Sunday, October 4, 2009

Homemade Vegan Pasta

I'm sure I've mentioned how I love my pasta roller. It is the rock bottom model, at about 60 bucks at any snooty kitchen store. I didn't know this when I bought it, but all the pasta making afficionados will tell you that the plain old simple, hand-cranked machine is the best one to get. So Yay Me! Every once in a while I screw up and do something right. I have an Atlas brand machine, and it is made of very weighty shiny steel. You don't even have to wash it when you're finished using it--you just wipe it with a dry cotton towel.

I wanted to try my hand at vegan pasta today. I found this recipe by Bryanna Clark Grogan on the internet. I loved the simplicity of it--it only called for 3 ingredients: Unbleached white flour, chickpea flour, and water. If you are stumped as to where you would find chickpea flour, have no fear. Go to any Indian grocery and you will easily find it. It also might be labeled by its Indian name, Besan.

Apparently, chickpea flour has proteins, fats and lecethin that act as tenderizers in the dough, the same way eggs would if you were using them. I was very pleased with the dough, and it went through the machine just as smoothly as non-vegan dough does.




We are going to eat the pasta with some roasted and sauteed veggies for a light dinner. Between now and then, I have to get gussied up so I can go sing some songs at a fundraising party for Henley Street Theatre Company.

I may post a pic of the finished dish when I get home tonight. We'll see if it turns out purty enough!

Update: YUM.. Roasted grape tomatoes, red bell peppers and garlic cloves. Sauteed red onion, courgette (that's the posh name for zucchini, which is the posh name for summer squash) and spinach. The homemade pasta cooked in just a minute or so, then we drained it and tossed everything together. We finished it off with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper and sprinkle of balsamic vinegar. Mwaahh!

4 comments:

pnlkotula said...

That looks delicious!

Jacquie O. said...

Now I know why you had to run away so fast after you sang so pretty. It's a good thing you didn't tell me this was waiting for you or else I would have disapeared from my own party!

Anonymous said...

I know this makes me sound insane, but it never occurred to me that pasta was not innately vegan.

Shows what I know!

Looks great! :)

Janine Serresseque said...

Sorsh, a lot of pasta is vegan. The tubular stuff you buy in stores is mostly eggless. But the dough is very stiff and needs to be made with industrial machinery.