Farmer's Market and Kalamata Alfredo

I have a several vendors that I visit almost every Saturday Morning at our local Farmer's Market.

I LOVE shopping there. Not only is everything fresh, inexpensive, local and organic - it's so beautiful, and just a lot of FUN! I enjoy seeing the same vendors every week, checking out the produce selections and what's currently being harvested - exchanging cooking ideas and talking foodie with them too.

One of my favorites, Terry's Berries, is a local Family Farm & C.S.A. producing amazing fruits and veggies year round here in our green little valley... I can never scrape up the bucks for a CSA membership (I wish!) but I make sure to stop by their market stall or the farm whenever I can; they have the beautiful strawberries, greens, broccoli and herbs right now and usually they'll have an interesting or new veggie or green waiting for me, that I can't resist trying.

So, besides the usual produce, today I splurged on a pound of fresh-made (and vegan!) pasta from Pacific Pasta as well. They have all sorts of beautiful stuff, unfortunately only a couple varieties are egg-free. I'm hoping they'll add more to their line-up.

Later in the evening we thought pasta sounded good, but I wasn't feeling all that inspired though, so decided to just do something simple and familier.

I cooked the pasta al dente because I'm all Martha-Stewart like that, (which means I boiled it about a minute!) chopped and steamed some perfect broccoli from Terry's Berries, threw in leftover sauteed portabellos, (I know, who can have leftover mushrooms, right?) and whipped up my famous (well, famous in my mind anyway) Cashew Alfredo.

On a last moment whim, I threw about six pitted kalamata olives into the processor while blending the sauce.

WOW! I wasn't expecting much, but I think I'm really on to something here.

Oh my gosh, the kalamata olives gave the sauce this INCREDIBLE rich flavor (and a weird speckled purple color) that I will definitely be repeating again soon. Just use the purple-y kalamata or Greek olives. I think the effect would be lost with plain, can-variety black olives.

Best of all? This was big-time kid-approved too, they seriously LICKED the pan clean, brocolli and all! Even if you're not an olive fan, try this, the rest of your family will thank you!

Creamy Pasta with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Seriously worthless pictures. *kicks camera*.


But I'm posting the recipe because it's totally awesome and I served this Farfalle in Garlic Cream Sauce with Mushrooms and Asparagus to a houseful of omnis this weekend, and it was a huge success.

My Mom kept saying "Would anyone like the VEGAN dish?" as if she really couldn't bring herself to call it Pasta with (rich, decadent) CREAM Sauce, but I'm happy to say, the 'vegan' title didn't scare anyone off.

This is easy, tasty, omni AND vegan-pleasing comfort food at it's best. I still wish the pictures did it's rich, creamy garlicness more justice.


Pasta in Garlic Cream Sauce with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Sauce:
1/2 cup raw cashews (not roasted)
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice (I don't measure, just a good squeeze)
1 cup boiling water
2 cloves garlic (or more to taste)
2 Tbsp. extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Tofutti Cream Cheeze
1 tsp umeboshi plum vinegar (or rice wine vinegar will be OK)
2 Tb. nutritional yeast (optional)
salt to taste


Soymilk


Pulverize raw cashews in the food processor until very fine powder. Add 1 cup boiling water. (*The BEST way to do this, is to make the sauce while the pasta cooks - scoop out 1 cup of lightly salted pasta-cooking water and use it - the starch from the pasta-cooking water thickens the sauce PERFECTLY!) Add water to cashews and process until smooth... this will take several minutes.


Add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth and creamy. This will take a while. If it's too thick to process, add soymilk as needed. Taste and add salt or pepper as needed.


Cook enough pasta to go with the sauce. (Different people prefer "less" or "more" sauce depending on their tastes and how creamy they like their casseroles.) Mix sauce with pasta.


While pasta cooks:
Rinse 1 bunch of asparagus, cut the tender parts (not the tough stem ends) into 1 inch pieces.

Cut 10 large button mushrooms in half. Stir fry asparagus and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until tender but asparagus is still a bit crisp.


Mix vegetables into pasta and sauce. Put pasta and veggies in a baking dish. You can refrigerate at this point until ready to bake.


When you're ready to bake the pasta:

Mix 2 Tbsp. cornstarch with 2 cups soymilk. Mix well with a wire whisk.

Pour over pasta until liquid comes 3/4 up side of dish.
Top with 1/2 cup buttered breadcrumbs.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 min. at 350. Remove foil. If it looks like it's drying out, add more soy milk.

Bake another 15 minutes. If breadcrumbs are not crispy-browned after 15 min. , broil for a few seconds, but watch carefully!


Enjoy, and happy Monday!!

Kale "flowers" and Cashew Cream Alfredo Sauce

Searching for something green tonight among the meager supply of veggies in the 'fridge, I was most uninspired.
I looked wistfully out at my weed-choked, rain-soaked, moss covered garden space and wished for warm summer weather and fresh grown veggies.

But wait, what do I see? My Lacinato (or Dinosaur) kale is still around, but tall and straggly - what's left has started to flower and gone to seed. Sad. I went out and looked at it closely though - the 'flowers' looked a LOT like little broccoli heads. All sorta the same family, right? I tasted it, expecting that strong, over-grown bitterness you get with the old, tough leaves... Amazingly, these little kale "heads" were tender and SO SWEET!
I picked several large handfuls and steam-sauteed them with a few drops lemon juice and olive oil. Wow. They cooked super-quickly and wilted down quite a bit... but still... Insanely deLISH! I've discovered a new favorite green!

I paired the kale flowers with some caramelized onions and red-peppers, and whole wheat rigatoni with our family's absolute favorite pasta sauce - Cashew Garlic Alfredo (which I somehow got MUCH too thick tonight).

I threw some kalamata olives in the pasta sauce, maybe a bit too salty but they went well with the kale and peppers.

Cashew Garlic Alfredo Sauce:

1/2 cup raw cashews (not roasted)
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice (I don't measure, just a good squeeze)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 clove garlic (or more to taste)
1 Tbsp. extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tb. nutritional yeast (optional)

Pulverize raw cashews in the food processor until very fine. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water. (*The BEST way to do this, is to make the sauce while the pasta cooks - scoop out 1 1/2 cups of lightly salted pasta-cooking water and use it - the starch from the pasta-cooking water thickens the sauce PERFECTLY!) Add water to cashews and process until smooth... this will take several minutes.
Add nutritional yeast (optional - my kids prefer it without), garlic clove, olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice. Process again until smooth, another couple minutes, it'll start to thicken a bit too! Makes a decadently creamy sauce. Serve over cooked pasta.

This stuff is wonderfully simple and tastes SO very good. I often add sauteed mushrooms, chives, chopped olives or sundried tomatoes, depending on my mood.

NOTE: Recipe has been edited, I forgot to add the olive oil!

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Thanks for all the kind thoughts while my Sprout is off traveling the world (or Ecuador). She e-mailed this AM and they all arrived safely and everyone was fine. So far, so good. Yay.