I love sun dried tomatoes. Sweet Christ, I love them.
One day, about a month or so after I got interested in cooking, I started to crave sun dried tomatoes. Nothing else would do.
So, I looked up some recipes and whipped together a nice dish. It became a part of my weekly cooking repertoire for a while. But over time, it left my menu.
Why?
Well, I suspect it’s because the recipes I originally used called for cream and a shit ton of milk. The cream itself wasn’t a problem. I could just never find the right quantity at the store and it’d go bad before I’d use it all.
Over that same period of time, I started switching to vegan-when-possible ingredients. That is, if I can reasonably substitute in a vegan ingredient that isn’t processed to oblivion, then I will.
The other night, I put it all to the test, mixing together vegetable stock and oat milk for the sauce. Melanie said it was the best batch I ever made and so now it shall forever be immortalized here. (Or until I forget to pay the hosting fee of the website and it all disappears overnight.)
This recipe obviously isn’t vegan. But you could just as easily leave the parmesan cheese out and get it a step closer to vegan. You still have the greek yogurt to contend with. If that’s an issue for you, there are vegan creams you can use to substitute it. But I’m not a vegan, so I didn’t put the effort in for you. Sorry.
In terms of portions, my wife and I can clean this up easily. But if we had a side salad, one bowl each would probably suffice and we could have some leftovers. We’re also not the greatest at portion control, so if something tastes really good––as this does––we’ll keep eating.
Now enjoy.
Sun dried tomato pasta
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/4 cup greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup vegetable stock
- 3/4 cup oat milk
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated leave out to make vegan
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 300 g pasta (about half a bag) I prefer a flat egg noodle
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 small-medium onion
- 4 cups spinach
Instructions
- Take the ingredients for your sauce (sun dried tomatoes, basil, yogurt, vegetable stock, oat milk, tomato paste, parmasean cheese, salt) and mix them in a pot Turn up the heat slightly so it reduces but mix every now and again to stop the yogurt from curdling.
- Heat a large pan with olive oil and sautee your onions. When ready, throw in your garlic and spinach. Your spinach should shrivel up. Once that happens, throw the sauce in and continue reducing.
- While that's cooking, throw your pasta in a boiling pot of water. Once the noodles are cooked, scoop out about a 1/2cup of pasta water (or a ladel full) and toss it into your sauce.
- Drain the noodles and move them into the pan with your sauce. Add the noodles little by little, mixing them in evenly.
- Take it off the stove once everything is mixed together nicely. You can add a little more parmesan cheese on top or leave it out if you're going vegan.
