Fettucine with (vegan) White Pesto

Oh my, this is my 300th post!

One of my pet peeves about special diet (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free, whatever) cooking is the convention of naming a recipe after a foodstuff that it kinda sorta resembles if you pinch your nose and squint real hard while you eat (e.g. Mock Sausage, Sugar-Free Caramel, Scrambled You-Won't-Believe-They-Aren't-Eggs, and all those plant-based "cheeze" sauces out there).

C'mon (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free, whatever) folks...you know these are tasty recipes that stand on their own without trying to stand on the shoulders of a "missing" ingredient.  The practice reeks of an inferiority complex and besides, you're inevitably setting your dining companions up for failed expectations if you tell them you will be serving something like is *almost* like sausage/cheese/eggs/etc. but isn't.

This is one such recipe.  It's from Christian Pirello of Christina Cooks and she calls it Vegan Fettucine Alfredo.  Actual alfredo sauce is buttered heavy cream, cooked down until it's super-thick and finished with fistfuls of parmesan cheese.  It's a heart attack in a pot.

This heart-healthier, plant-based "fettucine alfredo" is really NOTHING like real fettucine alfredo.  My husband made the snooty-face when he first tasted it because he was expecting something alfredo-y.

What it IS is awfully darn good once you get around that misnomer.  Once he got over his "this isn't alfredo" reaction, my husband loved it (ofc he did sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of his, because pasta just isn't pasta until there's a flurry of parmesan on top in his world).

What the recipe IS is a white pesto...the only difference between this dish and a "true" white pesto is the relatively small amount of parmesan cheese which is understudied in the vegan production by miso paste.  No need to pretend like it's alfredo...it's pesto!

My one serious deviation from her recipe (aside from changing the name) is to omit sweetener.  I'm not quite sure why, but she feels the need to put brown rice syrup in everything.  This dish doesn't need it.

Lastly, the pesto (as with all pestos) can be made in advance and frozen. Just thaw it and add it to cooked pasta.

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Chickpea couscous salad and Curried Chickpeas

I adore chickpeas, plain and simple.  I bought a 1 lb. bag of dry chickpeas at the store, and I'll be making 2 dinners from it.  One is chickpeas couscous salad and the other is curried chickpeas.  Both are prep/make-ahead friendly and freezer-kit-able.  Just awesome.

Couscous salad

First of all, you gotta cook the chickpeas.  You could buy canned chickpeas, but cooking your own is 1) cheaper, 2) not hard and 3) allows you to cook more flavorfully than what you'll get with canned. 

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight or do a quick soak by boiling them in a large pot with lots of water for 2 minutes, then cover them, take them off the heat and let them stand for 1 hour.  Drain and rinse.  Rinsing at this stage significantly reduces their, ahem, musical qualities. 
2. Cover again with water and bring to a boil.  Add 2 black tea bags (if you want), and reduce heat to simmer. 
3. Cover with the lid left slightly ajar and simmer GENTLY for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, depending on how much cronch you like your beans to have.  Don't cook them at too high a temperature or for too long, or else the skins will separate from the beans (and not in a good way...I screw up so you don't have to). 
4. Drain, measure out 1 or 2 cup portions (depending on how you plan to use them) and put in containers to fridge or freeze.

A reasonable schedule for doing all this is starting a long soak in the morning, draining and rinsing after dinner, and cooking while you're watching a movie.  

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