Vegan MoFo Day 1: Orzo in a Butternut Sauce

Hello all! Let us embrace the awesome that is October. Fall is here, leaves will soon be red, pumpkins are at their peak and VEGAN FRIGGIN' MOFO. There are countless other reason why October is near and dear to me, but for now, let's focus on the good eats. I've been trying to hit up the farmer's markets in my town as much as possible before they disappear until Spring again. Last week, they finally started selling squash! I opted for some butternut instead of pumpkin because my bag wasn't big enough to carry one. It resulted in a tasty orzo recipe with a rich butternut sauce! I certainly prefer standard pastas to orzo, but this was a nice way to force me out of culinary snobbery.

Butternut Squash Sauce
1 small butternut squash
3 tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 box of orzo
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs Earth Balance
1 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup soy milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel, seed and dice your butternut squash. Put in a 9x9 casserole dish and combine with olive oil and garlic. Salt and pepper it, and roast it for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your orzo according to the package. When the squash is finished, add it and the remaining oil in the casserole dish to a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor, minus the soy milk. Blend while adding the soy milk in a steady stream. You can add more or less soy milk depending on who thick you want your sauce.

Tomato Basil Cream Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti with Seitan Sausage

Yes, this meal was a mouthful, in regard to the title and nom factor. I've recently developed this obsession with blending tomatoes and cashews together. I would like to eventually experiment with other nuts, though. Heh, heh, experimental nuts.

My mom sent me home the other day with not only a belly full of BBQ tempeh, roasted potato medley, and green beans, but she sent me home with a load of fresh herbs from her garden. All the basics: chives, thyme, rosemary, sage, cilantro, and basil.

I recently bought the Vegan Yum Yum cook book, and I gotta say, it f*cking rules. There are several recipes that weren't on the site, and as the cover suggests, these are definitely decadent AND very doable recipes. Meaning I want to make sweet, sweet love to her baked macaroni and cheez recipe.

The tomato basil cream recipe sounded delicious and simple for sure, but I wanted to up the ante with some forbidden wheat gluten: Italian-style seitan sausage. I altered the recipe found in La Dolce Vegan and let it simmer in the tomato cashew sauce with some fresh basil.

This was the first time I ever tried spaghetti squash, and holy sh*t. The squash's innards just collapse into this stringy mass of, well, squash noodles. They have a nice crunch that nicely contrasts the typical texture of spaghetti noodles. Also, quite a few less carbs.