COOKING WITH A CAKE PAN + A (SORTA) RECIPE

First off I would like to begin with saying I really enjoy cheese, cheese is probably the only real obstacle preventing me from going vegan because even though \I have tried veganism I always succumb to temptation when presented with a cheese plate. Secondly I am also supposed to be cutting down on my cheese intake, something that I find damn near impossible in this wonderful country full of inexpensive, delicious cheesy options because my abnormally high dairy intake may be the cause of several of my body and health related troubles. Now that being said I ignored my latter inclination if favour of the first when cooking dinner last night.

I adapted this veggie baked macaroni recipe from Love & Lemons and I just had a few comments to make on the process. I was quite excited about this recipe because the original recipe calls for a combination of all my favourite things, asparagus, mozzarella cheese, and a cashew based cream but then I remembered that while these ingredients may seem run of the mill to me, I am living in another country now where food availability is also very different. For one, it took me two day and four grocery stores to track down cashews, locating them only (and for a steeper price) at a health food store. Second I subbed broccoli for the asparagus because here asparagus (or spargel) is white usually and twice the size, the green type that I more familiar with is far less common (and more expensive) plus spargel season ended about a month ago. My third challenge with this recipe was that I realized we don't own a casserole dish and the other pan we owned were not deep enough for this dish. However H pointed out that we did have a cake pan and thus that problem was solved. I would like to throw in a word of caution, when removing said cake pan from the over to be extra gentle with handling because the base is not super sturdy and cook possibly end up with piping hot cheese and pasta everywhere...I just barely avoided this disaster.

And just in case anyone is wondering, here was my adaptation of the recipe (measurements are whatever...I just threw it all together)

Cashew cream

Fusilli pasta

Broccoli (chopped)

Pea (blanched quickly)

Mozzarella balls (halved as well)

Basil and Sage (chopped)

Gouda (grated on top)

Paniermehl (closest thing I could find to breadcrumbs)

Olive oil

Red pepper flakes

Toss all together until evenly coated and distribute evenly in your cake pan, bake at 175 degrees for 15-ish minutes. Eat with curry ketchup (because I am pretty sure H is fifty percent ketchup...at least)


D.