Vegetarian Times Recipes

I've been making a lot of recipes from Vegetarian Times lately. I went back through a lot of my old issues a few weeks ago, and was reminded of all of the recipes I'd wanted to try, so I decided to get started on them this past week.


First up was the Vegetarian Gumbo from the May issue. This was pretty good, but was lacking something. It was a lot better once we put a few dashes of chipotle hot sauce on it. I think next time I will make some vegan sausages to add to it. I served it with vegan cornbread and some sauteed Mustard Greens from our CSA basket. The greens were sauteed with garlic, and onion and just a dash of Liquid Smoke. Oh man, they were sooo good!!
Next I made the Spring Orzo Salad from the current June issue. The CSA basket had asparagus in it again this week, so this was a nice way to use it up. This was really good. Even my salad-phobic husband liked it. He liked it so much we've been eating it for 3 days now!! I altered the recipe a bit, so I'll post it here.

Vegetable Orzo Salad

2 cups orzo pasta

1 lb asparagus

6 green onions

2 cloves garlic

6 oz Portobello mushroom caps, diced

10 oz package frozen peas

1 14.5 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped

Vinaigrette

3 Tbs red wine vinegar

2 Tbs olive oil

2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tsp brown sugar

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside. Heat skillet over medium heat with 1 Tbs olive oil. Saute onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add asparagus and saute 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute until soft. Remove from heat, add in peas and artichoke hearts and stir to combine and heat through. Toss vegetable mixture with pasta. Whisk together vinaigrette and toss with salad. Serve warm or chilled.

Finally, I made the Fettuccine Alfredo from April's issue. I didn't have the mushrooms, so I didn't use those. Again, another VT recipe that didn't disappoint. This was some seriously good alfredo sauce. It's different than the "heart attack on a plate" sauce that most of us associate with fettuccine, but the flavor of this can't be beat. Rob again loved this one. He is a serious pasta man, and he said this was one of his favorite sauces. The cayenne pepper makes it a tad too spicy for the kiddos, but you could easily leave it out.