Miraculous Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

I'm spending the week in Calgary with my sister and love-of-my-life nephew, Matthew—and both have major milk allergies. We were looking for something quick and easy to make one night, and Jennie pulled out this recipe.

Now, mac 'n' cheese is probably tops on my most-favourite comfort foods list (see deluxe mac 'n cheese recipe, below), so I was a little doubtful about my sister's vegan take on things. But if you've got cheese-loathing people in your mix, this is a seriously great (and easy!) recipe—totally cheesy deliciousness, sans fromage. My mom's got a gluten allergy, so we used rice pasta here - and still just as delicious.


Miraculous Vegan Macaroni and Cheese recipe
Adapted from RecipeZaar

1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
1 cup water
1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
1 1/2 cups nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
3 ounces firm tofu
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 lbs macaroni noodles
2 teaspoons mustard (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.

Toss all of the ingredients (sans pasta) in a blender (liquid and powdered) and blend until smooth.

Once pasta is cooked, drain and put it in the baking pan pour the cheese sauce over the pasta.

Bake at 350°F until the top of the pasta looks slightly browned and crispy—about 15 minutes.

Baked Rigatoni with Broccoli and Gorgonzola

I’ve known my dear friends Shelley and Christina for over 20 years—from back in high school when Shelley wore her signature fringed suede jacket, and Christina and I shared a grade-10 love of Sarah McLachlan (and sadly, copped much of her style then too.) Christina’s now the bass player in a Weakerthans-esque band named Man Missile and Shelley’s just days away from dropping a kid (but I’m fairly certain she’s hung on to that fringed jacket ), but one thing hasn’t changed: whenever we get together, a lot of food is going to get et. Calories be damned. There’s usually banana boats.

Shelley’s been a vegetarian for as long as I’ve known her, so she has a decent recipe collection. This one’s a go-to of hers, and it’s kind of a deluxe mac ‘n’ cheese, from a cookbook that I’m now thinking I’ll track down myself: Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big-Flavor recipes for out-of-this-world food every day. (Besides this recipe, for example, it includes one for technicolour antipasto and another for black-out chocolate pudding. Enough said.)

As far as this one goes, I love any recipe that includes gorgonzola. Or cheese, really. And it’s super quick to put together – no fussing with a roux to thicken the sauce, because you’re using already-thick ricotta. Shelley freestyles with some portabello mushrooms.

I recommend following up with a good old-fashioned banana boat: open one up, scoop out a bit of the insides and stuff it with chocolate chips, peanut butter, caramel sauce – whatever can amp up the calorie count. Wrap in tinfoil, stick in the oven (or campfire, if you’ve got one available) til gushy. Eat with dear friends.

Baked Rigatoni with Broccoli and Gorgonzola recipe
Adapted from Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big-Flavor recipes for out-of-this-world food every day (Harvard Common Press, 1997)
by Didi Emmons

8 oz dried rigatoni
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ bunch broccoli, cut into florets (about 4 cups)
2 portabello mushrooms
1 1/3 cups ricotta cheese, whole milk or park-skim
3 oz italian or wiconsin gorgonzola or silton (about ½ cup)
salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 tomatoes, each cut into 8 wedges (cherry tomatoes would be nice too)
1 cup grated parmesan or asiago

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and boil, stirring occasionally, until it is just tender. Drain the pasta, rinse it well with cold water.

In a large skillet, combine the olive oil and garlic over low heat. Saute the garlic for 2 minutes or until the garlic releases its aroma (do not let it brown). Add the mushrooms and stir fry three to four minutes,until they let their juices out and start to brown. Turn up the heat and add the broccoli and 1 cup of water. Cook the broccoli, uncovered for 3 minutes or until most of the water is evaporated.

Add the ricotta cheese and the gorgonzola. Stir the sauce until it is near smooth, and season it with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, combine the pasta, the cheese broccoli sauce, the tomatoes and 2/3 cup of the parmesan or asiago cheese. Add more salt and pepper to taste, if necessary. (At this point you can refrigerate themixture for baking later.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spoon the mixture into a 9-by-13 inch casserole dish. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese over the casserole. Bake the casserole, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes (or a little longer if the mixture has been refrigerated). Spoon the contents on to plates, and serve.

Creamy White Bean Chili

I've had this white bean chili recipe on the brain ever since I had a memorable version of it at Bonnie's Restaurant on Aspen. Actually, EVERYTHING I ate at Bonnie's was amazing - they have this mile-high apple strudel with whipped cream too - which was a revelation for ski-hill dining. Case in point: the tres malheureux "fish taco" I had in Whistler last weekend. Essentially, a battered fish 'n' chips-style unidentifiable piece of fish on a piece of cardboard.

But Bonnie's! Worth the trip to Aspen alone.

This isn't their recipe (and if anyone has it, PLEASE send away!) but a compilation of a few recipes I found, plus a little ad-libbing to get it to the right consistency. It's still pretty tasty. I'll still fantasize about Bonnie's, but this'll tide me over in the meantime.

Creamy White Bean Chili recipe

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp.minced garlic
2 cups chopped mixed bell peppers
1, 4 oz can chopped jalapenos
1/2 lb mushrooms
3/4 c diced carrots
4 cups vegetable broth
1, 15 oz can black-eyed peas, rinsed
1, 15 0z can, garbano beans, rinsed
2, 15 oz can, navy beans, rinsed
1 jalapeno, seeds removed, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 cup light sour cream
Monterey jack cheese, to top (optional)

Directions
Melt butter in a large heavy-bottom pot; add onions and garlic.Cook over medium heat,stirring occasionally,until translucent (3-4 minutes).

Add peppers, carrots and mushrooms. Stirfry until soft (5-7 min.).

Add all remaining ingredients, except sour cream.Continue cooking until mixture comes to full boil (10-12 min.)

Cover,reduce heat to low. Cook;stirring occasionally,until slightly thickened (45-50 minutes). Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream.

Serve in bowls with gusto! And shredded monteray jack cheese.

Brazilian Seafood Stew

We're officially in the rainy season here, which means I'm officially in the soup season too. And pretty much in coconut milk season year round, so this stew recipe, modified from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh cookbook, is a regular go-to for me.

My dear friend Amanda was coming cover for dinner and a Christmas knit session (one project down, 600 or so to go), but I knew we were heading to the Whip for cask ales first. (Have you been yet? Sundays at 4:00, the perfect weekend ender.) I needed a one-dish wonder we could whip up (no pun intended) as soon as we got home.

I actually confused two recipes in my head when I was grocery shopping (I also adore James Barber's One-Pot Wonders, and his recipe for 20-minute bouillabaisse), so I picked up a pound of mushrooms. It's not in the Bon Appetit version, but I threw them in. I also left out the required shrimp and upped the fish portion (basa fillets in my case). I'm pretty sure prawns (unless they're local spot prawns) are one of the no-gos on the Sea Choice list, but now I don't know about Basa. Gah, so much to think about.

I also upped the lime juice and added a bit of sugar at the end, giving it a little more sweet/sour kick.

Either way, this recipe rocks. Amanda and I had it done in about 20 minutes flat, prep and all. All right, maybe 25. But we had two (and a half) Whip pints to keep us moving.

Brazilian Seafood Stew recipe
adapted from Fast Easy Fresh, Bon Appetit

4 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 2 fresh limes (about 4 tbsp)

2 pounds white fish fillets (Basa, in my case), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 lb mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I use canned in the winter. Winter tomatoes, IMHO, suck.)
3/4 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onions
3 tbsp sugar

Whisk 2 tablespoons oil and lime juice in large bowl. Add fish and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper; stir to coat. Let stand 15 minutes.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic and crushed red pepper; sauté 5 minutes. Mix in tomatoes, coconut milk, half of cilantro and half of green onions. Add fish with marinade. Simmer until fish is just opaque in center, about 5 minutes. Season stew with sugar, salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro and green onions.

Kale, Glorious Kale

Molly Wizenberg's ode to kale in the October issue of Bon Appetit reignited my love for the leafy green and reminded me of a recipe my sister and I tried last thanksgiving. I think she found it on the Whole Foods website (her milk allergy means she's always looking for dairy-free recipes on vegetarian-friendly sites), but I've tweaked it a bit since. Roasting it in the oven really sweetens it, and the garlic gives it a nice little hit o' deliciousness.

I'm feeling like I'm fighting off some sort of flu bug right now, so all the more reason to put kale on the plate. That, and it makes me feel less guilty about the fact that I paired it with one of those ready-in-three-minutes raviolis from the Super Valu.

Super simple kale
1 bunch kale
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Wash kale and remove hard stems. Tear into small pieces and place on a shallow baking tray. Sprinkle with olive and sesame oils, along with garlic. Salt & pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven at 400 F for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are crispy and delicious.

Note the original recipe called for sesame seeds too, which are awesome - but I never have sesame seeds in the cupboard, so, no seeds here.