Lemon Cream Sauce Pasta Topped with Basil and Roma Tomatoes

This hot summer night called for something with a zip and fresh flavors! I whipped this easy, filling dinner up in just under 30 minutes. The lemony sauce wasn’t overwhelming, but even with the juice and zest of 2 lemons, it could have used more! Maybe I just had wimpy lemons? The newly cut basil and fresh romas mixed nicely with the sauce. I just wish I had had a chilled glass of chardonnay to go with it (and perhaps in the sauce? intriguing…) The recipe definitely has room for tweaking and I look forward to coming up with new ways to improve it!

The cream sauce is just a basic white sauce (bechamel) made from a roux. I really enjoy how the white sauce can pretty much be turned into whatever you fell like creating! It’s very flexible and simple to make, as long as you don’t mind standing over a hot stove for a little while. Want a step-by-step breakdown of making a roux, bechamel or mornay sauce? Read this very informative article!

all it needed was a glass of wine...

(Vegan) Lemon Cream Sauce Pasta Topped with Basil and Roma Tomatoes

Start by getting some water boiling for your noodles! You can pretty much whip up the sauce while the water boils and noodles cook.  I used about 1/3 box of whole wheat Rotini noodles. Just pour the sauce over the noodles, cut some fresh basil, chop some tomatoes and you’ve got a meal!

Lemon Cream Sauce

• 2 tbsp Earth Balance
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• a couple dashes of salt & pepper
• 1 cup original almond milk (or whatever milk you prefer–not sure how the acidity of the lemons will react to them though!)
• Zest & juice from 2 lemons

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the Earth Balance and add the garlic powder, salt and pepper. With a whisk, incorporate the flour and cook for a couple minutes until slightly brown and bubbly. This is a roux! Over medium heat, add a small amount of the almond milk and whisk until mixed and beginning to thicken. Continue stirring and adding the rest of the milk slowly. Sauce should be nice and thick now! If not, there’s always cornstarch 😉 Remove from heat.

With a microplane grater, zest the lemon straight into the sauce. Add lemon juice and stir! This freaked me out, but I noticed that my sauce started getting all bubbly and crazy looking (pretty sure it was the lemon juice reacting with the almond milk). I was worried things might start heading south and curdle, but all settled down and continued being smooth. Success.

Notes:

• I might try to somehow make this more lemon-y! Perhaps adding the lemon directly into the melted better? Drizzle more lemon juice over the finished dish? Hmm.
• Some toasted sliced almonds over the top of this adds a nice crunch!
• For a green, more basil-centric sauce, whiz the sauce and a handful of basil in the blender
• Instead of basil, try this with fresh thyme

TGIF! 🙂

Leftover Surprise

It’s always fun to take whatever you have in the fridge, throw it in a blender and hope for the best. Quite the adventure! I had some leftover mashed potatoes from the pierogies last night and a crap load of vegetables just on the brink of the point of no return. Since I have yet to get a food processor (definitely would have made this a bit easier), I used our trusty, ridiculously powerful VitaMix to create a mash of vegetables: broccoli, red bell pepper & zucchini. I came up with a sort of hybrid vegetable fritter/potato pancake thing. Super easy and quick to make using any vegetables sitting around in the fridge. I don’t have any sort of real measurements, mostly just winging it!

These were great complemented with some ketchup and hot sauce! And a side of iced chai tea... 🙂

Potato/Vegetable Fritter Pancake (Pancatter? Fritcake?)

• Leftover mashed potatoes (These had chives, garlic powder, almond milk and some Earth balance buttah)
• A variety of hearty vegetables (In this case, I had zucchini, broccoli and red bell peppers)
• Garlic!
• A tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Salt/pepper to taste

Place all the vegetables (except the potatoes) in your food processor or blender. Blend until you get desired consistency (if ya like chunks, go for it). This should be kind of a thick paste.

Dump vegetable paste in with the mashed potatoes and mix until it becomes an even thicker paste! How exciting. Add any more spices you like to the mix. Next, add the flour and baking powder. Mix with your hands (more fun) until you are able to make them into patties that don’t completely fall apart on you. They shouldn’t be super sticky, but somewhat moist. If too wet and falling apart, slowly work more flour in until they stick.

Have a skillet ready on medium heat sprayed lightly with canola oil. Form the fritterthings into balls then flatten in your hands. They turn out with a nicer consistency the thinner you make them! Let cook in pan for a few minutes each side or until they are brown and smelling amazing. EAT.

Notes:

• Mine held together pretty well, but if you find yours falling apart too much, Vegetarians can add an egg to the mix and Vegans can use water + flax seed blended together to bind the mix a little better.
• Shredded carrots would add a bit of sweetness and great color
• Might be interesting grilled…
• Used minced garlic instead of powdered
• Onions would give a flavor boost
• Try adding some jalapenos and cheddar cheese! Mmm spicy!
• Cholula (hot sauce), ketchup, and sour cream pair well with these

Hearty, easy breakfast, my favorite. Looks like it’s going to be another hot one today. Hopefully the air conditioning at the library won’t be on the fritz again! It was 84 in there yesterday! I’m surprised the books didn’t melt.

To the library I go!

Avocado Sushi Makes Everything Better

One of my favorite things to make when I have an abundance of avocados!

Yum! I had two very ripe avocados sitting on my counter just waiting to be turned into something delish! Rolling sushi takes some practice, but it’s definitely worth it. It’s crazy how expensive simple rolls like avocado or veggie can be at some sushi bars! This is cheap. and tasty. Great lunch!

I have to mentally prepare myself for work on Mondays. It’s always crazy at the library after the weekend! The children seem to be especially insane since they don’t have access to our computers/internet for the ENTIRE weekend (OH THE HORROR!) Mondays also mean that I’m ready to check out more cookbooks. I have a complete library of my own, made up of library books. I have a problem with checking things out and not returning them! Good thing I tend to check out unpopular books so I can renew and hoard them for a long long time (one of the perks of being a staff member!)

I hope the garden is ok, I completely forgot to water it yesterday! Can’t wait for the little jalapenos to be ready to become SALSA!