Vegan Recipes

Did you know that aquafaba (the brine from a can of chickpeas) works very well as an egg replacement for many recipes, including fresh pasta.

The chickpea brine gives protein to the mixture and elasticity to the dough which is easy to roll exactly like an egg dough. Only the colour is lighter (not so yellow) but I don't see this as an issue, and you can always add a pinch of saffron to the aquafaba if you like your pasta more yellow. The taste is perfect and the pasta dries very well, and cooks well too. Plus the taste is great!

Alessandra's Vegan Homemade Fresh Pasta

200 g high grade flour (plus more for dusting)

150 ml aquafaba

Serves 4

Mix the ingredient until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Divide the dough into small pieces (about 6-8) and pass through the rollers of a pasta machine, starting from the larger setting down to the thinner setting. Don't skip settings, every piece of dough will need to go through all the settings one by one, dust with flour if the sheet of pasta looks too sticky and you find it difficult to put it through the settings. After the last setting (or the second to last if you prefer your pasta thicker) cut the pasta to your chosen shape. I made tagliolini here. Dust with more flour and roll the pasta into 'nests', place on a try lined with a clean tea towel and let it dry (if not using immediately). Keep it in a dry place and it will last a few days (I haven't tried to leave it for too long, but usually I do make pasta one or two days ahead). To cook: place the pasta in salted boiling water and stir immediately, it won't take long to cook, if it is very thin it will take just a couple of minutes. Drain and serve with your favourite sauce.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

To make gnocchi you need big floury potatoes, like agria, wash them and boil them with the skin. Do not peel first! Peel the potatoes only after they have been boiled, then press with a potato ricer. This is very important, if you you a blender or food processer you will not get the right texture.

I added a bit of cooked pumpkin too (not necessary, but I had it!). Then salt, pepper and ground nutmeg. And then a bit of flour, enough to get a workable dough. There is no exact dosage really, it all depends on how floury are your potatoes, and adding pumpkin does require a bit more flour too.

Take a piece of potato dough and roll it into long strips, then cut off the gnocchi.

The gnocchi is ready! Cook in salted boiling water and as they rise to the surface remove with a slotted spoon and place in the pot with the sauce of your choice.

A low fat, high protein vegan dish

1 bunch of cavolo nero

1 shallot

1.5 l vegetable stock

1 can chickpeas

plus the same amount of water

1 cup of small pasta 

salt and pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Wash the cavolo nero and remove the white stalks. Slice the shallot. Put everything in a pot with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the content of the can of chick peas, plus a can of water. Simmer for other 30 minutes then blend with an immersion blend, but not too finely, leave some of the chickpeas whole. Bring back to the boil, add the pasta and simmer until the pasta is al dente. Taste for salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil before serving. It is actually better the day after!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Quick Risotto di verdura

Ingredients

1 small onion

1 small carrot

1 celery stalk with leaves

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp chopped parsley

400 g carnaroli rice

1 glass white wine

1.5 vegetables stock

1 portion of frozen spinach

4 tbsp frozen peas

Chop the onion, carrot and celery, then sauté with olive oil. Add the parsley and rice, then a glass of white wine. Add the vegetable stock ladle by ladle, stirring constantly. Halfway through cooking add the spinach, and 5 minutes before finishing add the peas. Serve hot.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 Outside Italy it is very difficult to find fregola, but Israeli couscous is readily available in many shops now, and can be a great substitute. 

Fregolotto

1 small onion

1 capsicum (any colour)

1 celery stalk with leaves

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

400 g fregola (or Israeli cous cous)

1 cup Italian tomato passata

1.5 l vegetables stock

Parsley and cherry tomatoes to decorate (optional)

Chop the onion, capsicum and celery, then sauté with olive oil. Add the fregola and stir, when hot add the Italian tomato passata and then, ladle by ladle, the vegetables stock, stirring constantly like when making a risotto. When the fregola is cooked and all the liquid absorbed serve, decorated with parsley and cherry tomatoes (optional).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 Chop the red onion and sauté with olive oil. Add cut and peeled pumpkin, a celery stalk with leaves and some vegetable stock. When the vegetables are cooked blend the soup, adjust with salt and pepper and then decorate with fresh thyme and rosemary flowers (these can be eaten and will give the soup a lovely rosemary flavor without any of the woody leaves!).

Chop one large leek and wash it, then sauté with olive oil until soft. Add one cup of shelled edamame (I used the frozen ones) and sauté until the edamame are starting to cook. Add 400 g arborio rice and stir, when the rice is hot and starting to toast add a glass of white wine at room temperature (not chilled). Stir and after the wine has been absorbed add about 1 l of vegetable stock, one ladle at the time, stirring often until cooked. 

Serves 4

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

The sauce is a bit like a caponata, or at least, the caponata that I make! Eggplants and capsicums are more affordable now, and are among my favourite vegetables:

Ingredients:

1 eggplant,

3 capsicums (red, yellow and green)

1 stalk of celery (optional)

1 garlic clove (peeled)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (plus some to drizzle)

one 

2 tbsp black olives

a few capers

salt to taste

Cut the eggplant into cubes and sweat with salt for 30 minutes. Rinse well. Cut the capsicums into cubes as big as the eggplant, and the celery cut into thin slices, if using. Place all the veggies plus the garlic into a pot that can be covered with a lid, add the olive oil and sauté for a few minutes, then cover and simmer on low for about an hour, adding a little water from time to time and stirring often. I usually add the olives, capers (rinsed) and salt halfway through the cooking (actually, I add them when I remember...) and cook until the eggplants are mushy and the other vegetables really soft. Cook the pasta al dente (I used rigatoni) and dress with the vegetables, adding a little more olive oil at the end. I love this pasta :-)!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

After chopping all the veggies I felt that they didn't look bad: at least there was colour there! But not for long. After cooking everything with some vegetable stock, and blending it into a creamy soup, I had a strange yellow colour.

But the soup was good (I think that the coriander really works here)! The kids tried to guess: pumpkin? No. Kumara? No. I realized that they didn't remember what swedes and parsnips were! I think that the last time we had them (in a soup, as always) it was about 2 years ago!! And my husband? He liked the soup and said that it did not particularly taste of swede or parsnip anyway, and this, apparently, was a good thing :-).

Do you eat swedes and parsnip?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

This is a super quick, simple but tasty dish