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Caleb was the one to stumble across Thug Kitchen's website, and he liked their irreverent approach to healthier cooking enough to buy me their first cookbook.
It's a vegan cookbook, but it's not the kind of vegan cookbook trying to fake people into thinking they're eating non-vegan. Thug Kitchen focuses on preparing vegetables, legumes, pasta, etc with a lot more flavor and care than they're frequently granted. If you're not eating vegan, maybe you know some people who can't eat dairy, maybe you're looking for some great vegetable-focused side dishes, or maybe you're participating in Meatless Mondays.... the Thug Kitchen cookbook is here to help you (unless profanity offends you, in which case, stay far away).
This roasted bell pepper sauce is one of the simplest, most delicious pasta sauces I've ever eaten. It also happens to be full of protein and vegetables. It's silky smooth and tastes like rich, creamy roasted red peppers, not at all like tofu. It's a little on the spicy side, so start small with the chili flakes you add. Make this sauce and serve it with pasta and zucchini noodles, as they do in the original recipe, or just make the sauce and slather it on toast, grilled chicken, chopped romaine salad, eggs, leftover rice, cornmeal pancakes, quiche, ... you get the picture, right? I added mine to zucchini noodles and sliced chicken jalapeno sausage.
Can't have soy? Try pureeing the equivalent weight (12 ounces) of steamed or boiled cauliflower with the rest of the sauce. It won't be as silky smooth or protein-rich, but it still tastes great. Aside from the silken tofu-for-cauliflower trade, each ingredient is important to the final outcome. Don't even think of omitting the nutritional yeast or red wine vinegar, they are what make this silky roasted bell pepper sauce as complex and multidimensional as sauces that are way less healthy.
Slightly adapted from Thug Kitchen cookbook
Silky Roasted Bell Pepper Sauce with Pasta, Zucchini, and Basil Ribbons
Ingredients
Silky Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- 12 ounces soft silken tofu or steamed cauliflower florets
- 2-3 red bell peppers roasted*, chopped
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast or grated Parmesan cheese
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Pasta
- 1 pound long pasta spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine
- 4 medium zucchini about 4-5 inches long
- 1 cup basil sliced into thin strips
Instructions
Silky Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Run on high until sauce is smooth.** Pour into a small saucepan and set aside on stove.
Pasta
- Bring a large pot of salted cold water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
- While pasta cooks, prepare the zucchini. Thinly slice with a knife or spiralize to create long zucchini ribbons that roughly mimic the shape and size of the pasta noodles. As Thug Kitchen says "don't spend all day trying to make this happen".
- A couple minutes before the pasta finishes cooking, start heating the sauce you made earlier. You want to warm it up, but you don't want to simmer it.
- Once the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it, and put it in a large bowl. Add the zucchini ribbons to the hot pasta, then add the warmed sauce. Toss everything together, so the heat from the pasta and sauce will soften the zucchini. Fold in the basil.
- Serve with additional red wine vinegar, salt,and red pepper flakes on the table.
Notes
Tightly wrap the charred red peppers in foil so no steam escapes. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
Peel the burnt skin, destem and deseed the pepper, then use.
These can be made up to 2 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
**Depending on your blender, you may need to add a little vegetable or chicken stock to get the puree going (I didn't, but I have a high-powered blender. Start with ¼ cup stock if your blender has trouble). Nutrition facts shown are for a 7 ounce portion of sauce as well as pasta.
This is probably the bet pasta dish I've ever eaten! I followed the original Thug Kitchen recipe (which is soooo close to yours), but omitted the oil. I've already shared your recipe with my friends who don't have the TK cookbook.