Citrus, Black Pepper and Cheese Cauliflower

I love when I  search my cookbooks for a recipe to use up a veggie or another ingredient I have on hand; I feel so resourceful and economical. So I had exactly one cup of cauliflower florets in the fridge and this recipe from Betty Goes Vegan called for one cup of cauliflower florets. I probably never would have tried this recipe because it sounds so weird. 

Ingredients for the roasted cauliflower

 Everything but the cheese, nutritional yeast and fresh basil gets tossed together and roasted. The cheese is sprinkled on top and after baking, the nutritional yeast and basil are added. It calls for lemon and orange zest but I didn't have a fresh orange so I used some dried orange peel that I ground up finer in my coffee grinder. It worked perfectly! Ooh, being resourceful again. 

I'm going to double this recipe next time. I could have eaten the whole pan of this but I decided I better save half for the hubby!

Roasted Tomato-Fennel Pasta with Pine Nuts & Capers~pg. 142

VegCookbookClub July recipes from eat, drink & be vegan by Dreena Burton:

Excellent pasta dish! Love the roasted Roma tomatoes, fennel and garlic. I know this is a keeper when my hubby says "you can make this one again"! I served the pasta with Dijon Mustard Brussels Sprouts from La Dolce Vegan and  Faux Parmesan Garlic Bread. 

Tracy & Emma's Fresh Basil Tomato Bread Soup~pg. 115

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

The end of the month will be my one year anniversary of starting this blog. I started it with the intention of participating in the LDV challenge. But it has given me so much more incentive to eat and cook healthy and vegan than I ever thought possible! It's also wonderful to communicate with other vegans out there. So here is another recipe from the challenge:

I only had two tomatoes so I added a can of stewed tomatoes and reduced the vegetable stock by 1/2 C. I also had some garlic croutons I used instead of the bread. I'm so proud that I got to use some of my own homegrown basil! I have been babying that plant through these hot, summer days-a high today of 111 degrees and on Monday it's supposed to be 113! I am so thankful for A/C :) Anyway, the soup had a fantastic flavor but I don't really like soggy bread in my soup. I did eat two bowls of it though! I don't think my hubby thought too much of it either. Poor guy.

Cream of Tomato & Basil Soup~pg. 114

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

Mmmm! Grilled cheese and tomato soup! Pre-vegan days this was one of the staples for a quick supper in our house. Now I have an easy, delicious and much healthier vegan version. I love how easy this was to make. I broiled Sassy Sandwich Bread (pg. 271) topped with Earth Balance margarine, garlic powder, nutritional yeast and Daiya shredded mozzarella & cheddar.

5-Minute Roasted Red Pepper Pesto~pg. 177

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

Still trying to catch up on March recipes. I've been sick for about a week. Every year around this time that stupid bronchitis finds me. I almost thought I was going to get away from it this year; but no it caught me. Since I've cut out all the dairy products during this last year my symptoms are less severe and I'm getting over it quicker. Yeah!

So we were supposed to make Bear's Noodles on pg. 302 but mine turned into a goopy mess in my food processor. I wasn't going to waste any more ingredients so I gave up on that idea. Maybe I used too much tofu? Anyway, the Red Pepper Pesto is delicious with store-bought rotini! The sauce gets into all the little crevices of the pasta. This is a really quick, easy and yummy sauce to make. I served it with Sesame Roasted Asparagus (pg. 185) and toasted garlic bread sprinkled with nutritional yeast.

Tyler & Phoebe's Perfect Pesto Pizza~pg 152; Faux Feta Cheese~pg 292

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:
Skipping around the month of March's recipes for the challenge. I had alot of basil I needed to use so I chose to make the pizza from 3/24.

This pizza is very low-calorie! (if you believe that. . . . )

Faux Feta marinating. (pg. 292)

I only used half the recipe for my pizza.

Tyler & Phoebe's Perfect Pesto Sauce (pg. 177)

Delicious recipe-lots of olive oil! I could have used a little more basil;

it seemed too oily this time. It made the pizza a little oily.

Pizza Crust (pg. 301)

Have used this recipe before and it makes a delicous crust. But I must remember that it makes alot of pizza dough! I should have split it between 2 12" pans or 1 extra large industrial size pan! What was I thinking.

The finished product!

You can see it is about ready to explode off the pan. I baked the pizza for about 17 minutes to get the extra thick crust done. The flavors are delicious. Love the Faux Feta; gives it a tangy bite. Yep, next time 2 pans. I would like to buy one 24" pan though. That would be fun to make an extra large pizza-pie-a!

I "forced" myself to eat 2 slices of this.



Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta~pg. 126

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

I've made this pasta several times; I love the fresh basil in it. I do like the other cherry tomato pasta recipe in the book better though.  My March posting of recipes might get a little out of order because I am trying to do better at using up what I have in my refrigerator, pantry and freezer! Also, it depends on when I'm going to a get-together or whatnot. So I am posting them when I make them and not going to try to get them all in order. Never fear, all of March's recipes will be finished by the end of March (hopefully LOL)! Just have fun cooking and don't give up!!!

Jen's Creamy Basil & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta~pg. 133

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

I love fresh basil so this creamy tofu sauce was a hit. I cooked my broccoli separately and then tossed it with the sauce and pasta.

I served the pasta with a fresh salad topped with the Vegan Ranch Dressing I made earlier today and Simple Sassy Soda Bread (pg. 269) broiled with Earth Balance margarine, garlic powder and Faux Parmesan.

Peacefrog's Artichoke Heart Pasta~pg. 133

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

I know we are all busy with the holiday season but it's so nice to know what I'm making for dinner.  If I didn't have this plan I would be tempted to eat something very, very bad for me!!

I have made this pasta several times; I love the fresh taste of the basil, tomato and parsley. I used Italian parsley this time which I like alot better than curly parsley.

Time to eat!

Nana's Pesto Pin-Wheel Rolls~pg. 55

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

Tyler & Phoebe's Perfect Pesto Sauce~pg. 177

Basil-one of my favorite herbs; next to cilantro, that is!

They look like seashells!

After reading Joel's post about cooking these I decided to follow the prepping and cooking directions on the puff pastry box. I didn't roll out the dough, I left it the size it was. I also baked these at 400 degrees for 15 minutes as it suggested. They turned out great. Well, since I had half a bowl of pesto left and another puff pastry sheet already thawed out I decided to try a quick version of this recipe. Making pinwheels and trying to cut them is too labor-intensive for me! I patted my puff pastry dough into a jelly-roll size pan and spread the remaining pesto on top.

This is why it's called 'puff' pastry! You should have seen it in the oven; I thought it was gonna explode. It still tastes delicious though.

I cut these into squares with scissors;

 guess what I had for breakfast with a glass of soymilk?!

Cold Coconut Curried Noodle Salad~pg. 80

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

I love rice noodles; such a nice change from regular wheat noodles. I must have not made enough noodles because I had way too much sauce so I just used half of my sauce. Oh well, I guess I'll have to cook some more rice noodles! The recipe calls for a can of coconut milk. I buy the lite coconut milk. It has 60% less fat and calories than the regular coconut milk but it still tastes good.

I must be craving some greens because I also made Green Bean & Fennel Toss from "The Garden of Vegan"-pg. 115 and my favorite kale salad. I'll post the kale salad recipe separately. The Green Bean & Fennel Toss has fresh ginger sautee'd in dark sesame oil then stir-fried with snow peas, green beans, fennel and bok choy. Then it is cooked for another minute with Braggs, white wine vinegar and gomashio seasoning. It's green and delicious!

My dinner for tonight~I cleaned my plate!

Perfect Pesto Potato Salad~pg 88

Vegan Culinary Institute La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:



I LOVE basil! I could have eaten this salad warm but I'll wait and chill it awhile. I used cherry tomatoes instead of the sundried tomatoes and thawed frozen green beans. I'm going to serve this with some of the Kalamata & Sun-Dried Tomato Soda Bread (pg 265) we had made earlier. I sliced it and put it in the freezer so I can just take out a few slices at a time.

Day 4 Gerry's Artichoke Heart & Basil Pasta ~page 132

Here is today's offering for the Vegan Culinary Institute's La Dolce Vegan Challenge:

Since I love garlic, I added two extra cloves to my pine nut saute'. I had some leftover vegan eggplant parmesan that I served along with my pasta.

I had to show a side view of my dish-another beautiful handmade piece by Jeanette Zeis.