Happy Halloween Folks ~ Rocket and Roses Style

Happy Halloween All...I had so much fun making these seasonal treats!

I hope Halloween finds you all well..not too hungover from the celebrations this past weekend. I personally had a hangover yesterday...now this I wouldn't mind had I been drinking like a lush! lol. But no..I was at two parties on Saturday and at both I drank...water..yup..just plain old H2O. But yesterday when I woke up I felt like I had sunk a litre bottle of Jack Daniels. How is that fair? Doing the time without doing the crime is what I say...I may be able to apportion the blame at the damn Skittles we consumed throughout the evening party..well when a friend fills a huge bowl with them and mixes two different varieties then it would be rude to not join in the fun and try guessing the flavours. So maybe it was a sugar hangover...fun was had by all and I shall be back to my low sugar zone from today. lol Do we know how to party or what? ;o)

I'd had some bad news on Thursday and during the sleepless night I thought up wonderful ideas for a Halloween themed blog posting. Friday was lost in a kitchen blurr and I really do think it's better then any therapy for me. And the picture above shows some of the end results. I divided the yield in half and took one batch to the first party...my nephews 5th birthday party in the afternoon and the remaining half to our friends 'Wehoo we've paid off our mortgage party'. All were gratefully received and were eaten heartily. So I was very happy...

To me Halloween brings up images of toffee apples, bobbing for apples and fancy dress costumes. It has always been a fun day where you get to dress up in something silly and play party games. I have friends who abstain from the fun for religious beliefs and I completely respect that...for me and my family it's just always been a good excuse to have some harmless fun in amongst the serious hard times in life. I more than anyone needed to have some fun this week...and thankfully...I did! 

So with toffee apples in my head and the thoughts of beautiful carved pumpkins I set about making my spin on these traditional Halloween themes. I came up with Mini Spiced Apple Muffins dipped in Chocolate Lollies..instead of Toffee Apples. And Gingersnap Carved Pumpkin Face Cookies. Now I could claim I created these...and partially that would be true apart from two facts...the apple muffin recipe I adapted from a recipe My Love found online at wingitvegan.blogspot.com and the gingersnap recipe is Isa & Terry's from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar....the rest was me. lol.

Mini Spiced Apple Muffins Dipped in Chocolate Lollies

Mini Spiced Apple Muffins Dipped in Chocolate Lollies Makes 12
(Muffin recipe adapted from wingitvegan.blogspot. Assembly & inspiration Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)

3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
2 tbsp ground fflax seeds 
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 salt
1/2 cup soya milk
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/3 cup light brown soft sugar
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely diced

For the topping:
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon 

1 small bar of Dark Vegan Chocolate 

Preheat the oven to 375'F/190'C/Gas Mark 5. Have a mini muffin pan ready...if using a metal tray, grease the individual moulds...if using silicone just have it to one side ready. (I used a silicone one from a £1 shop and it worked fantastically ~R~) 

Mix the spice and sugar topping together in a small bowl and set to one side. Break the dipping chocolate into small pieces in a glass bowl that will fit on to the top of a small saucepan and set to one side. 

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, flax seeds, cinnamon, tumeric and salt. 

In a small bowl mix together the oil, milk, almond extract and brown sugar until the sugar has dissolved. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until it forms a loose batter. Then add the chopped apple and fold into the batter. 

Using a dessertspoon measure add a heaped dsp into each of the muffin cups. Topping up with leftover batter. Then using the spice topping sprinkle a good coating over each muffin. 

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 17 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for 3 minutes. Then gently lift out of the pan and leave on a wire cooling rack until cold. 

Naked Mini Spiced Apple Muffins...damn it skeleton leave them alone! lol

When the muffins are completely cold gently push in small wooden lollie sticks into the centre of each muffin tops. Be careful to not push them completely through! 

Boil a kettle and then part fill a saucepan and bring to a rolling simmer and place the chocolate bowl over the water and gently melt the chocolate. Line a tray or baking sheet with parchment paper. When the chocolate has fully melted..gently roll the bottoms of the muffins in the chocolate and then stand them on the lined tray or sheet until the chocolate is cold and set. They should lift easily of off the parchment. I used Oasis to display the lollies the right way up. 

Enjoy! I got great feedback for thses so I hope if you try them yourselves...you enjoy them too! ~R~ 

Gingersnap Carved Pumpkin Cookies

Gingersnap Carved Pumpkin Cookies Makes 32 cookies
(Gingersnap recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar/Moskowitz & Terry.  
Inspiration and assembly from the Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)   

1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1/4 cup of plain soya milk
2 cups of whole wheat plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Spice Blend: 
1/2 tsp each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon 
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger        

In a large bowl whisk together the oil and the sugar for three minutes. Add the molasses and the milk and whisk to combine. 

Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until it forms a dough like consistency. Then form into a ball and cover with cling film and place in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 350'F/180'C/Gas Mark 4 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. 

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness. Then using a pumpkin cookie cutter (or cookie shape of your choice) cut out the shapes and using a spatula gently place on the prepared sheets. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Then place in the oven and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool on the sheets for 2 minutes then transfer to wire cooling racks until cold. 

Naked Gingersnap Pumpkin Cookies...that skeleton gets everywhere! lol

To ice the cookies we used icing sugar, water and a drop of red and yellow food coloring to get the lovely orange colour and mixed the icing to a fairly thick consistency so it wasn't runny. And using a small palate knife I covered the cookies (not all..just over half of them~R~)  Then using up some of the leftover black vegan icing from my nephews birthday cake we cut out small triangles and used them as the facial features. And voila...Pumpkin Face Cookies..and again they were a huge hit. 

A tray of Pumpkin Cookies...more cute than menacing I think? lol

So for those participating in the festivities...I wish you all fun and giggles. And for those not participating..hang in there...by the morning it will all be over. Whatever you are doing..have fun. 

And thanks to wingitvegan.blogspot.com and Isa & Terry for the recipes that inspired me to make both these treats. 

~R~
               

Rocket and Roses Fresh Pumpkin and Black Turtle Bean Soup

Kitchen Play List: Colbie Cailat ~ Fallin' For You
                                     Vivian Green ~ Love For Sale
                                     Simply Red ~ Perfect Love
                                     Duffy ~ Stepping Stone
                                     Evanescence ~ Taking Over Me
                                     Shelby Lynne ~ How Can I Be Sure
                                     
Pumpkin season is upon us and I love it. Each year I try and find different ways of using the bright orange lovelies. I remember...now lol..with fondness a Halloween dinner party in which we all dressed up and I thought it would be a great idea to have pumpkin in every course. I did manage it but I was so over pumpkin by the end of the evening. And the remaining extra large pumpkin sat in my kitchen, I gave away as the prize for the best costume of the night. It was a full year before I could entertain pumpkin after that night..lol It was also the night my sister gave birth to my nephew M..a much better way to remember the evening with the bottle of champagne popping, when we got the call to say she and the little one were both safe and well. He will be five on Saturday..where does the time go? lol. 

This week I gave myself the challenge to come up with a new pumpkin soup recipe. Every year I will search online for new soup recipes but get so frustrated with the 'tinned/canned' pumpkin in most of the recipes I find. I have nothing against tinned pumpkin personally as longs as it's not chock full of preservatives. My preference is to use fresh pumpkins as it is with all veggies. The main issue is in the UK until recently finding the tinned variety was impossible. However three weeks ago whilst having a stroll around a quite expensive supermarket (I go to Oooh and Ahhhhh at the wonderful ingredients they stock and to pick up stock cupboard essentials that I can only buy from there!) I found some tinned pumpkin..."Great!" I thought..be good to have a couple of tins in my stock cupboard..only to recoil in shock at the price. For 1 14oz tin of pumpkin puree I would be charged...£3.00!! Nope..no way. We seriously need a Wholefood and Trader Joes chain here in England. 

So, armed with a ratty, ripped out of a notepad, piece of paper with the beginnings of a Pumpkin soup recipe that I had started about 15 years ago!?! lol I shut myself into the kitchen and this is the results. I had a 500g bag of Black Turtle Beans that I had bought from the reduced bin of our local supermarket so I put then in soak overnight, boiled them in fresh water for 10 minutes and then covered and simmered for 45 minutes. Drained and rinsed them ready to use in the soup. Cooked weight they came to 2lb 6oz. So I used the 2lb in the soup and reserved the 6oz to make up some hummus later. 

My ratty bit of paper really only had three ingredients written on it...leeks, potatoes and pumpkin?? So the paper went into the bin and I got started. And it really was an easy soup to make and I am very happy with it. Good job because we had to eat it for lunch all last week. lol. 

Rocket and Roses Fresh Pumpkin and Black Turtle Bean Soup

Rocket and Roses Fresh Pumpkin & Black Turtle Bean Soup Makes 10 large servings
(Recipe from the Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)

2 tbsp Healthy Rotina Cooking Oil or oil of your choice
3lb fresh pumpkin, peeled and chunked
4 med-large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 large leeks, trimmed and sliced
2 tbsp garam masala 
1 heaped tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp preground black pepper
salt to season to taste
4 pints of veggie stock 

2lb of cooked Black Turtle Beans or 2 14oz tins of black beans, rinsed and drained

Using a large curry or stock pan heat the oil and then add the prepped pumpkin, potato and leeks and stir well and often to avoid the potato and pumpkin sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the veggies are beginning to soften. Then sprinkle in the garam masala, tumeric and black pepper and stir well to coat all the veggies until the spices release their fragrances. Add the veggie stock and stir well. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered until the potato is cooked. Using a hand blender or regular blender and blitz until smooth and silky. Pour the soup back into the pan and add the beans and re-heat until the beans are cooked through. Serve...

First pumpkin of the season!

I would love to say that this lovely specimen is from My Love's gardens...technically that would be true but we couldn't take the credit for growing this lovely pumpkin. My kid brother G had a small allotment before he moved away and when his pumpkins were ready to be harvested they took up residence in one of My Love's greenhouses. (And..yes..G we took the smallest one! ;o) lol) So BIG THANKS go out to G for growing sure a great crop of pumpkins and letting us have one as our first pumpkin of the season! *hugs* ~R~ 

Update: G came for brunch/lunch and had a bowl of my soup and decided he liked it so much he asked me to cook him a batch for his freezer. l would call that a success..lol And now I have three more pumpkins from his crop to create with..Bonus! lol ~R~

Enjoy! 
~R~ 

Little One's Tales ~ M's Ben 10 inspired Birthday Cake

My Love's Kitchen Play List: BBC Radio 2 Jo Wiley Show
                                                        BBC Radio 2 - Elbow Live 
                                                        KT Tunstall ~ Eye To The Telescope
                                                        KT Tunstall ~ Drastic Fantastic 
                                                        KT Tunstall ~ Tiger Suit

A fantastic vegan birthday cake for a very special little nephew!

Can you tell My Love is going to see KT Tunstall next week? lol. 

It has been cake baking and decorating central in the Rocket and Roses house this week. Our lovely cheeky nephew M turns 5 this weekend. 5! 5? Blimey where do those years go, eh? lol. So it's our honour to make his birthday cake as we do for all the little ones and all big ones actually when we can. 

M started school this year and found Ben 10 which is some strange cartoon that is a boy that can turn into various monsters who fight the good fight against the bad guys and monsters. Ben does this by slapping his watch and then transforming into the relevant monster. Which means that M and our other nephew J run around slapping their wrists and shouting out weird sounding names. Followed by our niece N who is Gwen 10. lol. Oh well..it keeps them amused. lol. I used to run around pretending to be the Bionic Woman and sometimes Wonder Woman so who am I to judge. I think I also remember being a member of ABBA for my pal Sal too! lol.

When it came to cake selections this year the Ben 10 watch was My Love's idea and M's parents agreed. So it would be a fib to say that I made this one. A huge fib as I'm still not quite well enough to spend the hours it takes to make them yet. But as it was more of a Geeky project My Love took over the reigns and got planning. I have to say My Love has enjoyed the project a lot. 

Stage one of the cake making was begging our oven to bake the cakes needed and not cremate them. And what do you know...it baked them perfectly. lol. My Love used our old faithful vanilla sponge recipe as it's quite dense and can take the decorating well and it gets better taste wise the longer it lasts. I found this recipe a few years back on vegweb.com and it was posted by E-Man...so thanks there fella. lol. 

Originally My Love had planned a large rectangle as the base cake with a round cake for the top to form the watch but my expensive extra large brownie tin seems to have disappeared (muttering many expletives here! lol) so My Love had to come up with a plan B quickly. Which was to bake two large square and 1 round sponges. And the size of the tins that were used required a double batch of this recipe each time. Another good thing about this recipe..it doubles up and cooks lovely. 

Perfect vegan vanilla sponges from the left...lol

Perfect vegan vanilla sponges from the centre..lol

Perfect vegan....yada yada..you get where this is going eh? lol I couldn't get them all in the same shot just right..they were too beautiful not to photograph all..lol

Perfectly baked vegan vanilla sponges..thank you oven! lol. My Love was very happy with these...quite rightly so!

E-Mans Vanilla Cake   (One single sponge)
1 cup of plain white flour (sifted)
1/2 cup plain wholemeal (sifted)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup of sunflower oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of cold soy milk


Preheat the oven to 350'F/180'C/Gas mark 4. Line a nine inch round baking tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the egg replacer, milk, oil, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla until completely combined. In a separate bowl, mix white flour and wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Dig a well into the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the mixed wet ingredients. Gently stir the two together until it looks combined and until all large lumps are gone. Be sure not to overmix! Let the batter stand for 5 minutes. 

Pour the batter into the pan, place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 45 minutes.  

Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then leave out on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting or icing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

Armed with black, green and white vegan fondant icing and a bucket of jam My Love then went on to the Stage 1 of Icing....

Can you tell what it is yet? lol

Stage 2 took a couple of attempts as it became apparent the face of the watch was the wrong way round. So this is how it looked after much swearing patience required! But I guess it was better to find the mistake at this stage and not the next! lol 

Almost there...it's beginning to look monster/alienish..lol 

Stage 3 was the home run and I have to say I am mighty proud of My Loves cake. I sent my sister a photo of it and she said it looked fab. Job done..phew!

Hurrah! The cake is finished and just has to dry out..marvelous.

So a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY M!! and much love from us both...now we just have to get it to the party in one piece..Yikes. 

~R~  

Root Vegetable and Chickpea Casserole with Celeriac topping

Kitchen Play List: Brandi Carlile ~ The Story Album

Last week we enjoyed a romp through some Thai cuisine recipe testing and had a great time. Even if I did get a little tired of the chilli finger burn. Yes..I do have gloves but always forgot to wear them! In amongst these chilli filled days I got a craving for something less Thai and more simple. And I had some roots to use up so when I found this recipe..and the weather was filthy and chilling to the bone..I thought.."Why not?" Comfort food.

It was enjoyably savoury and the celeriac as a topping was unusual at first but very good, once used to the different texture and taste. It looks like fluffy potato so it's a shock to the taste buds at first! For my base I used a mix of swede, parsnip and carrot as we'd had a lot of potato lately. But it was a little too much 'root' for our usually root restricted bodies. We just simply don't eat starchy foods in great quantities but since being on the detox where they are limitless we got a little carried away with the novelty of having them. Ooops! lol. 

Besides our personal issues..ahem...lol. We did enjoy this dish a lot. I found it in Linda Majzlik's A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe.

 Root Vegetable and Chickpea Casserole with Celeriac Topping
(Recipe from A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe/Majzlik) 

1lb/450g mixed vegetables (e.g carrot, swede, turnip, kohlrabi, potato) finely diced
8oz/225g leek, trimmed, cut in half lengthways and sliced
8oz/225g cooked chickpeas
1 onion, peeled and sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
12 fl oz/350ml tomato juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp veggie oil
1 tbsp fresh fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
1 bay leaf
black pepper

topping:
2lb/9oog celeriac
squeeze of lemon juice
4 rounded tbsp plain soys yoghurt or drizzle of soy milk
finely chopped parsley

Fry the leek, onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes in a large pan. Add the mixed vegetables, tomato juice, lemon juice, thyme and bay leaf and season with black pepper. Stir well and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are almost tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the chickpeas. 

Peel and chop the celeriac and boil it in a large pan of water to which a squeeze of lemon juice has been added. Drain and dry off over a low heat, then mash, add the yoghurt or soy milk and mix thoroughly. Spoon the vegetable and chickpea mixture into a shallow casserole dish and for the celeriac  evenly over the top. Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 180'C/350'F/Gas mark 4 for 30 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with a green vegetable accompaniment.  

Enjoy!
~R~
 

Gardener's Broth

Kitchen Play List: Audioslave ~ Out of Exile Album

Brussel Sprouts! Do those two words make you want to run screaming from the room? They do huh? Well then this recipe probably isn't the recipe for you. They were the sole reason for making this recipe for me. Because I am one of those strange people that love sprouts. I can eat them raw in a salad...steamed in a bowl with nothing else...on the side of a veggie roast..almost anyway they come really...except when they have been boiled to mush or cooked with bacon..naturally! I have horrible memories of my Step-Grandmothers Sunday lunches with a pile of green gunge that was formerly known as sprouts. lol. Not good. But I have found with sprouts..for me anyway...it's how they are cooked that determines how much I enjoy them. Along with broccoli I could eat them for every meal...every day and never tire of them. Does this make me strange...well if so..I'm used to that lol. 

I was flicking through a very old cookbook from my cook book library..one my Aunt bought me when I first left home. So it's 23 years old..lol. Yikes I think I felt my bones seizing up! lol. 
I found this Gardener's Broth Soup recipe and it had the most beautiful photo and I scanned the list of ingredients and had them all so I set about making it. It's very simple to make but I omitted the double (heavy) cream/soy cream so it maybe wasn't as creamy as it should be but it was still a steaming hot bowl of green goodness and I enjoyed it massively. Another soup that will be made regularly. However not for My Love..sadly..who loves sprouts but they don't reciprocate the love..if you know what I'm saying..Ahem..lol. 

I cannot give credit where it's due and you know I hate that because it's from a generic mass produced 'Vegetarian Cooking' cookbook with no author name..just the publisher. So if it's your recipe..I thank you! 

Gardener's Broth _ A delicious steaming bowl of green goodness!

Gardener's Broth Serves 4
1 tbsp rapeseed or canola oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves,grated
1 large leek, trimmed and thinly sliced
250g/8oz of brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced
125g/4oz french or runner beans, trimmed and sliced
1.1 litres/2 pints/5 cups of veggie stock
125g/4oz/3/4 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp coriander leaves - fresh or dried
4 tbsp soya cream (optional)
salt and black pepper to season


Heat the oil in a soup pan and then saute the onion and garlic until they soften but have not browned. 


Add the leeks, sprouts and beans to the pan and saute for another 4 minutes. Then add the stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. 


Add the frozen peas, the seasonings and the lemon juice and coriander and continue cooking at a simmer for a further 10-15 minutes. Cool the soup a little and then blend until smooth. 


Return the soup to the pan and reheat for a further 5 minutes and add the cream if using. Serve. 


Enjoy! 
~R~

Susan V's Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf (GF)

Kitchen Play List: Thunder ~ Back Street Symphony Album

We love a good veggie/nut/bean loaf in this house and I love trying out as many new recipes as possible. I found this particular loaf recipe on the fab website FatFreeVegan.com. In the last year I have been having a reaction to gluten so when Susan V posted this recipe for a vegan loaf that was also Gluten Free I almost cried..OK maybe I didn't almost cry but I was very excited. 

However I did print off the recipe on the day Susan shared it but didn't make it until today. I just couldn't find Quinoa Flakes anywhere until  last month. Thank goodness for GoodnessDirect.co.uk. lol. 

I used Tamari instead of soy sauce and I used 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds in the place of walnuts. I also left out the rosemary as I don't like it. I baked mine in a large loaf tin (thank you Ikea! lol) and it had a total baking time of 55 minutes. 

Susan V's Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf...with veggie platter

Let me tell you..it tasted so good. I served it with low fat roast potatoes and parsnips and steamed carrots, swede, broccoli and brussel sprouts. My Love also had some veggie gravy on the side. (Yuck..can't bear gravy! Takes all sorts I guess..lol) I think this platter looks quite festive..this may be our Christmas dinner? So for the recipe click on the link below and I hope you enjoy the pictorials that follow. 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-meatless-loaf.html

So once you get started it comes together quite quickly..and then before you know it..you have this...

A lovely loaf awaiting a hot oven!

So then you wait for the 55 minute cooking time...the smell is divine..and then you put the parboiled potatoes and parsnips in to roast too...heaven. 

Hot and Toasty loaf straight from the oven..having its 10 minute sitting time

It came out of the pan easily as I'd lined it with paper and it held together really well as you can tell by the photos. The serving texture is a little soft but we enjoyed it anyway. 

Side shot of the platter with My Love's veggie gravy...lol

I know that we will be having this loaf many times...lol. It seriously is that good. 

The end result...slices of the lovely loaf..Tasty and comforting...everything a loaf should be!

So once again..thank you to Susan V for creating another fantastic recipe and for sharing it with us! I hope you make this loaf for yourself and enjoy it as much as we have. 

Enjoy! 
~R~

Rocket and Roses Asparagus, Tomato and Flageolet Bean Sauce with Courgette Spaghetti

Kitchen Play List: Simply Red ~ Simplified Album

I have finally been well enough, in the last week, to start putting pencil to paper and ingredients into saucepans and make a start inventing, creating or brewing (Cheek! lol) my own recipes. I really do hope I still have my mojo? lol. 

This recipe started to form in my brain whilst cruising GlutenFreeGoddess.com and found an posting about using raw courgette as a replacement for cooked pasta. I was intrigued by the beautiful photo of swirls of courgettes on the plate. Of course Karina has a super attachment that fits on her juicer that produces fancy thin stings of courgette. I don't so I've had to used my mandolin on the smallest julienne setting and hope for the best. lol. The courgette needs no cooking as the warm sauce takes off the crispness of the raw vegetable strips. I have been having a slight reaction to gluten recently so I was more than happy to give this idea a try. 

GFG serves hers with a Cashew Nut Cream sauce (click on the link at the bottom of this posting for GFG post) but I wanted to serve ours with a tomato based sauce. At first I was going to make Donna Klein's Garden Bolognese but then changed my mind. I had a lush bunch of asparagus in the fridge and the recipe came together very quickly from there. 

I started with a large, plump red onion then gathered together garlic, fresh tomato, veggie stock, flageolet beans and then the last ingredient was the Fines Herbes. I love this dried blend of herbs..Parsley, Chervil, Chives and Tarragon..you can buy them at any supermarket.

We both really enjoyed the sauce and luckily the flavours and textures all complimented each other. Phew! 

Now the 'raw' spaghetti! Completely works texturally and looks great even if ours was more of a linguine shape due to our mandolin. And one medium courgette per person is more than plenty and it works well as a base neutral 'pasta' like taste against the sauce. However...we both agreed that the coldness of the 'spaghetti' was a little off putting..so to combat this next time...and we will definitely be trying this raw spaghetti again...I will take the courgette out of the fridge in the morning so the veg will be at room temperature instead of chilled..Ooops!...and make sure the sauce/topping is very hot before serving and added right before eating..Ooops darn photos! lol. My Love also suggested warming the serving bowls or plates too. I'm quite excited about trying other sauces out with this raw spaghetti..who knew? lol.  

Rocket and Roses Asparagus, Tomato and Flageolet Bean sauce on Courgette Spaghetti

Rocket and Roses Asparagus, Tomato & Flageolet Bean Sauce with Courgette Spaghetti (Original recipe from the Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)

1 large red onion, chopped 
1 tsp rapeseed oil or oil of choice
2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp fines herbes
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" lengths..tips separated
1 14oz tin of flageolet beans, rinsed and drained
8 fl oz veggie stock
Salt and black pepper to season, to taste

In a skillet heat a little oil and saute the onion for 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to combine and cook for a further 4 minutes. Add the tomato paste and freshly chopped tomatoes and cook out until the fresh tomatoes have gone pulpy. Add the aspargus stalk pieces and the veggie stock along with the Fines Herbs and stir well to combine. Bring the stock to a gentle boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover and cook until the stalks are just tender. 

Add the drained flageolet beans and the asparagus tips to the skillet and stir well and cook for 4 minutes for the beans to be heated through and the tips are 'just' cooked. 

Courgette Spaghetti

Work on the 1 med courgette per person ratio. 

Courgettes, peeled and any large seeds removed

Stage 1 - Prepared courgettes

Using a spiral cutter, mandoline or a good old fashioned knife (and some patience which why I won't ever be using this method! ;oD ) Push down, glide over the blades or slice into thin lengths are then place each portion into the individual serving bowls. 

Stage 2 - Lot's of lovely 'raw' spaghetti

Then spoon over a sauce of your choice and then enjoy! Let me know what you think? ~R~ 

Stage 4 - Place the 'raw' spaghetti in the bowls

Close up of the sauce and raw spaghetti

The link below is to GlutenFreeGoddess.com and the original posting that inspired me to try using courgette/zucchini as a substitute for wheat or gluten free pasta. Thank you Karina..I constantly enjoy your blog! ~R~

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/raw-zucchini-pasta-in-vegan-curry-cream.html 

Enjoy! 
~R~