Guest recipe: Pasta with basil cashew cream and roasted tomatoes

I asked my mum if she wanted to contribute to this blog and I was very happy to receive an email today with photos and a delicious-sounding recipe. In my opinion roasting is hands-down the most delicious way to prepare nearly any vegetable, so I'm very excited about the roasted tomatoes in this recipe.

Pretty much everything I know about cooking I owe to my mum. When my brother and I were teenagers she had us cook dinner for the family once a week. I wasn't always keen on this responsibility, but most of the time I liked having the chance to experiment in the kitchen. By the time my brother and I moved out, we were both much more prepared to feed ourselves without starting fires than the vast majority of our peers. My mum is very much experimental and spontaneous in her approach to cooking, and as a consequence so am I. No planning ahead grocery lists or carefully following recipes for us! You can be guaranteed that the measurements in this recipe were approximated post-hoc, rather than carefully measured while cooking.

Without further ado, here is the recipe. I hope to try it out in the near future, because it sounds really good!

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I bought a large tub of cherry tomatoes on sale thinking that I would make a summer inspired tomato basil salad to celebrate the May long weekend.  Unfortunately Ottawa is still cold and damp. We were craving some warm comfort food after an afternoon of garden clean up.  Pasta fit the bill.  Roasted tomatoes fit the bill. Thus was born this recipe for pasta with basil cashew cream and roasted tomatoes.

I'm sure the recipe would work perfectly well with larger tomatoes. You could cut them in half, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 40-60 minutes.  Coarsely chop the larger roasted tomatoes before placing on top of the pasta.

Before roasting

After roasting - yummmmm...

Here's hoping for warmer weather to get into summer salads!

Recipe:

4-5 cups cherry tomatoes

1 onion

4 large cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 c cashews

2 1/2 c water

1 bunch basil (about 30 large leaves)

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 cups chopped mushrooms

1 tbsp olive oil

4 cups penne or fusilli pasta

Salt and pepper to taste

Soak the cashews in 2 cups water for 1-4 hours.

Preheat oven to 375*F.  Place tomatoes on large baking sheet with a rim and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Toss the garlic cloves and quartered onion with 1 tbsp olive oil and place on a baking sheet. (You can use the same baking sheet, but will want to pick out the garlic and onion to use in cashew cream, so do not mix with the tomatoes.). Bake in oven for 30-40 min.

Drain the soaked cashews and place in food processor with 1/2 cup water, nutritional yeast, roasted onion, roasted garlic, juices that gathered on the roasting pan and fresh basil leaves.  Process until it is very smooth.  The mixture should have the consistency of table cream - add more water if too thick.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente.  While the pasta cooks, fry the chopped mushrooms in 1 tbsp olive oil over high heat.  Fry until the mushrooms have released their fluids and then dried - they will develop almost a caramelized look.  Once the mushrooms have finished  cooking then lower heat and toss with the roasted tomatoes.

Drain the pasta then return to the pasta pot and combine with the basil cashew cream.  Stir well to distribute the cream through out the pasta.  Place a serving of pasta on a plate and top with the mushroom-tomato mixture.

Enjoy!

Recipe review: Oh She Glows Thai-inspired Cucumber Salad

I'm really on an Oh She Glows kick lately! All of her recipes are so delicious. I just wanted to make a quick post to recommend her Thai-Inspired Hydrating Cucumber Salad with Roasted Spiced Chickpeas. I made it tonight ahead for a potluck party I'm going to tomorrow. I sampled some for dinner tonight, and I think it'll be a great crowd-pleaser. The only modification I made to the recipe is adding some unsweetened coconut flakes. It was a good idea and really adds something to the recipe, I found. 

Chia seed pudding

I'm a big fan of tapioca pudding. I don't know why, but I love the texture of the little gelatinous balls in sweet, milky syrup. If you like tapioca pudding then you'll love this recipe: chia seed pudding. Maybe you'll like it even if you don't like tapioca pudding! Before the recipe, a little background on chia seeds for those who are interested.

Chia seeds are little black seeds, about the size of sesame seeds. They come from the chia plant, which is belongs to the mint family. According to Wikipedia, it's been cultivated in the Americas since pre-Columbian times. In case you're wondering, these are the same type of chia seeds as are used to grow the "hair" of Chia Pets.

Chia seeds are very good for you, so I'm told. They've got lots of fibre, omega-3s, calcium, magnesium, and protein. There's evidence that it has a stabilizing effect on blood sugar, which is especially good for people who have diabetes.

Ok, now the recipe. It's really straight-forward. My mum and her partner introduced me to chia seed pudding, and they heard about it from Oh She Glows. All you need for a basic chia seed pudding is a ratio of 3 tbs chia seeds to 1 cup of milk. The milk can be of any kind -- dairy, coconut, soy, almond. Then you can add whatever sweeteners or flavouring you like. It goes in the fridge overnight and then can be enjoyed the next day plain, with fruit, on cereal, or however you see fit. The seeds thicken the milk into a gel over night, reminiscent of tapioca pudding, only with a bit of a crunch.

There aren't exactly a lot of ingredients in this recipe.

In go the chia seeds, and already it's almost done.

I'm a big fan of maple syrup, so I didn't skimp.

And breakfast is ready! :)

Recipe: Chia seed pudding
Serves 2

-1 cup milk (any kind)
-3 tbs chia seeds
-1 tbs liquid sweetener (maple, agave, honey), or to taste
-other flavourings, as desired: ex, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa, raisins

1. Mix ingredients together in a container.

2. Cover the container and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

3. Eat the pudding as is, on cereal, on fruit salad, or however is desired.

And that's it! Enjoy!


Want to learn more about chia seeds?
-Some suggestions of how to use chia seeds 
-A show-down of flax seeds and chia seeds
-The health benefits of chia seeds 

Video: How to sprout

For your edu-tainment, here's a video I made a couple years ago about sprouting. It's a brief instructional video about how to do your own sprouting. I made it as part of an assignment for a sociology course I was taking. I don't really remember how it relates at all to sociology, but I do remember it was fun to do. I was in the middle of a sprouting craze at that time. I haven't sprouted in a while, but I've been thinking I should get back into it. It's very easy, cheap, and required no special equipment. And the sprouts taste delicious! I love sprouts in sandwiches, on veggie burgers, or in salad. Sprouting lentils and other legumes can be a good way to make them more digestible for those of you who like beans but don't like the side-effects!

Creamy mushroom-Guinness ragout

This is the kind of recipe where when I taste it I think to myself in my humble way, "Gee, Shaun. You might just be a genius." The flavour is rich and complex and it's a stick-to-your-bones sort of meal. I highly recommend you try it. It's the best thing I've made in a while!

I served mine over some pan-fried store-bought polenta. If you're more ambitious than I am you could make your own polenta . It could also be good over pasta, or with bread or potatoes on the side.

Depending if you're vegetarian or how strict a vegetarian you are, you might not want to use Guinness. Or maybe you might just prefer another type of beer. I'm sure another type of dark beer would work just as well as Guinness in this recipe. I personally don't even like Guinness that much, but I had some left over from making Chocolate Covered Katie's Double Chocolate Guinness Brownies. The brownies, incidentally, are delicious and I highly recommend them. They're very moist and rich. I think this ragout would be good, but would also have quite a different flavour, if you used red or white wine in place of the beer.

Chop that garlic!

The onions sauteing with the dried herbs.

The mushroom-onion-beer mixture is simmering happily.

It tastes as deliciously creamy as it looks!

Recipe: Creamy mushroom-Guinness ragout
Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients:
-2 cups chopped white mushrooms
-1 chopped large yellow onion
-1 cup of firm tofu, cut into 1 cm cubes
-1/2 cup raw cashews soaked overnight in 1/2 cup water
-3 minced garlic cloves
-1 tbs soy sauce
-3 tbs olive oil
-1 cup Guinness beer (or other dark beer)
-1 tbs cornstarch
-1 tsp dried sage
-1 tsp dried rosemary
-salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a large pan. Once it is hot add the onion. Add the sage and rosemary. Saute the onion until it is translucent  (5-10 minutes).

2. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and soy sauce to the pan. Allow the mushrooms to cook until they are soft and tender (5-10 min).

3. Add the Guinness beer and 1 cup of water.

4. Allow the Guinness and mushroom mixture to reduce while heating the remaining 1 tbs of olive oil in another pan. Fry the tofu cubes in the oil until they are lightly browned (10 min).

5. Add the browned tofu into the Guinness and mushroom mixture and stir together.

6. Blend together the soaked cashews with their soaking water, using a high-speed blender or immersion blender, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. This is the "cashew cream". Mix the cream into the ragout.

7. Remove about 1/2 cup of the liquid of the ragout and place in a bowl. Add the cornstarch to the liquid and mix thoroughly. Add the cornstarch mixture back into the ragout and stir thoroughly and immediately. This will thicken the liquid of the ragout.

8. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Enjoy!

I literally licked my plate clean because I'm a disgusting human being.

Link: The Sexual Politics of Veganism

I wanted to share an interesting link about the sexual politics of veganism. It discusses how veganism is gendered because it is a movement largely composed of women, and it is devalued through it's feminization. Veganism is marketed to women as a way of obtaining or maintaining sexual appeal to men rather than being a political act. On the flip side, in order to market veganism to men it must be re-masculinized. I suppose that it's not surprising that the lines between sex and food politics are so blurred, considering that in this sexist and consumerist world in which we live, both sex and food are about consumption.

Variations in Mint, Part 2: Mint iced-tea

Nothing says summer like iced-tea! Even though it isn't summer yet, it almost felt like it today. This mint iced-tea is a perfect accompaniment to the warm weather. The measurement sizes are quite vague and open to a lot of flexibility. I think it could be good with some slices of ginger thrown in, but I haven't given it a try.

Refreshing!

Recipe: Mint iced-tea
Makes 1.5 liters

Ingredients:

-A good-sized bundle of fresh mint
-Two tea bags or a tea pot's worth of loose leaf in a tea ball (plain green or black tea)
-1/4 cup of sugar, or to taste (1/4 cup will give just a hint of sweetness)
-2 limes

1. Boil 1.5 litres of water

2. Squeeze the lime juice into a pot or non-plastic jug. Add the squeezed limes into the pot/jug. Add all other ingredients into the pot/jug as well. Clean the mint thoroughly, but there's no need to pull the mint leaves off of the stems. Just throw in the whole mint stems with their leaves.

3. Once the water has boiled, poor the water into the pot/jug with the other ingredients.

4. Allow to steep for about 3-5 minutes, then remove the tea bags or loose leaf.

5. Allow the tea to continue to cool and then place it in the fridge. If you made the ice-tea in a pot, transfer it into a jug along with the mint and limes. They will continue to steep in the fridge. Once the tea has become cold, enjoy with ice!