When I wrote about easy meals for vegans yesterday I spoke about how much we love comfort food and transitioning to veganism can be made easy by taking your mom’s favourite recipes and veganizing them. I’ve already shown you how with making vegan meatballs with spaghetti.
Italian food is ubiquitous to many of us whether or not we are Italian. Italians have in fact giving humanity a great gift with their food.
But we’ve taken it and polluted it to a large degree with large amounts of animal products. But as I shared with the above example with the vegan meatballs, it is easy to modify Italian recipes to make them vegan. I have also shared my best vegan pizza recipe as well as how to make vegan lasagna without tofu of even with tofu if you prefer.
But I got some more requests for more easy vegan Italian recipes so I’ve decided to give you a couple more of my favs.
Roasted walnut & herb vegan pesto pasta with mushrooms
Dont’ fear, this recipes despite its long and illustrious name is super easy. I’m always about the easy but tasty vegan recipes. Not all of us can be or want to be super vegan chefs.
Remember that 4 ounces of dry pasta roughly equals a generous 2 cup cooked portion.
16 ounces Linguine – this recipe will make enough for about 8 cups or 4 servings 🙂
1 cup chopped, roasted walnuts (the walnuts you buy in the store are usually roasted)
0.5 cup vegan parmesan or Daiya mozzarella cheese
4 to 6 garlic cloves depending on your taste
0.5 cup or so of canola oil (for a lower fat version use plan soy milk)
1 tbsp oil
2 cups of porcini or other mushrooms of your choice
0.25 cup each of fresh parsley, basil and mint
Mrs. Dash
salt and pepper to taste
Pulse the walnuts, vegan cheese, garlic, canola oil, parsley, basil, mint, salt and pepper in a food processor until well blended. Remember you can use soy milk if you prefer a lower fat version. In fact, I usually do half oil and half soy milk for a creamier pesto sauce.
While the pasta is cooking fry up the mushrooms in the olive oil for a few minutes over medium heat. Sprinkle with Mrs. Dash for great flavour. When the mushrooms are cooked add in the vegan pesto sauce you just made that’s in the food processor and heat over a low-medium heat. Around number 3 on a 10 numbered dial.
You don’t wan’t to cook the pesto sauce, you’re just warming it up. Serve over the linguine and bon appetit.
Yummy n’ tangy artichoke pasta salad
All the vegan Italian recipes I’ve shared with you so far have been for hot food. But what about a nice chilled Italian vegan salad. Here you go!
This recipe makes about 2 servings if you want it as a main course or about 6 servings if you’re using it as a side pasta salad at a main meal.
1 cup dry macaroni or fusilli – coloured looks nice
1 jar (6 to 8 ounces) or marinated artichoke hearts quartered
2 cups cremini mushrooms chopped – go on, try them, you’ll like them
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
0.5 cup to 1 cup chopped and pitted olives of your choice (optional if you like olives)
0.5 tsp of basil and oregano dry
salt and pepper to taste
Cook Mack the knife – okay, I mean the Macaroni – as you usually would. Then drain it and rinse it and drain it again and put in a bowl large enough to hold the rest of the ingredients.
Rinsing pasta is usually done when using the pasta in a salad as it helps keep it from sticking.
Toss in all of the rest of the ingredients, including the marinated liquid from the artichokes into the pasta and toss liberally.
This pasta is served best when chilled in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight. Season with salt and pepper upon serving individually.