Vegan Recipe – Spaghetti Squash “Pasta”

In the new year, I have been trying to increase the amount of whole foods that we consume.  To me, this means coming up with creative ways to eat less processed food and re-think traditional meals.  I have already experimented with (and found that I love) cauliflower rice, so I decided to try spaghetti squash pasta next.

I followed these instructions from Colorful Eats for preparing the squash.  First you bake it a bit, then you cut it open and clean it out a lot like preparing a pumpkin on Halloween.  Then you use a fork to scrape out little shavings from the inside of the squash.  This took a whole lot of wrist strength, to the point where I felt that I maybe undercooked the squash.

Cleaned squash on the left, Squash shavings on the right

Once I was done preparing the spaghetti squash shavings, I mixed them with everything I would put in a typical Italian pasta bowl.  I added kalamata olives, tomatoes, basil, garlic, and just a little bit of a red pepper spread.

It has a little bit of a crunch in comparison to spaghetti, and the pieces are obviously shorter, but it’s got the feel of a bowl of pasta without the guilt.  Eric happily ate the leftovers on another night.  He said that he would eat it again, and so would I, but I’m not sure it was worth the effort.  It was kind of a pain to prepare, especially in comparison to the incredibly easy cauliflower rice.

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Rising Moon Organics Artichoke and Olive Ravioli

When I saw that Viva La Vegan Grocery had Rising Moon Organics vegan ravioli, I knew I had to get it.  I love ravioli, but can’t ever find vegan filled pasta.  I have made my own stuffed shells, but ravioli is a little more involved, so I haven’t attempted it.  There were a few different flavors, but this one sounded best to me.

Ravioli takes no time at all to cook, so these were ready in no time.  I wanted to really taste the filling and not let the sauce compete, so I used a regular marinara sauce rather than the Victoria Vegan Alfredo sauce that I got at Viva La Vegan Grocery.

The ravioli were literally stuffed to the point of firmness, so you really get a lot of filling.  And that filling… I loved it!  The soy ricotta was great and the artichoke and olive flavors were wonderful with it.  I will definitely be buying this again.  From a quick look at their website, it looks like some Whole Foods carry them.

Beyond Meat Retail Packages and Victoria Vegan Roasted Pepper Alfredo Sauce

If you haven’t heard of Beyond Meat, they first introduced their plant based meat-free product in the prepared food section of Whole Foods.  This meant that they often ran out, the quality was uneven, and you could only get certain recipes.  I was only ever able to try the sesame recipe from our local Whole foods and lucky for me, the quality was great.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to their retail packages so that I could add their Chicken-Free Strips to any recipe.  A few months ago I decided to try it with bow tie pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, and Victoria Vegan Roasted Pepper Alfredo Sauce.

That sauce is awesome!  It’s super flavorful and very creamy… Eric even loved it.  However, the Beyond Meat left a lot to be desired.  First of all, it was in way bigger strips than when it was sold in prepared foods.  Even when I ate meat I wasn’t interested in strips that thick.  I felt like I had to choke them down and even with a lot of tasty sauce, they seemed dry.

Here’s the final result.  It wasn’t a horrible flop of a meal, but I haven’t purchased Beyond Meat since and don’t think I am likely to again.  The Victoria Vegan Roasted Pepper Alfredo Sauce, however, will see the inside of my fridge again and again.

Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips

Truly healthy meat replacements are mushrooms, eggplant, and beans.

However, sometimes, you just want something that reminds you of what you used to eat.  Tofu, seitan, and tempeh are common and tasty meat replacements, that don’t resemble meat on their own, but do the trick in certain recipes.

There’s a relatively new product on the market that very closely resembles its meat counterpart, but is completely cruelty-free.  It’s called Beyond Meat.  For now, they just offer chicken-free strips, but I’m sure they are looking to expand into other products.

It isn’t widely available, but they did start offering it in the LA market a few months ago.  In this area, you can only find it at Whole Foods, and only in the prepared foods section.

A while back, I cooked some brown rice and veggies and tossed in the Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips in sesame sauce to make a heavenly rice bowl.

Looks just like chicken!

According to their website, the ingredients are: Water, Soy Protein Isolate, Pea Protein Isolate, Amaranth, Natural Vegan Chicken Flavor (Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavoring), Soy Fiber, Carrot Fiber, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Dipotassium Phosphate, Titanium Dioxide, White Vinegar

I love the product, I would just prefer to buy it plain, so that I could flavor it however I liked.  As of yet, I have only had the opportunity to try the sesame chicken recipe from our nearby Whole Foods, so that limits the options quite a bit.  Their website says that they will have retail packages available in stores in 2013.

Try it when it comes to your area!  Check out a list of the stores that carry it so far.