Wednesday 1 February 2012

Rocket and Roses Wholemeal Pasta & Broccoli in a Roasted Cauliflower Sauce

Kitchen Play List: Richie Sambora ~ Stranger in this Town Album

NB: This blog posting was from last year when My Love brought home an abundance of cauliflowers..lol. This is the last archived unposted blog. I haven't got any photos because we ate it before I realised I hadn't taken any...but picture this..a steaming hot mound of wholemeal pasta...smooth creamy sauce drizzled over and fresh bright green florets of Broccoli..then stirring it to combine...lol. Did that help? Ah well...I hope you give this a try...back Friday...~R~

Back in my vegetarian days I used to love a Four Cheese Sauce with wholemeal pasta and lots of fresh bright green broccoli florets. A very simple meal and I used to have it at least once a month. Since becoming a vegan I have finally lost my craving for dairy cheese..it wasn't easy! lol. I've come to accept that dairy products make me ill and on a conscious level I just don't want to eat animal products and my body responds better to plant based eating. I am at a point now where I smell cooked cheese (at other peoples homes or out and about..) and my senses are knocked over by the fatty smell and if I see a dish with cooked dairy cheese on the top my eyes focus on the fat globs and I feel nauseous. Strange isn't how your tastes can change so drastically? But I have to say I am relieved that that particular craving is now a thing of the past. The other dish was Cheese, Onion & Potato Layer which I have now lost the craving for as I have discovered Scalloped Herbed Potatoes instead and it's nicer by far than the old dairy dish I was obsessed with. Cravings are..a bitch pain, eh? 

When I was presented with 8 cauliflowers by My Love I came up with 3 new Rocket and Roses recipes and this is one of them. I'd roasted some of the cauliflower and the idea of a pate was the first idea that came into my head, closely followed by the sauce one, whilst I was scribbling down the first! lol. 

Oh so many cauliflowers..lol..But I still didn't tire of them..lol
At first I had the idea of grating some soya cheeze into the sauce to give it that extra cheese hit...but taking a moment of tea drinking and thinking about it I realised I didn't want that. To give it a little edge I used some Nooch instead. I started off the sauce by rinsing and draining some tinned soya beans...not fresh green Edamame but the beige little beans...Haricot beans would work well in their place.

I thought about steaming off a variety of veggies and cooking some pasta and making a 'bake' with it and I probably will do that with the next batch I make..if only to see if it stands up to the baking. But this time I wanted to keep it simple and that is when the Four Cheese Sauce, spaghetti and broccoli came to mind. I'm not trying to replicate the cheese sauce but I just wanted to use some of the elements from the whole dish. 

The results were a rich and creamy sauce and with the wholemeal pasta and broccoli it was a delight to eat. I will definitely be making this again...Don't ya love it when a recipe comes together? lol

Rocket and Roses Wholemeal Pasta & Broccoli with 
Roasted Cauliflower Sauce
(Original recipe from the Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)

10oz roasted cauliflower, chopped
1 14oz carton of soya beans, rinsed very well and drained
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
8fl oz filtered water
salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Wholemeal pasta, cooked 
Broccoli florets, steamed

Place the soya beans into a food processor and pulse until they are pulpy and broken down. Then add in the cauliflower, garlic, Nooch and season with salt and pepper. Process until smooth and well combined. Then keeping the motor running drizzle in water until you reach your desired consitency. Then pour into a pan and over a gentle heat, warm the sauce through and to cook the garlic. Stir constantly to avoid the sauce catching. 

Place the pasta into serving bowls and pour over some sauce and then add the broccoli. Toss together with two forks..and enjoy! 

NB: This would work well with any gluten free pasta and also raw courgette spaghetti. I was just craving wholemeal pasta that day! 

~R~