What We Ate Wednesday--Spag Bol with Walnut Meat

Hello lovelies! Summer is upon us and I want healthy meals that are easy to cook and don't take ages slaving over a hot stove with no air conditioning. Pasta is always a good option and there are some great Gluten free pastas out there.

I love Spaghetti Bolognese aka Spag Bol aka pasta with meat sauce. I make an amazing one with lentils in place of ground meat but it takes AGES for the lentils to cook and while this is delicious, if I have come home late from work and am hungry, I don't have time to wait ages for lentils to cook. I get HANGRY (Hungry + Angry.)

Don't make me HANGRY. You won't like me when I am HANGRY.

But then I thought....why not just use my WALNUT TACO MEAT to make it go quicker. This was a HUGE success. It was meaty and delicious and came together quickly as you don't have to cook the walnuts.

Plus, you don't use all the walnut meat...there was enough for another quick meal the next day. Bonus!

Spag Bol with Walnut Meat

Sauce:
1 onion, finely diced
half a red pepper, diced
lots of garlic
1/4 cup red wine (optional but adds flavour--I am told you could sub strong brewed tea for wine but i can't vouch for this) 
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 TB tomato puree
1 tsp each dried oregano and basil
1 tsp stock powder or half a crumbled stock cube 
1/4 to half cup water
some chopped sun dried tomatoes (optional but yum)

Pasta
Whatever you fancy--enough for 2 people. I used 2 cups GF fusilli (rotini to my US peeps) pasta. 

 Walnut Meat

1.5 cups walnuts
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 TB tamari or soy sauce

Pulse the walnuts in your food processor until they resemble coarse crumbs. Take out the blade and stir in everything else. Mix well. That's it. Meat in under 5 minutes.

1. Start cooking your onion and pepper in a splash of oil or water and add garlic when onion is softened. When onion is soft, start your water boiling for pasta. (I boil a few inches of water in a pot while heating the kettle. When kettle is boiled, add to pot and put the lid on--your water will be boiling in no time.) 

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the sauce and let it simmer while the pasta water comes to the boil.

3. Make your walnut meat and scoop out 1 cup for this recipe. Put the rest aside for another meal. 

4. Cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is done, drain and add to the sauce and stir in the one reserved cup of walnut meat. 

Serve topped with vegan Parmesan cheese. (I took the picture first without cheese.) You can add something like Good Carma or make your own. 

My Vegan Parm

3 TB nutritional yeast flakes

3 TB almond meal (ground almonds) 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

This took about 30 mins and was really delicious. Dare I say I almost I like it better than the lentil version?