Category: recipe

The best vegan Parmesan

“Being vegan is so expensive!”

We’ve all heard that one, right? And it’s easy to see how people might think that. If you look on the store shelves at straight vegan substitutes, the price differential can be alarming.

Let’s look at Parmesan cheese. Many of us probably grew up with the familiar green shaker container of Parmesan that came out every time you had something in an Italian red sauce for dinner. This stuff is pretty cheap due to subsidies, factory farming etc.

conventional parmesan cheese

Now, if you just grab a straight vegan substitute off the shelf, it’ll be about three times the price of the conventional version. Ouch.

vegan parmesan parma

Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna VaughtBut guess what? You can make your own vegan Parmesan! If you search online, you’ll find a number of recipes, but Joanna Vaught‘s from Yellow Rose Recipes is my absolute favorite. Unlike some of the other vegan Parmesan recipes, Joanna’s includes walnuts which give you Omega-3 fatty acids.

Speaking of Joanna and Yellow Rose Recipes, keep an eye on her website. If you weren’t lucky enough to get a copy of Yellow Rose Recipes before it went out of print, she’ll be posting all the recipes on her site! The Butternut Squash Lasagna will impress the most skeptical omnivores. Make extra spice mixture in her Cajun Spiced Tofu recipe to keep on hand so you can bust that tofu out even faster. And make “chicken” and waffles with her Crispy Beer-Battered Seitan. Oh man.

Joanna kindly gave me permission to post her Vegan Parmesan recipe here for Vegan Mofo. I always have a shaker in my fridge and have been known to use it on Mexican food.

To save even more money on ingredients, shop in the bulk bins. If you can find broken cashew pieces, those are often cheaper than whole ones.

Vegan Parmesan

vegan parmesan

by Joanna Vaught published in Yellow Rose Recipes

Makes 2 cups, or exactly 1 used 5 oz. nutritional yeast jar full (reduce, reuse, recycle!)

vegan parmesan in shaker jarIngredients

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup brown rice flour (I’ve substituted other flours like whole wheat when I’ve been out. Still works great.)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 TBS garlic powder
2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in food processor and process until fine crumbs. Will last up to a month in an airtight container in your fridge.

 

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

In May, we picked up a few herbs and planted them outside the kitchen door: cinnamon basil, regular basil, lavender and stevia. And we already had mint plants going. The basil has really taken off and they were little bushes when we got back from vacation. They have already paid for themselves and are still going strong. Gee, it’s so much easier to take care of plants when it actually rains every once in a while.

So, time to use up some basil. How about Broccoli Pesto Pasta from The Happy Herbivore? I used whole wheat pasta and a mix between the regular and cinnamon basil. I might’ve added a little bit of olive oil because pesto doesn’t seem quite right without it. But only like a tablespoon for the whole batch. So it’s not like I totally fatted it up. The silken tofu seemed to make it really filling. This is easy and pretty quick to make. Would be a great recipe to recommend to new cooks and new veg*ns.

Grilling out and gaga dance

gloATL had a weekend of performances set up at the Old Fourth Ward Skate Park and even though it wasn’t clear exactly what would be happening, we decided to check it out. But first, we grilled out over at Star & Simon’s. Or, we watched Simon grill and then enjoyed eating it.

Field Roast’s frankfurters are the best veggie dogs you can get.

Simon made a rack of Gutenfleischer’s ribs. Nom.

We brought leftover chili and Daiya to top the dogs. Star made a kale and kelp noodle salad. And we brought chips & ranch dip.

After dinner, we walked the still-in-progress Beltline to the skate park.

The dancers were in the skating bowls and also moving through the crowd. Skating continued during the performance and sometimes the skaters intricately worked their way through and around the dancers.

Apparently it was a style of dance called Gaga.

After watching and getting rained on a little bit we headed back. And had the Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky with coconut ice cream.

Polenta with Lemony Asparagus and Chickpeas

Now I know I’ve made Polenta with Lemony Asparagus and Chickpeas before, but I guess I didn’t blog about it. It’s an awesome Spring dish. I used the stove top method for the polenta, used a little oil to fry up the onions and roasted the asparagus rather than steaming it. Polenta isn’t as hard as people make it out to be. It’s pretty forgiving.

Lentil Minestrone

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison is one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I owned. It was a gift in .. 1996, I think. And even now as a vegan I use it on a regular basis.

This time I cracked it open for a lentil soup variation, Lentil Minestrone. The only veganizing the recipe requires is to replace the parmesan with a vegan version, or just omit it. This soup straddled the line between a minestrone and a straight up lentil soup. It hinted at Italian seasoning without the obvious oregano and basil. I’m always a fan of something that cooks in one pot and can be a meal in a bowl. With lentils, pasta and a nice veggie assortment this one meets my meal in a bowl needs.