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Ode to Ocimum basilicum

Prepare all ingredients gently, placing in them in this order in the blender:

¼ cup olive oil
2 - 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 – 4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Grinding of fresh pepper
¼ cup roasted pine nuts
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Chop your last Green Zebra tomato of the season into small cubes.

Roast additional pine nuts (optional).

Toast Ocimum Basilicum with some Pinot Noir.

Blend until smooth.  Thin with hot noodle water if too thick.  Cook your noodles. Sprinkle the batch of cooked pasta with the bits of Green Zebra, add the Pesto, and toss.  Sprinkle with additional roasted pine nuts if you desire.

Roasted Yellow Tomato and Garlic Sauce

Fill glass baking pan with medium sized yellow tomatoes.
Use a grapefruit knife to remove the stem area

Mix pressed or minced garlic (about 1 clove for every two tomatoes), 1/3 cup fresh chopped basil and 4 tablespoons olive oil in a bowl

Fill each tomato with the garlicy mixture
Drip olive oil over each tomato
Kosher salt and fresh grind pepper generously over the entire mess

Bake in a 425 oven until tomatoes are cooked through (½ hour to 40 minutes)
Allow to cool so you can handle them

Carefully lift the tomatoes and put them into a blender/processor, pulsing until sauce consistency

I leave the water cooked out of the tomatoes for another recipe – it makes the sauce too runny
Continue to season the sauce with herbs or vegetables as desired, but basically the sauce is done.

Vegan Spaghetti Carbonara with Smart Bacon & Peas!

 

I had a babysitter that used to make spaghetti carbonara for me when I was little. I was obsessed with the stuff. I was thinking about how to veganize this dish the other day when I ran across The Urban Vegan and found her recipe. It's amazing! I couldn't believe how similar the sauce was to my memories of it from almost 20 years ago! I would definitely recommend this recipe - Thanks Urban Vegan!

I did, however, make a couple changes so that it would be just as I remembered it. I added in a sauteed onion, about a cup of peas to add some green and used Lightlife Smart Bacon because it seemed to be more like the original with the smart bacon rather than the tempeh. Also, I added a couple tablespoons of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream as everything was coming together. This added some nice extra creaminess to the sauce.

Vegan Mabo Tofu from Shimavision

A good friend of mine has a great blog called Shimavision in which he talks about food, veganism, living in Japan etc.  Recently he posted a wonderful recipe for Mabo-dofu (vegan tofu). 

You can see the recipe here.

I love all the pictures and how tasty it looks!

Posted by: The String Bean