Pasta, Potatoes, Green Beans and Basil

Hello world. Remember me? Your ol pal Hunk? I haven't left I promise, I've been here, eating bowls of cereal, quick boxed Indian dishes, stir fried veggies and rice and chips and salsa. But today ladies and germs, I actually cooked. Thanks to my lovely folks I was blessed with a Kindle for my birthday. On said Kindle I downloaded a fabulous cookbook called "Cheap Vegan" or something like that. Through an odd accident of sorts I became a semi vegan. I won't boldly claim that I am one. Cause I've cheated far more times than I 'm proud to admit but I'm trying. I give myself credit for that. Living in a non vegan world, being with non vegan friends and family, it's all an excuse but heck it's hard. Yes, I know that cows are suffering for my 5 to 10 minutes of pleasure. Cut a girl a little slack. So, today I used my thriftiness,  my oddly right combination of ingredients and a fabulous new book to create a dish even my Nebraska Beef born and bred father ate....and enjoyed. I made some substitutions along the way but it still worked.

Pasta Potatoes Green Beans and Basil 

1.) Start boiling about an inch of water in a small pan. 

2.) Meanwhile slice a pound of potatoes. (The recipe calls for standard white, all I had was small red and gold-it worked).

3.) Lightly simmer said potatoes for about 5 minutes with the lid on and the heat turned down to simmer. 

4.) Add about a cup of fresh green beans to the potatoes, re-cover and simmer for another 6 minutes or so.

5.) Get your pasta water rolling now. Fill up a pot about 2/3 full of slightly salted water and bring to a boil.

6.) Remove your potatoes and green beans and drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Return to the pan and cover to keep warm. 

7.) Start cooking the pasta, the recipe calls for rotini or fusseli, I used bowtie and the world didn't end.


8.) Now it's time to make your sauce. Here's where I got creative, I just bought a mixed bag of nuts and carefully plucked out the needed cashews and accidently threw in macadamia nuts. In the food processor grind until fine about a 1/2 cup of cashews.


9.) Add 1/3 cup of water, 2 TBS of olive oil, 1 tsp of onion powder, 2 cloves of garlic, zest of one lemon, juice of one lemon,1  TBS nutritional yeast (yeah didn't have that so I used wheat germ) 1 cup of soy milk (I used coconut-it's all I had) , 2 TBS dried basil and a pinch of salt. 


10.) Pour the whole mixture on top of your pasta and mix with the potatoes and green beans. Top with fresh basil and enjoy!