Tag Archives: vegan

Meatless Main Dishes

Baked Noodles and Eggplant

A layered eggplant and noodle casserole one-dish meal.  Make it vegan with a couple of simple tweaks.

Eggplants

  • 3 large eggplants, sliced
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • Oil and butter
  • 1 14-oz. can tomatoes
  • 1-1/2 lb. spaghetti noodles
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano
  • 4 hard cooked eggs, sliced thinly
  • 2 oz. grated Parmesan

Sprinkle eggplants with salt and let sit in colander for 30 minutes. Drain and dry to remove bitter juices before using in the recipe below.

Fry onion in 2 T oil until soft. Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Add a little water, if necessary, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Fry the drained and dried eggplant slices in a little oil until very tender, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

Cook the pasta until just tender. Drain and mix with tomato sauce and 1 T butter.

Butter a large oven dish. Spread a layer of pasta and sauce over the bottom; cover with a layer of eggplant and one of sliced eggs, and sprinkle with 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat all layers twice more. Cover with a thick layer of pasta and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 375º F for about 30 minutes or till golden.

Vegan Baked Noodles and Eggplant

To convert this into a vegan dish, use oil instead of butter to grease your oven dish. Slice 1-4″ thick rounds of baby zucchini and steam or sauté them in oil for a couple of minutes to soften, then use those rounds to replace the sliced egg in each layer. Replace the Parmesan cheese in the recipe with a faux-Parmesan blend made of coarsely ground raw cashews mixed with a little sea salt and nutritional yeast.


Desserts and Sweets

Meatless Mincemeat

Although true mincemeat, as the name suggests, usually contains chopped beef, beef suet (fat), and at times, venison, here is a tasty meatless version that’s great as a pie filling. Red wine can be substituted for the rum, if desired, but the favor will change accordingly.

Pyes of Mutton or biefe, must be fine minced and seasoned with Pepper and salte, and a lyttle Saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantytye a
lyttle vyneger, prunes, great raisings, and dates, take the fatteste of the broth of poudred biefe, and if you will have paste royall, take butter and yolkes of egges, & so temper the flower to make the Paste.

From "A Proper New Booke of Cookery," transcription of the edition in the British Library, published in 1575 by William How. Medievalcookery.com

Dried fruit and nuts

Meatless Mincement Ingredients:

  • 1 large firm, tart apple, finely chopped
  • 3/4 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fruit peel, chopped
  • 1/2 cup sugar, golden, packed
  • 1/4 cup butter, unsalted
  • 1/4 cup rum, dark
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon, ground
  • 3/4 t allspice, ground
  • 1/2 t nutmeg
  • 1/4 t ginger

Mix all ingredients together. Cover with a plate and let stand at room temperature up to 6 hours to meld flavors before using. Servings: Filling for 1 pie.

Vegan tweak:

Substitute coconut oil for the butter and orange juice or kombucha tea for the rum.