I Was A Teenage Vegan CookBlog

I was feeling a little lazy this weekend, so when faced with final forkfuls of the past fortnight’s stew I decided that this week’s dinner would be something simpler. I had a package of macaroni at my disposal and, pre-made tomato sauce being too much of a cop-out and homemade tomato sauce being too much of a commitment, I quickly settled on the idea of pesto. “Throw a few ingredients together in blender,” I thought to myself, “what could possibly go wrong?” Several grueling hours later I finally reaped my delicious rewards. I’m sure it would have been quicker had I a stovetop to work on instead of a single, underpowered hotplate. Adding a bunch of sauteed vegetables and tofu probably slowed me down as well. At least the pesto part was as simple as I expected it to be, though it ended up being rather blackish due to the unforgivable absense of fresh basil on my lame local greengrocer’s shelves.

Ingredients:

• A bunch of basil
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. garlic, chopped
• 1 box of pasta
• 1 block of tofu
• 1 forest of broccoli
• 1 fistful of kalamata olives
• 1 sack full of cherry tomatoes
• 1 red onion, sliced
• Spice

Equipment: Blender/food processor, frying pan, cutting board, large pot, sieve.

Music: Volcano! - Beautiful Seizure

Instructions:

1. Put basil, walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt in a blender or food processor and mix until pasty.
2. Heat a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan, then add slices of tofu and fry until browned. Add onion and some more garlic (why not) as well as miscellaneous italian-sounding spices, salt, and pepper and continue cooking.
3. Chop up broccoli, tomatoes, and olives and add them to the pan. Let the mixture simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. Fill a large pot halfway with water (the actual amount should be dictated by the size of your pot, not the directions on your box of pasta - don’t feel bad if you have to use one quart instead of, say, four) and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook until toothsome. Remove the pot from heat, drain the pasta, return it to the pot, and stir in the pesto.
5. Plate the pasta and top liberally with the tofu and vegetables.

The beautiful thing about this dish, aside from its considerable physical beauty, is that while it is just as simple to prepare as any of the concoctions I saw the Food Not Bombs folks throw together in my college kitchen, it is, unlike most of them, flavorful. I think that actually including spices helps a little bit (using non-decomposing produce may have something to do with is as well). Some pesto recipes say that you should toast the walnuts before you grind them up, and i’m pretty sure that they’d all recommend not using a jar of brackish, pre-packaged basil, but do I look like the type of person who a) owns a toaster oven, or b) gives a damn? Probably.