Umbricelli with simple tomato sauce

Bad blogging week this week, but I’m blaming life. It has this annoying tendency of getting in the way of things. Anyhow, to compensate, the recipe I have for you is a real treat! Umbricelli with simple tomato sauce! Not bad, huh? You might be asking yourself what umbricelli is, so let me tell you. It is the easiest way to make homemade pasta that I’ve ever tried! It’s so easy I even had time to make it on a work night, after getting home late. The reason it’s so simple is both because the dough is so easy to make and only has to rest for ten minutes but also because you don’t have to roll it into thin sheets. You simply take a walnut-sized piece of dough and roll it into a thick spaghetti shape. Easy!

I learned how to make this revolutionary pasta both from the food show “I’ll have what Phil’s having”, which is kind of silly, but also from the most wonderful website I’ve found! Pastagrannies.com! Isn’t it great? They have videos of Italian grandmamas making all kinds of pasta. To good to be true!

Enough for two lucky souls

The pasta dough

70 g whole-wheat flour

80 g all-purpose flour

80 g water

½ tsp. salt

The simple tomato sauce

½ onion

1 clove of garlic

1-2 tbsp. olive oil

1 spring of rosemary

400 g whole canned tomatoes

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. fresh parsley

Black pepper

Start by making the dough for the umbricelli. Simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl, then roll up your sleeves and knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. This is a bit of work, but it’s worth it. Once the dough is nice and smooth, leave it to rest for 10 minutes, covered.

Meanwhile, start the tomato sauce. Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic. Heat a pan to medium heat and add a lug of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic and the leaves from the rosemary. Sauté until soft, for about 5 minutes, and then add the remaining ingredients. Cover with a lid and let simmer until the pasta is done.

The pasta dough should be done resting by now. Start heating a big pot of salted water on the stove. Pinch of a walnut-sized piece of dough, keeping the rest covered. Roll it out to a thick spaghetti-like noodle, moving your hands from the middle of the strand and out when rolling. Make the surface you’re rolling on is free from flour to get the necessary friction. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough.

Cook the noodles in the water for about 2-3 minutes. You want them tender but not soggy when they’re done.

Serve either mixed with the sauce or with the sauce on top. Enjoy!

Green, greener, greenest - Avocado Pesto

You rarely meet someone that doesn’t like pesto. I don’t think I ever have. The Italians invented something amazing when they decided to simply mix basil and garlic. So simple, and yet so heavenly. Another thing that is deceivingly simple, delicious and also contains garlic (Coincidence? I don’t think so) is guacamole. From the other side of the globe comes this wondrous mash of creamy avocado and garlic that almost everyone enjoys. There are exceptions, but let’s consider them oddities, random errors in the statistics. So what would happen if you mix the two? As you well know, 1 + 1 can equal 3, which definitely goes for this dish.

This avocado-basil pesto is creamy, flavorful and super easy to make. Close to all the ingredients are green, avocado, basil and kale. You can use spinach is the place of kale if you have that at hand. Put it all in a mixer with a lot of garlic and lemon and tadaa! An exceptional pasta sauce! You can add any other green vegetables (or other color) to the pasta and sauce, such as broccoli, asparagus, peas or maybe more kale. It’s up to you! The recipe includes green soybeans (edamame) just because I love them and they look great and boost the protein content. Feel free to mix it up!

Enough for about 3

For the pesto

1 avocado

30 g basil, stalks and all

30 g kale, coarse stalks removed

2 tbsp. lemon juice

Zest from 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

4 tbsp. reserved pasta water

For the rest of the dish

300 g pasta

3 dl frozen green soybeans, frozen

3 tbsp. sunflower seeds

3 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

Heat a dry pan to medium heat and roast the seeds until they start getting golden.

Start heating the water for the pasta. Once it’s boiling, add the pasta. At the end of the cooking time, when about 3 minutes remain, add the beans.

Mix all the ingredients for the pesto except for the water, using a blender. Mix until smooth.

Once the pasta and beans are done, drain and reserve the water. Add water to the pesto, about 1 tbsp. at a time until desired thickness. It took me 4 tbsp.

Mix the pasta and beans with the pesto and half of the roasted seeds. Sprinkle the rest over the pasta before serving! Yum!

The last night of The Vegan Challenge...

Wooah... Four weeks as vegans. It feels like time has just flown past. Does time go faster without meat? Tonights the last night that we're officially vegans. But I must say, I'm not in the mood for meat. At all. I opened the fridge to take out something to have on my sandwich tomorrow. I saw the cheese and thought like "njee, I'll go for the tofu spread instead". The tofu spread! I don't even really like tofu spread. I really don't see any point in going meaty again.

If you wonder why we've been so bad about posting stuff here this weekend it's because Agnes has been in London (as you know), and I've been out hiking in the forrest. I spent the weekend in a small cottage with loads of crazy scouts and couldn't have enjoyed it more. They eyed my breakfast a bit though, and a wild discussion about oat milk broke out. I love oat milk, but one of them pulled the argument: "we're not horses" (a typical Vernon Dursley). Come on, does that mean he doesn't eat chocolate balls either? Or crumble pie? Seriously his son was sitting there eating oatmeal. People can be a bit conservative.

Anyway, when I got home today, it was late and I was tired, cold and a bit worn out after a day of hard core studying (even though the vegan cookies helped), my wonderful mom had fixed my a delicious vegan dinner! She'd made lasagna with fried broccoli, pine nuts and olives (Yum!). It was a real celebration, the nice plates and the works. She'd even bought some tofu ice cream (that I turned out to be slightly allergic to, but ate anyway!) which tasted great with some fruit salad. Fruit salad is really handy, super simple and you can make some extra for breakfast the next day. Couldn't be better. Just cut up the fruit, drizzle over some agave syrup and lemon, a dash of coconut and sesame seeds, raisins and a dust of cinnamon. Perfect! So tip of the day, find a great mom who'll fix you vegan dinners. Just kidding. The recipes will be up soon, but until then you can drool over the pictures!

All for now babycakes, enjoy this last post of what is known as the Vegan Era!
Hanna

What should have been lasagna

My plan was making some great lasagna tonight. I bought the appropriate vegetables (which was quite an adventure considering I had almost no money and had just a couple of minutes to shop before the bus) and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. Then I get home and what do I find in the cupboard? No lasagna pasta anyway! So there went my planing, but I ended up with this instead. Pasta with tomato lentil sauce and crispy celeriac. Which wasn't completely wrong either. While the sauce was cooking I even had time to make the annual christmas trip to IKEA. I must confess I love being at IKEA, but there should seriously be like a celibacy club for IKEA shoppers. You always pick up way too much. Anyway, after that little sidetrack, here's the recipe!

For about 3 people:
Sauce:
1 red onion
1 large clove of garlic
175 g carrots
1 package of crushed tomatoes (400 g)
2 dl water
1 dl red lentils
1 tsp. sambal oelek (more or less, depending on what you like)
1/2 tbsp. chinese soy
2 tbsp. syrup
1/2 cube of vegetable bouillon
1/2 tbsp. basil
1/2 tbsp. majoram
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

400 g celeriac
Italian herb mix
Pepper
Salt
Oil
Lemon juice
300 g pasta

Chop the onion and garlic. Fry gently in oil until soft. Grate the carrots finely. Add all the ingredients for the sauce, bring to a boil and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better, or until the lentils are soft. I let mine cook gently like forever, and that works too, just make sure to stir it now and then.
Slice the celeriac into super thin pieces. Place in an ovenproof dish drizzle over some olive oil and lemon juice and season with salt, pepper and italian spices. Toss it all up a bit and roast in the oven at 225 degrees, until golden. It should take about 15-20 minutes.
Boil water for the pasta. Cook you pasta, and while you're waiting make a final check on the seasoning of the sauce.
When it's all done; the pasta's al dente, the celeriac is crispy and the sauce good, serve and enjoy!

Yummy picnic dinner

Last night I was invited to a picnic and grill. I know it's November and pretty cold outside, but it was really nice. But obviously their version of a barbecue (loads and loads of meat) wasn't really that vegan. So a made dinner to take with me. My plan was cannelloni, but when I got home I realized we didn't have any suitable pasta. So the improvising began. This is what I ended up with (sadly I had to stuff it in a plastic container, but that wouldn't have looked as nice in a picture):

For 1 person:
1/2 zucchini
1/2 clove of garlic
Oil
6 olives (or more if you want)
2 sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
1/4 dl roasted sunflower seeds
1/3 dl cooking cream (iMat)
1/4 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. dries basil
100 g fusili or some other fun kind of pasta.
A couple of drops of lemon juice
4 mushrooms
A small bouquet of broccoli
1 tsp. tamari soy (or some other light japanese soy sauce)
Herb salt
Pepper

Roast the zucchini and 1/2 clove of garlic with some oil, herb salt and pepper in 225 degrees until it's soft. Chop up the olives (take out the pits) and the sun-dried tomatoes. Heat water for the pasta. Slice the onion and second clove of garlic in small pieces. Fry in oil until slightly golden. When the zucchini is done, mix it with a hand blender together with the cream, sunflower seeds, sage and basil. Add a couple of drops of lemon juice. Quarter the mushrooms and slice the broccoli into smaller pieces. Start cooking the pasta. Heat a frying pan with oil until very hot. Add the mushrooms and broccoli with some salt and pepper (not too much salt!) until golden. Make sure to stir it, or even better just shake the pan, a lot. Take the pan of the heat and pour the soy over the veggies.
Mix the veggies, the onion, the sauce and the pasta and top off with the olive and sun-dried tomato. Enjoy!

Cannelloni gratain

This meal was nice but not my favourite soo far! It makes one big dinner for me tonight, and enough for lunch tomorrow.

Recipie:
Cook 100g caneloni-pasta until al dente.
Roast 1/3 of zucchini and a half red onion with some salt, pepper and olive oil in a 200-degree oven for 15 minutes.
Mix the zucchini together with some vegan cream until a good consistency. Taste!
Mix a handfull of baby spinach, a few leaves of parsley, 1 clove of garlic, sunflower seed/pine nuts/pumpkin seeds, olive oil, salt, pepper and possibly some basil. Add more olive oil untill the right pesto-consistency is achived.
Place one layer of pasta in an ovenproof dish. Spread some spinach pesto on the pasta. Then place some zucchini crème on the pesto. Add another layer of pasta, pesto and zucchini and the last pasta. Place a few dollops of crème and pesto on top and sprinkle some pine nuts over it.
Place in a 200-degree oven to warm and brown.

Below are some pictures of my food this past few days:

This wook is the same as Hanna did thursday. The differences are that I used other noodles and I skipped the touffu. I liked it alot!



This morning I tryed oat-ghurt vanilla. It was okey but I do prefer the blueberry soyghurt by "carlshamn"!

I made a spicy applecake this afternoon that me and my family are going to try soon, hopefully it's good and I will post picture and recipie soon! - agnes

A Friday tradition

In my family we have a tradition on friday nights. We always eat spaghetti with meat sauce. But this week, obviously, I had to compromise that tradition. Instead I made a great lentil bolognese, which I must say provided almost the same Friday feeling as meat sauce! Super good way to make bolognese if I may say so myself!


For 2 in the mood for Italian food (even though the italian mamas probably would never call this bolognese)
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
Oil
1 grated carrot
2 diced tomatoes
1/2 dl red lentils
1 dl water
1/2 cube vegetable bouillon
1 msk mango chutney
1/2 dl crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 small bunch basil, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. mushroom soy
2-3 tbsp. red wine
Salt and pepper

Fried mushrooms (optional):
Oil
Mushrooms
Herb salt
Pepper

On the side:
Spaghetti
Baguette or some other good bread
Possibly some zucchini crème for the bread
Arugula

Start by frying the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the other ingredients for the bolognese and let simmer on low heat until the lentils are soft, around 30 minutes. Season with some salt and pepper if needed.
While the bolognese is cooking start heating the water for the pasta and turn the oven on 200 degrees (if your having bread and want it warm). Heat a pan with oil until very hot. Add the mushrooms and let fry quickly until beautifully browned. Season with some herb salt and pepper. Remove from heat. When the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Add the same time, pop the baguette in the oven for a couple of minutes.
Serve the bolognese with the spaghetti and mushrooms and top with arugula.
Enjoy! // Hanna

Spagetti bologneise

This was very nice, made it for my brother and me and we ate untill we both were full!
Half an onion
One clove of garlic
Oil
Fry in a pan until the onion is soft and galncy
Half jar of cruched tomatoes
0.75 dl red lentils
Add and allow to start boiling
Thickening: 1.5 dl oatmilk
1.5 tablespoons flour
Mix these in a glas and stir throughaly! I realized when I added that there was still some flour climps left, I managed to solve it but it was not to prefer! Then I added a little soy-cream and allowed to boil until the lentils were soft but still al-dente. (Around 30 min I think)
In the end, add some mushroom-soy and salt, white pepper and herbs after taste!
I decided that I wanted some tomato purée, then I let it boil for a few more minutes.
Boil spagetti for two, (we eat alot so I took 200 g) in plenty of water with vegetable boullion instead of salt.
Serve with some finger-salt on top instead of parmesan-cheese.
Voila! //Agnes