VeganMofo 2013: Post 20–Healthy(ish) Italian!

Howdy everyone!  I made it to 20 posts in 24 days!  Who’d thunk it?  (is that how you spell that?!?!?)

Anyway, after consuming WAY TOO MUCH peanut butter fudge on Sunday (I needed the energy while I cleaned the house (for the first time since about April – the vacuum cleaner represses me by its very existence, ok?)) I thought it would be a good idea to make something vaguely healthy for dinner.  That, and I’d bought amazing basil and tomatoes on Saturday.

So I made bruschetta which was the very first recipe that I made for Cam on our first date.  Granted the bread I used isn’t as glamorous as the loaf of white bread I bought on a Saturday night from the BP, but it still is one of our favourite things to eat and be ridiculously romantic dorks.

Bruschetta – feeds two hungry vegans for an entree

Ingredients

• 1 small red onion, chopped finely
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced (I use the microplane, so it’s practically pureed)
• 4 large tomatoes, chopped into 1cm or so pieces (they have to be GOOD tomatoes, I tend to get the ones on the vine in the supermarket for this)
• 1 large bunch o’ basil, finely chopped
• 2-3T of olive oil (never measured, just generally slug it in)
• 2 tsp salt (you may want less, or more – the more salt, the more liquid leaches out of the tomatoes – you want that)
• Fresh cracked black pepper

Throw it all in a large bowl – collect the juices as you go from the tomatoes.  Leave it sit for about half an hour.  You’ll end up with a soupy kind of dip.  We like it salty, but everyone has their tastes!

Serve on lightly toasted bread (preferably something fancy-ish).

The leftover dip/sauce is amazing on pasta.  Sure, your breath will stink, but you don’t want to be near any silly sparkly vampires, do you?

For mains we had Raw Vegan Alfredo Sauce with Zucchini Noodles.  I was inspired by Like a Vegan’s Raw Zucchini Pasta with Pesto, but thought that two basil heavy dishes in one night was a bit much.  Definitely on my to try list.  I love her blog! 

I’ve never been much of a fan of the raw vegan thing, but this was pretty damn good.  I want a spiralizer, but seeing as I just ordered an ice-cream maker, I think I need to wait!!!  Anyway, now that it’s getting warmer, I want to try a few more raw recipes to see what they’re like.  Any suggestions?