Vegan Spaghetti Pomodoro a la Audrey Hepburn
Happy New Year from Ravenous Vegans! We want to kick off 2017 by sharing with you one of our very favorite recipes: a delicious spaghetti pomodoro. This recipe came to us early on in our vegan lifestyle when Beastie Vegan was paging through a People Magazine (of all things…random.) and found this recipe from none other than Audrey Hepburn’s son, who claimed this was his mother’s personal and absolute favorite pasta recipe. Did you know Ms. Hepburn had a pasta fetish? Neither did we! As the story goes, pasta was her most beloved dish and she would request it all the time, in any given situation–in her adorable and humbly sweet way. She’s a woman after our own lustful (for spaghetti) hearts and her recipe is simple, yet absolutely satisfying and flavorful. Of course, it calls for parmesan cheese at the end but we left that out and still have an amazing dish that’s even healthier and won’t stand in the way of keeping your body sexy. Beastly and Beastie Vegan both have their own preferred method of preparing the sauce (Beastie subs the canned tomatoes for 3 lbs of fresh heirloom tomatoes, as Ms. Hepburn supposedly did) but they’re both equally tasty. Try it both ways and tell us what you think!
The Dirty Breakfast Burger – Delicious Decadent and Vegan
The Dream:
Beastly Vegan was his normal, cheerful, morning-person self as he woke my typical grumpy, grumbling, and groaning body from slumber this morning to tell me about this “wet dream” he woke up with that involved what would ultimately become a super decadent breakfast burger… He whispered softly in my ear and what he proposed spun my bad attitude right around!
The Inspiration:
This sandwich was inspired by the one we lusted over back in our meat eating days. We ordered it up (retrieved it) from our favorite coffee shop just around the corner and they called it “The Dirty Swede”. Now, I have no idea where they came up with this name or why but I can tell you that it was loaded with all kinds of inedible ingredients that our former, less-enlightened selves would wag our uninformed tongues at. Ingredient #1: You guessed it. Thick, greasy, and crispy bacon. This topped a heaping pile of turkey deli slices, which also sat between two sides of an everything bagel slathered in an ungodly amount of cream cheese. The only saving grace was the dollop of alfalfa sprouts garnished on top.
The Realization:
I am happy to report that Beastly’s version is every bit as delicious and monstrously sexy as it’s counterpart yet minus the inevitable health consequences (crises). Sure, it’s not HEALTHY. But it’s cruelty-free, plant-based, and oh, so tasty. In conclusion, this will become a recurring treat for us and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Love,
Beastie Vegan
The Recipe:
- 1 sliced bagel
- sliced avocado
- alfalfa sprouts
- vegan bacon
- vegan cream cheese
- 1 slice of vegan cheese
- 1 vegan burger patty
- Cook the bacon and burger patty according to the directions on the package. Melt the cheese on to the burger
- While everything is cooking, toast the bagel
- Spread the cream cheese on the top side of the bagel
- Mash and spread the avocado on the bottom side of the bagel
- On the bottom side, start by adding the bacon followed by the burger patty with cheese melted on it, then the sprouts and top with the other side of the bagel
Vegan Mango Sticky Rice
Here’s the second ever Ravenous Vegans quick video. This one’s got an especially easy recipe for vegan mango sticky rice. Yes, mango sticky rice is typically vegan. I simply include the word vegan in the title so folks can find this when looking for vegan eats. This recipe is just another reason to keep a spare can of coconut milk lying around. And it’s just so easy. Enjoy!
Here’s the video with the recipe:
Vegetable Stock
From time to time I’ll use some vegetable stock. It’s wonderful stuff as it makes everything taste better. For years I’d buy vegetable stock at the grocery store, but these days I’ve been making my own. It’s dead easy so you might as well. If you aren’t composting, then chances are you could be making your own veggie stock with all those little scraps you throw away. The end of a carrot, bell pepper, clove of garlic, onion, or broccoli stem will all make good veggie stock. So don’t waste those little scraps. Make your own veggie stock!
Here’s what you do:
1. Collect veggie scraps in a gallon freezer bag until it’s full
2. Put your frozen veggies in a big pot with a little salt
3. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to medium and let them cook about 10 minutes until the water gets some nice color
THAT’S IT!!!
Vegan Thai Vegetable Curry
Here’s the very first Ravenous Vegans quick video. The first of many to come! This is a simple and quick vegan Thai vegetable curry. This recipe is the reason I always keep a little bottle of curry paste and a can of coconut milk around. You can make it with any variety of veggies and greens, so it’s great for leftovers. Give it a try, do some experimenting, and enjoy!
Here’s the video with the recipe:
Vegan Charleston Ice Cream Rice
Here’s one of my favorite vegan rice recipes ever! Oh yes, I’ve gotten some miles out of this one. Try this delicious southern rice recipe when your in the mood for some comfort food.
- 1 pound rice
- Salt
- Pepper
- Bay Leaves
- Earth Balance Vegan Spread
- Add the rice to about 8 cups of water and preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Add about 3 tablespoons of salt to the water
- Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low
- Boil rice for about 12 minutes or until the rice is still slightly firm but almost done
- Drain the rice and rinse in cold water
- Spread the rice in a thin layer over parchment paper with a few bay leaves on a large baking pan and place in the oven
- Leave rice in the oven for about 6 minutes, stirring once half way through
- Once any water from rinsing has cooked off the rice, add several little pieces of earth balance along with a few more bay leaves and also salt and pepper to taste. Place back in the oven and continue cooking for about 10 minutes. Be sure to take out of the oven and gently stir about every 3 minutes. Add more Earth Balance, salt, or pepper, to taste if you feel it needs it
Vegan Pineapple Stir-Fry
Looking for a sexy tip? Don’t eat out so damn much. This was one of the dishes that helped me switch over to a diet fueled by home cooking. Yup, It’s one of my old standbys for sure. I started making it years ago when Beastie Vegan and I were first dating and I definitely used it to knock her socks off a few times. It’s had lots of permutations, but this one is one of my favorites. The plum sauce really drives it home. If you love this one as much as we do, don’t forget to have some fun experimenting with it!
-Beastly Vegan
- 1 pineapple
- 1 onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 lbs mushroom
- 1 can of bamboo shoots
- 1 can of water chestnuts
- 1/2 lbs pea pods
- 1 stalk of broccoli
- 1 package of firm tofu
- 1/4 bottle of plum sauce
- 6 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- Freeze the tofu in the container, then thaw and drain. This makes it nice and porous so it can soak up the marinade. Then throw it in a container with some plum sauce. it doesn't need to be swimming in it. Leave it for at least a few hours and then preheat the oven to 350 and start to bake it. I usually start baking it about a half hour before I start cooking. After a several minutes in the oven, some of the marinade will drain out of the tofu. Let it cook off and then start to flip the tofu until it's golden on both sides. Make sure the tofu doesn't dry out completely.
- Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and put in the onions and garlic. Saute them for about 3 minutes.
- Add the broccoli florets and stems. Saute for about 4 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, pineapple, water chestnuts, bamboo, and soy sauce. Saute for about 5 minutes.
- Add the peas and saute for another 3 minutes and remove from heat.
- Top with tofu and serve with noodles and plum sauce.
- Goes great with the buckwheat soba
Vegan BBQ Tofu Sandwich
- 2 packages of firm tofu
- BBQ sauce
- buns
- shredded lettuce
- an onion
- pickles
- Start by marinating the tofu. First we like to freeze it overnight while still in the package. Take it out the next day and let it thaw, then remove from the package and drain the water out of the tofu. This makes it porous so that it can soak up more marinade. Now it's time to cut each block of tofu into quarters and let them marinade in BBQ sauce for at least 6 hours. The longer, the better. We love Organicville Tangy BBQ sauce and usually use about half the bottle as marinade.
- Next, bake the tofu. After preheating the oven to 350, remove the tofu pieces from the marinade and place in a large pan. Flip the tofu in ten minutes, then every five minutes until each side gets toasted. Then put a coating of BBQ Sauce on each side and bake for another few minutes and remove from the oven.
- Now just put the sandwiches together. We like to toast the buns and put a little sauce on each side. Tofu on the bottom, then comes the shredded lettuce, pickles and onions. Enjoy!
Vegan Cuban Black Beans
Welcome to Ravenous vegans. We are a vegan couple sharing recipes, food porn, and adventures. With our maiden blog post, we’d like to introduce a recipe featuring a vegetable that we believe to be one of the most tantalizing, the arroz con pollo pepper. They originated in Cuba and you probably won’t find them at the store, maybe you can get them at your local farmers market or special order them, but we highly recommend growing your own. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has the goods. It’s not a very hot pepper when the seeds are removed, but it’s rather sweet and has an intense flavor that lends it’s self well to beans. Beans are very important for nutrition, and also symbolically. I like to gently rub my beans in a counter clockwise motion. Here’s a delicious recipe for Cuban style black beans.
- 1 onion
- 8 cups vegetable stock
- 1 pound dried black beans
- 6 garlic cloves
- 6 arroz con pollo peppers, seeds left in
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- Rinse and pick over the black beans, add them to the vegetable broth in a large pot, and bring to a boil. Add the bay leaves. Once it reaches a full boil, set to low and allow the beans to cook until soft. Start checking the beans after about 45 minutes
- While the beans are cooking, finely chop the garlic and peppers, dice the onion. Heat up the oil in a pan and saute everything for about 7 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook for about one more minute and remove from heat
- When the beans are done, add the sauted vegetables to the beans. Also add in the salt and sugar
- Cook on low for another 15 minutes, then add the cilantro and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with rice
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