Category Archives: Make This Food

A collection of my favorite recipes.

Make This Food

Recipe: Vegan Lasagna with Basil Cashew Cheese

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This recipe is from one of Melanie’s fav blogs, Oh She Glows. Photos are mine from tonight’s cooking session!

Tonight Melanie whipped up some amazing vegan lasagna and I thought I owed my vegan friends a yummy recipe to get us through this cold, snowy snap in Portland.

This lasagna is amazing!

First, whip up your cashew cheese:

Yield: ~1 cup

  • 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 30+ mins
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 cup vegetable broth or water (or more as needed)
  • 1.5 cups fresh basil leaves (lightly packed)
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (gives the cheese flavour)
  • 3/4-1 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) + freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder (optional)
Blending everything up for the cheese.

1. Drain and rinse soaked cashews. With the food processor turned on, drop in your garlic cloves and process until chopped. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Always wash your basil!

Preparing the Lasagna

2. We used 2 jars of Muir Glen Garlic Roasted Garlic organic spag sauce to save time.

3. Her recipe also calls for sautee’d veggies, we skipped this step and went with a more traditional lasagna.  If you want to include veggies:

Her recipe calls for chopping 1 sweet onion, 1 large red pepper, 2 small zucchini, 1 cup of cremini mushrooms, and minced 3 garlic cloves.

4. Boil the lasagna noodles.

5. Layer your lasagna as you wish.  We went with sauce, noodles, cheese, mozz cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese.  Our local store was OUT OF DAIYA so we gave Follow Your Heart a try and had to shred it at home.  Not too bad, but I am a Daiya snob so next time I will be sure to use that.

Building the lasagna!
Shredding your own

6. Bake in the oven at 400 for 40-45 minutes.

Before the baking part

7. Allow to sit, uncovered for 5-10 minutes.

After the baking part

8. Enjoy!

Make This Food

Recipe: Double Bacon Cheeseburger a.k.a. “The One Bun Solution”

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The rain has returned to Oregon, so for lunch today I craved something hearty.

But I had a problem…I only had one hamburger bun.

Soon, a smile crept in and I decided it would be National Vegan Junk Food Day in my house, and at that very moment.

WARNING:  This is not a fancy recipe.  It’s a bachelor version.  Heat, serve, stuff.

Things that make you go YUMM
You will need:
  • 2 Vegan burgers (my fav are currently sold at Fred Meyer)
  • 2 slices of Daiya Vegan Cheese slices
  • 4-6 slices of Tofurkey Bacon Tempeh
  • ONE BUN
  • Condiments of choice.

1. Grill your burgers on the grill and add bacon slices about half way through.

Not the most appealing image, but at least it’s VEGAN.

2. Add the Daiya when the burgers are just about ready.  I used an electric grill, so I had to hold the lid down close to the cheese so the heat would melt it, but not too close that it stuck.

3. Once the cheese is melted, build your burger!

4. Enjoy at once.

Make This Food

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Alfredo

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This is one of our fav recipes from Post Punk Kitchen, where I plagiarized borrowed it, with love.

Check out PPK’s main page here.

Photo: Post Punk Kitchen

Serves 4
Total time: 1 hour (plus cashew soak. 30 minutes if using canned butternut.)
Active time: 20 minutes Continue reading Recipe: Roasted Butternut Alfredo →

Make This Food

Recipe: Garlic Mayonnaise Potato Salad with Toasted Hazelnuts

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Me enjoying this salad in Moab, UT. Okay, make fun of my shoes then move along.
Me enjoying this salad in Moab, UT. Okay, make fun of my shoes then move along.

When we are on the trail, one of our fav things to toss in the ARB is some potato salad. Its pretty easy to make, keeps well, and is filling.

While we were in Moab, Melanie made up a batch of my FAVORITE potato salad, from the Cornucopia Restaurant cookbook.  This is the best vegan restaurant in Dublin, Ireland and is my staple (the staff remember me, how scary is that) every time I am there.  So, buy their book!

Whip up a batch of this amazing salad!

Borrowed, with love from their cookbook (convert your stuff here, I kept it metric to look all fancy and stuff):

You will need:

  • 150g hazelnuts
  • 1kg baby potatoes
  • 50g (medium bunch) parsley

Garlic mayonnaise dressing:

  • 100g good-quality mayonnaise (Scott: I suggest veganaise)
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped roughly
  • Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast them for 8 minutes. Set them aside to cool and then rub them between your hands to remove the loose skins.

Chop the baby potatoes into bite-sized pieces – either halves, quarters or slices, depending on how big they are.  Place them in a large pot, cover with lightly salted cold water, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender.  Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by blending the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and garlic with a stick blender or in a food processor.  Season with salt and pepper.

When the hazelnuts and potatoes are cool, place them in a large bowl. Chop the parsley and add it to the bowl, reserving a little for garnish. Fold in the dressing evenly, taking care not to break up the potatoes.  Serve sprinkled with parsley with a crisp green salad.