Good things to do with hommus

I love hommus & often have some in my fridge but get bored of just eating it as a dip or on sandwiches.  So, here are 2 other super tasty ways to eat hommus.

Hommus stuffed mushrooms.
Greg was looking through a recipe book in a book shop & saw a recipe for this, I was skeptical that it would work - I think my reaction was "cooked hommus??  Yuck!!"  But he was very keen so I gave it a go & it is really delicious as well as being dead easy.

• Bake a portabello mushroom for 10 minutes on about 180
• Chop up some semi dried tomatoes & mix into some hommus
• Remove from oven & spread the hommus mix thickly over the inside of the mushroom
• Top with some pine nuts
• Return to the oven for another 10 minutes

Creamy Lemon Pasta
I used this recipe, but didn't measure anything - gotta love a recipe where you can just throw it all together & it works!  I had never thought about putting hommus on pasta before but this was really good & also dead easy.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Pesto

For the last couple of months I kept buying pumpkins with the intentions of making this but only just got around to it last week & it was so easy & delicious that I should have made it sooner.  I would have liked a bit more texture though, so next time I make it I will toss through some whole pine nuts before serving.

Pumpkin Ravioli

INGREDIENTS

• 500gm pumpkin cut into smallish evenly sized pieces
• Half a packet of silken tofu
• Half tub of Tofutti better than cream cheese
• I packet of wonton/gow gee wrappers 

METHOD

1. Roast pumpkin until soft & starting to brown
2. In a food processor blend the tofu & cream cheese until smooth & well combined
3. Add the pumpkin to the food processor & blend into the tofu & cream cheese, add salt & pepper to taste
4. Put a teaspoon of the pumpkin mix into the centre of a wonton wrapper & press the edges together.  I used a dumpling press because I have one & because it seals the edges really, really well so when you are cooking the ravioli they don't open up.
5. Add the ravioli to a big pot of boiling salted water & remove & drain once it floats to the top.
6. Heat the pesto in a frypan & toss the drained ravioli in the the pesto.

Pesto

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch basil
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

METHOD 

1. Toast the pine nuts in a dry fry pan until starting to brown
2. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until well combined

Vegan Yum Yum Mac & Cheeze

So delicious!  When I was cooking the cheesey sauce I really didn't think that it was going to be so good but after it is baked with the pasta it tastes so buttery & smooth & is really good.  I had truckloads of sauce leftover so made a potato bake the next night which I actually didn't really enjoy but then I made another Mac & Cheeze & the sauce was amazing again so the sauce with pasta = win & the sauce with potatoes = fail.  I didn't use macaroni because I never have it but used some pasta shells & served with steamed veg, yum.
There are a couple of Mac & Cheeze recipes on the VYY website but I used the one from the book which I am too lazy to type up, if you have the book then definitely make this.

Vegan Yum Yum Hurry Up Alfredo & Cupcakes

Today was quite busy in a good Sunday kind of way. I got up early & went for a walk, then went to Tom Phat for a delicious breakfast of scrambled tofu & then spent the afternoon at my mum's place. So by the time I got home I was looking for something quick to cook or dinner that would give me leftovers for lunch on Monday so decided to make this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum & added in some baby spinach. This is delicious! I have made it twice & don't know why I don't make it more often because it is crazy fast & easy & tasty. I have also used leftover sauce in a potato bake which is also a very good thing.


The best thing about visiting my mum is that I always get sent home with food. Today I got christmassy cupcakes which she made or me to take to work. I can't guarantee that they will all get to work though because they are really good!

Quick & easy pasta

This is a super quick & easy pasta that I make sometimes when I really can't be bothered but have to prepare a meal.

• Roast some pumpkin
  
• While that is roasting, cook up some pasta
• While the pasta is cooking, fry some oyster mushrooms is a little bit of olive oil & plenty of garlic
• When it is all ready, add the pasta & pumpkin to the frypan with the mushrooms, add some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, halved cherry tomatoes & baby spinach
  
• Toss it all together & serve

Creamy mushroom pasta

I don't think I have had a creamy pasta since I have been vegan & I didn't eat it a whole lot in my pre-gan days but I had some tofutti cream cheese in the fridge & half a kilo of mushrooms so thought I would give it a go. It was really tasty, it would probably be a bit too much to eat a big bowl of it on its own, but it was really nice to have a sereve with some yummy salad.

Creamy mushroom pasta
I made 4 smallish serves with this

6-8 button mushrooms sliced (I also had a jar of aldi cocktail mushrooms so I added maybe 2 tbsp of these as well)
1/2 tub tofutti cream cheese
2 tsp garlic
1/2 onion diced
1 tsp stock powder
olive oil
soy milk
cooked pasta of your choice

• Boil water & put your pasta on to cook & when ready set aside with a little bit of the cooking water
  
• Saute onion in a little bit of olive oil until soft
  
• Add mushrooms & garlic & cook down until soft
• Add cream cheese & stock powder & mix together, season as required
• My pasta wasn't ready so I left my mushrooms in the frying pan on low & when they dried out added a couple of tablespoons of soy milk
• Add the cooked pasta to the sauce with a little bit of the cooking water (like 2 teaspoons) & mix all together

I served this with a salad of rocket, avocado & roasted tomato which I drizzled with a balsamic glaze.

Apologies for the dodgy photo - I was hungry & didn't want to wait for it to cool down!