Summer. Sun. Hot weather. Late light.
This all calls for firing up the barby and throwin’ on those veggies.
This is one of my Mom’s go-to summer recipes. It’s perfect for a deck party with a BBQ and a view. I highly encourage you to eat this outside on a picnic table, or on a porch with buddies. There’s something special about making a humungo bowl of delicious food that can be can passed around and shared the amongst your favourite people.
Oh, and by the way, living this vegan lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to say good-bye to your BBQ or ‘no’ to BBQ invites. There are tons of vegan meat alternatives that are getting better by the day. But, most of the time my BBQ gets taken over by whole plant-foods. Good ol’ grilled veggies.
I’m feelin’ Sauce Sauce Sauce.
This roasted garlic, caramelized onion, miso, sweet corn, sage pasta sauce is a delicious addition to the pasta. Sometimes I don’t even make a sauce for this pasta, because it is just as delicious plain with some nutritional yeast sprinkled on top. For you guys though, I wanted to make it a little more gourmet, but still keep it simple.
Just blend up the ingredients and you’re good to go.
Serve the pasta on top of a bed of spinach and arugula, then sprinkle on the vegan parmesan (recipe below).
OH! Adding some big, juicy, fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes on the side is never a bad idea, either.
Benefits:
Red Peppers are packed with vitamin C, which is great for your immune system.
Nutritional yeast is a great source of B12, which is very important on a plant-based diet.
Garlic and onion both have antibiotic properties to ward of viruses and infection.
Time 1 hour
Servings 5-6
Ingredients:
2 Zucchinis halved vertically down middle
8 mushrooms (white, portobello or crimini)
3 red peppers halved vertically, stem discarded
4 yellow onions thinly sliced
Head of garlic
Brown Rice Fusilli pasta (or your favourite type, made from quinoa or brown rice)
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar – for sautéing
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1-2 tbsp coconut oil – for grilling
2 cobs corn – cut raw kernels off of cob
1 tbsp miso paste – for sauce
Vegan Parmasan ingredients:
1/4 cup cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp garlic powder
Dash salt
Directions:
1) Wash and chop your veggies, and turn on the BBQ to medium heat
2) Roast Garlic: chop top off, place in tin foil, top with 1/2 tsp coconut oil, leave on BBQ for 30 minutes
3) Caramelize onions: throw them all into a wide pot or deep pan with a dash of balsamic vinegar. Let them simmer on low for up to 1 hour. Keep adding more vinegar, when they start sticking to the pot.
4) Cook pasta according to directions (once onions have been simmering for 30 minutes). Strain when done.
5) BBQ veggies: lightly spray veggies with coconut oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put them on the grill at a medium heat. Check every 7 minutes to avoid complete charring. Flip once slighly charred on first side (about 8-10 minutes in depending on thickness)
6) Make parmesan while everything is cooking: Pulse in blender cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic powder
7) Make sauce: Blend the roasted garlic (press out cloves from the skin), 1.5 cups of the caramelized onion, 1 tbsp miso, 1 cob worth of raw corn kernels, a few sprigs of fresh sage
8) Assemble:
-Chop the BBQ’d veggies (if charred, run under cold water and peel the char off before chopping)
-Strain pasta
-Mix all veggies (plus raw corn kernels) and sauce together!
– Top with parmesan on a bed of spinach.
