Lasagna Soup with TVP Sausage Crumbles

Lately on Pinterest I’ve been seeing all kinds of pins of lasagna soup. Say what? I had never heard of such a thing. But it sure looked tasty.

I did some Googling and found a few recipes that looked good. I decided to veganize an omni recipe (this one, specifically), as none of the already vegan recipes were speaking to me.

This recipe involves making sausage crumbles out of TVP. If you wanted to, you could just use Gimme Lean sausage crumbles, but I’m cheap and had a lot of TVP on hand so I decided to go the DIY route. Normally I never cook things in oil (preferring to steam-fry with water), but this is one exception as I wasn’t sure the TVP crumbles would work right without a bit of oil. If you give it a try let me know how it works out!

Also, I feel like I should apologize for my pasta choice. Macaroni is what I had in my cupboard and so macaroni is what I used. In a perfect world I would of use farfalle.

Lasagna Soup with TVP Sausage Crumbles

Sausage crumbles:

• 1/2 cup TVP
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 tsp molasses
• 2 tbsp soy sauce

Soup:

• 3 tsp oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes (Trader Joe’s brand is BPA-free, FYI)
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups dried pasta, preferably farfalle
  
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1. First let’s make the TVP sausage crumbles. In a bowl combine the dry ingredients (TVP and spices). In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients (boiling water, molasses, and soy sauce). Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and let sit 5 minutes.

2. While the TVP is soaking, heat up the oil in a pot over medium heat. Add TVP mixture and stir frequently. Cook 6 minutes or so. Add in onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft, around 6 minutes. Add oregano, red pepper flakes, and tomato paste. Cook 4 minutes, stirring often.

3. Add in tomatoes, bay leaves, and broth. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Add in pasta and cook until el dente (amount of time is going to depend on what kind of pasta you use). When done, add in basil. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to suit your tastes.

 

Note: Don’t add the pasta until you are almost ready to eat. It will just get mushy and gross. If you wanted to make this in a slow cooker, I would make the TVP sausage crumbles separately, then add all ingredients EXCEPT the pasta. Cook the pasta separately and then add to the slow cooker when you are ready to eat.

PPK Picnic!

After living in the Great White North for 26 years, I am very appreciative that I now live somewhere where one can picnic in February.

My PPK buddies and I met up for an awesome picnic this weekend. It was pretty spectacular. Behold:

The edamame corn salad from Veganomicon made by Kathy and Omer:

Peanut stew from Viva Vegan made by Autumn:

I made empanadas (dough from Viva Vegan) filled with Trader Joe’s soy chorizo and a can of their Cuban black beans. That soy chorizo is like crack to me, I can’t get enough of it. I normally don’t buy it as it isn’t the healthiest thing in the world, but it’s perfect for occasions such as this.

Kathy and Omer also brought cookies! Chewy-chocolate raspberry cookies from Veganomicon to be exact:

And last but certainly not least, Autumn brought key lime pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky! This is actually key limon pie. I had never heard of a limon before. Apparently it’s a combination of a lime and a lemon. Either way, the pie was crazy good.

Topped with Soyatoo:

Not to toot our own horns, but I love when I get together with my PPK buddies for potlucks…the food is just so darn good. By the end I had a very full, and a very happy, belly:

Ethiopian Feast á là Papa Tofu

Like most normal folk, I’m gaga for Ethiopian food. I was super excited to buy Kittee’s zine, Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food, when it was released last year. As soon as it arrived in the mail I excitedly tore into it, making a note of all the recipes I wanted to try (which happened to be almost ALL of them).

Once I had my accident things like getting to the store to stock up on Ethiopian food-making supplies was a challenge, and so this adorable zine sat patiently on my cookbook shelf.

I FINALLY managed to stock my pantry with the goodies I was missing…berbere, teff flour, and urad dal. This called for an Ethiopian feast!

First up we have the ye’gelbo gomen (kale). My husband won’t touch anything green, so I had the whole pot to myself. No complaints here.

We also had the ye’takelt allecha (gingered vegetables). This made a LOT. I was eating the leftovers for 4 days. But that just means deliciousness for 4 days. I cooked this for a long time in a covered casserole dish and the veggies broke down and were super tender.

When I go out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant, ye’miser w’et (lentils in a spicy gravy) is one of my favourite dishes to order. So of course I had to include that on our menu. Kittee offers up two versions in her zine, this is Version II. It was really good! Nice and spicy, just the way I like it.

We had some trouble with the injera “fake-outs” as Kittee calls them (her recipe is gluten-free), but that was our mistake, not her’s. I’m looking forward to trying them again…next time I’ll pay closer attention to the instructions!