This day started off with a three hour tour of the Vatican. Now, I will admit that I am not a religious person but I do love art & history and I know that sometimes this is how we get to see some art, most especially the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) so we started our tour bright and early.
Click the photos to get the full beauty of them!
Before I get into the tour, let me tell you that you ABSOLUTELY MUST book the tour ahead of time and I recommend that you join a skip-the-line tour or else this will end up being an all-day event.
This day was a long day but it was also one of my favorite days because we did a 3 hour (and some change) tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. It was hot and sunny and the perfect day for this kind of sightseeing.
PLUS, I don’t know if you know this but Rome is kind of the perfect blend of old school and new school because they have these water spouts all over the city where you can refill water bottles, which is environmentally friendly and on a day like this day you can also splash some cold water on your face and arms to cool down and rinse away some of the sweat. I loved this and it came in handy for two thirsty tourists wandering around this ancient city.
When the tour ended we hit up this place, Aromaticus. Great name, isn’t it? Anyway it was a fully vegan bistro with fresh food and pressed juices. After the crowds at the Colosseum I was in desperate need for an immunity boost and I got one with ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper and lemon. It was the perfect shot and a smidge spicy, gave me just the pep in my step I needed.
Hello my favorite vegan foodies! I am back–sort of–from Italy so please bear with me because this week will be filled with all the delicious vegan food we ate in Rome, Italy.
I don’t know how much traveling you’ve done but depending on where you are in the world, finding vegan food can be quite a chore. In Germany, for example, it wasn’t too difficult to find vegan food at any of the food markets but finding a vegan restaurant meant schlepping all the way to Berlin. Sure, you could go to a vegetarian restaurant and cross your fingers that they didn’t forget there was egg or milk or cream in something, but that’s taking your belly health into someone else’s hands.
In Romania, finding vegan food outside of Bucharest and a grocery store? Next to impossible. There are a few good places hereand therebut it’s not that easy.
In Rome? Easier than I anticipated.
Like any good vegan we did our homework before we arrived so we had a list of half a dozen places where we could eat each day. Today’s post is what we ate on day one.
I found another new vegan food product! Today it’s pizza. It was pizza last time too, wasn’t it? Who knows, let’s just go with it because it’s vegan pizza and there’s never enough good vegan pizza in the world.
Today’s pizza, called “Kebab’ish,” is a unique twist on a classic dish, featuring a kebab-inspired flavor profile and all vegan ingredients.
Show of hands, who loves pasta? The easy answer is just about everyone except one girl I’ve known since I was a kid!
One of the pasta dishes I haven’t thought about in a long time is stuffed pasta shells. Back in the day I used to love it, bursting with bubbly cheese and a thick tomato sauce–usually from a can–I couldn’t get enough of it. But then as the years went by, I kind of forgot about it for years and years and years.
Until recently (well not so recently but these suckers aren’t easy to find in Europe) when I found myself watching some non-vegan cooking show and what did I see? Stuffed pasta shells. I looked everywhere, at all the grocery stores in town, even online and there was nothing.
Then one day at Lidl, which does a fantastic job of bringing in specialty items from week to week, I saw a giant bag of pasta shells. Score!
I still had a box of silken tofu in the fridge for just this purpose so I knew what would happen, and SOON.
So, if you’re looking for a delicious and easy vegan twist on the classic stuffed pasta shells recipe, look no further! This recipe uses silken tofu as a substitute for ricotta cheese, and is filled with flavorful vegetables such as spinach, onion, tomatoes, garlic, and bell peppers. Plus, the addition of tomato paste adds a rich and savory depth to the filling.
Back in my early 20’s I spent a lot of time learning, or rather re-learning how to cook because my grandmothers cook mostly soul food and my dad was (and is) a huge steak eater and that was pretty much my culinary education. Well unless you count making those Lipton rice packets and ramen noodles, a la nearly every college student ever.
Anyway I watched a lot of Food Network to learn more about cooking. The basics, different ingredients and how they worked together, why we do certain things like rinse or drain pasta. I learned a lot and one of the things that stuck with me was a love of orecchiette.
Weird, right?
Anyway Tyler Florence, Rachel Ray and even Ina Garten used these little pasta “ears” in a variety of ways that I always enjoyed and so whenever I find them, they find their way into my shopping cart. That’s just the way it is.
Not sure what orecchiette is or how to identify it, check it out here.
When it was my partner’s turn to cook I have him just a few parameters about what I wanted: orecchiette, lemons, capers and vegan tuna. “Do what you want,” was my only other direction and this dish is what he came up with.
Vegan tuna, lemon & caper pasta recipes
It’s simple and delicious and earned him two gigantic thumbs up. Ok, I have normal size thumbs but you get what I’m saying, right?
Let’s get to the kitchen and make some vegan food!
I don’t know how to say this without sounding weird so I’m just gonna say it. I have an ongoing love affair with mushrooms. I LOVE some Pleurotus(oyster) mushrooms and I will use them whenever possible. They are great as a vegan meat alternative, especially if you’re looking for something like Vegan MInce Stuffed Mushrooms, Shredded Vegan BBQ Pork or King Oyster scallops, but they also work well in so many vegan applications that I literally never get tired of eating them.
But there’s also shitake mushrooms, enoki and even wood ear mushrooms, which are great pickled, all of which hold special places in my heart. But chanterelle mushrooms? These elusive beauties are hard to find in even the largest grocery stores throughout Europe so you know when I find them, I always grab a box. Or two.
Chanterelle mushrooms for vegan recipes
There is just one huge, glaring downside to Chanterelle mushrooms. They are dirty. So, so dirty. And yeah, that is a good thing because they are natural and all that jazz, but they can also be a gigantic bitch to clean. After many years of trying–and failing–different methods of cleaning chanterelle mushrooms without noshing on grit and rocks, I’ve finally figured it out and I’m going to share it with you because everyone should be eating this fungi especially if you’re vegan and doubly especially if you have a mushroom addiction.
As soon as I spotted these golden babies I knew exactly what I wanted. Okay well not exactly but I knew tagliatelle pasta would be involved and some kind of cream sauce. So when I got home, that’s where I started and this is where I ended up.
Chanterelle mushrooms & creamy vegan pasta sauce
What’s your favorite quick and easy vegan dinner recipe?
Let’s be honest with ourselves if not each other, shall we? Some nights you just don’t feel like making a delicious vegan dinner but in the spirit of being a responsible adult who doesn’t want to waste money on crap, we do it anyway.
Some nights the result isn’t worth the effort. Some nights it is.
Instead of making due with crappy or greasy vegan takeout meals that are nutritionally imbalances, gross or just filled with processed foods, how about we try to find ways to make the results worth the effort.
How?
For starters, 30 minute meals. Whether you’re a parent, single or merely part of a couple, 30 minute vegan meals are a great way to get a healthy vegan meal on the table without a lot of hullabaloo.
(Like that word, don’t ya?)
The other night I was very hungry because some days I am always hungry, but I digress. I wanted food but it was incredibly hot outside (over 30 degrees Celsius) and spending time in the kitchen did not sound like any kind of fun. But adult here and so I had to, plus it was my night to cook.
So I went to the pasta cabinet and grabbed this tomato tagliatelle I found at Lidl that had no eggs, no milk powder, and no other unnecessary animal products. From there I grabbed a handful of ingredients and I was ready for something tomato-y, a little bit spicy and above all else, delicious.
Enjoy this simple vegan Tagliatelle Arrabbiata
30 minute vegan pasta dinners
Grab your ingredients and get in and out of the sweltering kitchen in thirty minutes. Or less!
Today’s post is just going to be a quickie Konjac alfredo because I found a bunch of different konjac noodles and they are just SO low in calories and vegan that I just had to check them out.
Are you familiar with Konjac? I wasn’t, not even a little so I stood there in one of the aisles of Lidl while I Googled, “What the hell is Konjac?”
Turns out it’s a root plate from Asia, called Amorphophallus konjac. Who knew?
Certainly, not me but I had to try it out for my blog readers as well as my waistline.
For this vegan chicken alfredo, I used the tagliatelle pasta but there were several others that I tried out that had the same nutritional content, they were just available in different cuts of noodle.
I’m not sure if you guys know this or not because for the past decade or more I have been in Germany and then Romania, but I am a Chicago girl at heart. It is the city of my heart, the place where I fell in love with big cities and traveling. And though it has been a long time since I’ve been home and taken advantage of all it has to offer, I was recently in the mood for a bit of home.
When you think of Chicago cuisine there are probably just a few dishes that come to mind. Deep dish pizza and Chicago style hot dogs. Since I have never been a fan of hot dogs, I visited my hometown via deep dish pizza which I veganized and–tried–to reduce in, well everything.
It’s important to note that being from Chicago I am a bit of a deep dish pizza (and all pizza) snob. Not all deep dish pizzas are created equally. Some have too much sauce or the sauce is too thick or not seasoned enough, sometimes the crust is too doughy because some people love to go CRAZY with the pizza toppings/fillings.
And since I was making my own vegan deep dish pizza, I decided to address a few of those concerns and improve upon it for us. Also because my husband has only ever had deep dish pizza once in Chicago and I needed to make sure he loved it enough that he would be willing to try this one.
And the next one…
So here is my vegan version of Deep Dish Pizza!
Vegan deep dish pizza ~ Jalapeno, Cheese & Veggie Deep Dish Pizza
This vegan pizza recipe is delicious and fairly easy to make so I hope you give it a try!
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
the-spicy-spatula.com 
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