Roast tomato and mushroom cashew pasta

Ingredients

6-12 Roma tomatoes

4 - 6 serves of fettuccini or spaghetti

1 cup raw cashews (soaked in water for an hour prior, optional)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast 

1tsp oregano

1/2 tsp stock powder

1/2 cup of boiling water

1 large brown onion 

200g mushrooms

1 or 2 cups baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Roast Roma tomatoes in halves with garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Cook your pasta in big pot 
3. Blitz raw cashews (soaking optional but I didn’t) in thermomix or food processor
4. Add nutritional yeast, oregano, stock powder, boiling water or more to make it a thickish sauce (it will thin out later with the pasta and a bit of pasta water). Cook over medium heat in saucepan for a few minutes. 
5. In a frying pan, cook onion till soft. Add chopped up mushrooms and fry until cooked. 
6. Drain pasta. Reserve a bit of liquid. 
7. Add pasta to the sauce and add some pasta water. Stir through onion and mushrooms. Toss through baby spinach leaves. Serve and enjoy! 

Lentil and root veggie slaw

This is so good, perfect on it’s own or with many other things. This is based on a My Foodie Box recipe that we used and goes with cauliflower ‘wings’. 

Ingredients

1 medium/large lemon

1 large clove of garlic

1 medium bunch of parsley

1 shallot

1 TBS red wine vinegar 

1 tsp maple syrup

1.5 TBS olive oil

1 - 2 large carrot

1 large beetroot

1 green apple

400g tin lentils (or you could sub for chick peas)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 large red chilli (optional)

Method

1. Into a large bowl; peel and crush garlic, zest lemon, place picked and finely chopped parsley leaves and finely chop shallot with red wine vinegar, maple syrup, juice of half the lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper. Stir well
2. Peel beetroot. Grate beetroot, carrot and apple into same large bowl. Add drained and rinsed tinned lentil. Mix well. Finely chop chilli if desired ajd use to garnish. 
3. Serve on its own or with cauliflower “wings”, smashed potato and fennel salad and/ or mashed avocado. Best meal EVER. 

Simone’s Fennel Salad

My vegetarian workmate Simone has been sighted eating only this salad for her lunch. She so obsessed. I prefer it along with other salads, such as the lentil and root veggie slaw I had, subbing chick peas instead of lentils, tonight. But it’s def a winner. It reminds me of having tuna ceviche, but for vegans and vegetarians! 

Here’s Simone’s fairly vague recipe she shared with me, with approximate measurements added by me:

 Fennel ‘ceviche’ salad

Ingredients

-finely sliced fennel, 1 large 

-Lemon juice, of 1 large

-Lots and lots of salt (it draws the moisture out of the fennel and makes it softer), about 2 tsp

-Generous splashes of olive oil; about 1 TBS

-Sprinkling of sesame seeds; about 2 tsp

Method

Cover and stir the fennel in the other ingredients, then let it sit for approx 30 mins (if you have the time), stirring regularly. 

Enjoy! 😃💫