VeganMOFO: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I've only made gnocchi one other time before, and it was a miserable soggy failure of sorts. But these! Beautiful little nuggets of yum!  I used the recipe for the sweet potato gnocchi from Chloe's Kitchen, but veered off-course from the recipe for the sauce (It was basically a sage + butter sauce, and I couldn't find fresh sage at the farmer's market.) I just added some dry spices and lots of fresh garlic to the melted Earth Balance, and threw in some zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and kale to up the health factor (as healthy as something can be, in a butter sauce!)  This was so so good. It made a ton too, so it was a meal for a few days (which also means, garlic breath for days!)

Totally an Autumn meal. It's been chilly for the last few days here and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Seriously, summer-time in NYC is brutal and I am so excited to put on layers and hoodies and stripey socks and drink endless cups of hot tea. Autumn-4-evah.

VeganMOFO: Stuffed Shells and Garlic Knots

I bought Chloe's Kitchen recently, so I've been cooking some things from it recently. First up were the Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce. I had a homemade Arrabbiata sauce in Italy a million years ago, that was the best sauce ever, and I'm amazed it has taken me this long to make a homemade version of it. This version was tasty, but didn't quite live up to the memory I've totally put up on a pedestal in my mind. This was pretty simple, but took a bit of time for each component to come together. I switched up her garden ricotta and added cashews to make it creamier. Warning if you have this book and were thinking of making the recipe: there is not even close to enough filling for a shells that are called for! I had lots of sad leftover cooked shells that gave me a sad-face. I hate it when the ratios don't match up!

 I think I want to do a stuffed shells, part 2 later this month, and come up with a different filling. Tofu ricotta is yummy and all that, but I think it would be fun to come up different fillings, ones that have more of a texture and flavor. Will report back!

Now let's talk about the garlic knots. These were amazing, super-simple, and Nik and I devoured them. Mostly Nik.  I had froze half of the dough, because it said it made 40 knots (and that seemed like a lot for just two people.) Nik ate most of them and I unfroze the dough the next day to go with our stuffed shells leftovers. Definitely a keeper. Also, it's kinda fun tying dough in cute little knots.