes in the oven while listening to "Splendid Table" this morning, so I decided to try it.  While at it, I thought I'd roast some veggies.  I plan to use these veggies as a base on which to place little Caprese salads for Thursday night wine night.  The tomatoes may contribute to those caprese salads or may just be a snack or will go well over pasta.

You'll need:

• Veggies!  
• For candied tomatoes, get really juicy tomatoes, not Romas.  Heirlooms, as always, are best, but you can find some really juicy hybrid varieties.  I'd say the smaller the better, as those tend to be juicier.
• For veggies, the best types for roasting are eggplant (and I prefer the light purple variety you see in my photo.  I've found the long, skinny, light purple eggplant are about 10 times as flavorful as the typical large round, dark purple ones), yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, red onions.
• a cup or so of olive oil.  You'll need enough to cover the veggies and sit beneath them in the pan while roasting
• a few pinches of kosher or sea salt
• Italian seasoning
• a couple tablespoons red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

The steps:

• Preheat oven to 400degrees
• Wash and core your tomatoes, but don't seed.  Small ones may be chopped in half, slightly bigger ones in quarters, and so on.  You want to have about 1 inch segments.
• Wash and sliced your other veggies.  Since I wanted flat veggies for little caprese salads (also good for sandwiches), I cut them thin.  For the squash, I cut the ends off then made slices on the bias.  For the eggplant, I cut the stem off, sat it upright resting on the cut part, and sliced large, flat slices vertically.  Peppers were cut into strips, too small and they'll burn.
• Place all of your veggies into a deepish metal pan.  I used a large casserole.  Tomatoes should be placed skin side down and other veggies laid out flat.
• Coat with olive oil.
• take a few pinches of salt and sprinkle over the top
• The tomatoes need nothing more, but you should generously sprinkle the other veggies in Italian seasoning and vinegar.  (A shortcut to this is to coat the veggies in Italian dressing)
• Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.  Remove all veggies but tomatoes.
• Roast tomatoes for 10 more minutes at 400 degrees.
• Reduce heat to 350 and roast tomatoes for another 30 minutes.
• Reduce heat to 300 and roast for another 30 minutes.  If, after this go round, the tomatoes aren't starting to darken, reduce the heat again to 250 and roast for another 30 minutes.

Store veggies in containers on their own.  Store tomatoes in containers with the oil they roasted in.  Can be frozen.

When serving, use the veggies as you'd like.  For the tomatoes, drain off the oil then serve.  Keep the oil from this roasting, which will be a great addition to marinades, soups, and sauces.

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