I tried a new vegan meat substitute today. Ok, don't get grossed out. It's called Nutmeat. I first heard about it a while back when a friend told me to try it but just the idea of nuts being made into a meaty textured food product kinda put me off. That was before I started trying all sorts of weirdo foods and flavour combinations.
A good friend of mine ordered spaghetti bolognese the other day when we went out to dinner, so I had a bit of a craving for it. I've tried plenty of recipes for bolognese sauce. I've used just tomato sauce and blended up vegetables, I've made a cauliflower recipe and I've used tofu as well. All of them have been yum, but this nutmeat recipe has been the best so far. It's much more 'meatier' and because I like my bolognese sauce thick, this recipe is a winner.
This is the recipe I used which I adapted from a vegan recipe website:
Vegan Nutmeat spaghetti bolognese:
Ingredients:
- 1 Can Nutmeat
- 1 large tin Tomatoes
- 1 jar Pasta Sauce
- 2 Medium Onions (chopped finely)
- 2 cloves Garlic (crushed) - I used 4 because I really love garlic
- 2 Tbspn tomato paste
- 2 Small Carrots (finely chopped)
- 2 cups Broccoli (finely chopped)
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Pasta for serving
- Olive Oil for cooking
Directions:
- Cook onion & garlic in pan with oil until tender.
- Chop the nutmeat finely and add this to the onions and garlic along with the tomatoes, pasta
sauce and tomato paste and stir together then cook for 5 mins on medium
heat.
- Add finely chopped vegetables and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until cooked through.
- Add seasonings (salt & pepper) to taste.
- Serve wtih Spaghetti Pasta
This was another vegan meal that my brother liked. My brother will do anything to avoid fruits and vegetables and so it says aaaaah lot when he likes my vegan recipes. A whole lot.
I love trying new vegan recipes, and I love hanging out with friends. Today I killed two birds with one stone. My friend loves lasagna, but he doesn't cook. So we decided that I would teach him. He's not vegan but agreed to cook a vegan lasagna recipe with me. I got the recipe from the show Good Chef Bad Chef website which you can find here.
It was really fun making this because it's something I've never done before. I've neither cooked a lasagna from scratch or cooked a vegan dish with a friend. We made the mistake of cooking this around lunch time before actually eating anything. It took a whopping 4 hours to make this lasagna (this includes the time taken to go to the nearby Woolworths and buy the ingredients). By the time it was cooked and ready to eat, we were dying of starvation. My friend has never eaten homemade vegan food before and we joked that even if it tasted terrible, we were too hungry to even care. Luckily though, it tasted pretty good. I love when vegan food gets approval from non-vegans :)
I really appreciate my friend taking the time out to do something I'm passionate about. However, the poor guy wasn't used to eating so healthy and had a stomach ache later on in the day. I really should have just ended my post by saying all was well and that it was another win for the vegan community, but alas, I think my friend will stick to his KFC and Maccas.
