Vegan Crab & Veggie Pasta

A recent 'find' has been Match Meats imitation crab 'meat'. Match Meats is located in St Louis and makes a variety of 'ground meat' substitutes for vegans - chicken, ground beef, sausage, pork and crab. I've used the crab for crab cakes and in sushi and had about half a pack left over in the freezer. So, this pasta dish was born.

Before I was vegan, I wasn't that mad about crab.  We lived along the Louisiana coast at one point and ate a lot of fresh seafood then, but  crab always seemed more trouble than it was worth.  So, I don't know if this really tastes like crab or not.  But it does have a good taste, and I've served it to both vegans and non-vegans and everyone liked it.

I made my own kamut pasta but you can buy it or substitute your favorite ribbon-like pasta. You need however much the box says is 4 servings.

Note that there is no added salt to this dish. The pasta water is salted and that seems enough. If you do want more salt, I'd suggest adding a little of your favorite soy sauce to the crab mixture rather than actual salt.

As an alternative preparation, you could eliminate both the broccoli and arugula, and substitute blanched, chopped broccoli rabe.

Vegan Crab & Veggie Pasta

Pasta - enough for 4 servings

2 Tbs olive oil

8 oz (half pack) of Match Meat Imitation Crab

1 zucchini diced

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/4 c white wine or vegan broth

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbs Old Bay seasoning

1 tsp sumac powder

2 cups loosely packed baby arugula leaves

3-4 c broccoli florets

Daiya Mozzarella 'cheese' to taste

Start the salted water for the pasta and broccoli

Heat a 10" skillet on low-medium heat

Add the broccoli to the boiling water and cook 2 minutes

Using a slotted spoon, remove the broccoli to a bowl

Add olive oil to the skillet

When the oil is hot, add the crab and break up with a spoon

When the crab is broken up, add the next 5 ingredients, cover and simmer until the zucchini is done to your liking.

Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until barely done

Add the broccoli and arugula to the crab mixture and heat until the arugula wilts.

Combine pasta and crab mixture and mix.

Serve, topped with Daiya Mozzarella sprinkled over the top.

Not Johnny Carino's Artichoke Angel Hair Pasta

Ok, so I was in Texas for my daughter's wedding and we were going to the groom's parent's house for the rehearsal dinner. I had never met his parents, and had no reason to expect ANYTHING remotely edible for a vegan. I was thinking 37 kinds of barbecue,and very bad Texas beer. The beer part was right, at least that night, but there were actually three things I could eat! Amazing.

They had taken one of the Caesar salads and left it undressed with dressing on the side. They had a veggie-corkscrew pasta salad that was pretty good. And then they had Johnny Carino's Artichoke Angel Hair Pasta. I had no idea who Johnny Carino is, but he makes one mean angel hair pasta. I later found out that it is a restaurant and the hosts had paid $14 a SERVING for it. Could I have possibly eaten $56 of PASTA? The one I had was altered from the restaurant version in that my daughter had asked them to leave out the capers.

The combination of garlic, olives, tomato, artichoke hearts and pasta was absolutely delicious.

Living in the US Midwest can have its challenges. I couldn't find any kalamata olives or any real black olives at all, so had to use the canned 'black olives' made in California. These are disgustingly bad substitutes for real olives and I'm sure no country in the world would allow them except the US. But, I decided I needed them for the photo, so bought a can and used them. Of course, now I found real olives and will use those in the future.

Another problem is that apparently during the winter and spring, the US gets nearly all of its tomatoes from Florida. And Florida decided to freeze one day. Tomatoes are hard to find and very expensive until the summer crops come in. So, I used sun-dried tomatoes in this recipe. I dry my own, but you want proper dried tomatoes, not the stuff soaked in oil or marinated. Just simple dried tomatoes.

If you are in a real rush, you can use a jar or two of marinated artichoke hearts instead of cooking your own and marinating them. However, the marinade for artichokes is very strong and you'd need to make sure you remove as much of it as possible from the artichokes. You can do the frozen ones in 15 minutes of total time, so use them if you can.

Other possible substitutions: if you don't have sumac, add a couple of scrapes of lime zest instead. Don't have brown rice angel hair? Use any angel hair pasta you like. No aleppo pepper? Then just use some chile flakes you would put on a pizza. No Massel's? Use another vegan boullion powder.

On the beer front, at the wedding itself, I had a very good Texas beer called ZiegenBock Amber. It was made a local microbrewery which has recently been purchased by a 'big company', so hopefully they will leave it alone.

Since both Massell's and the brown rice pasta were gluten free, the recipe as I made it was gluten free. If you are cooking gluten free by necessity, though, double check all the ingredients you use.

Angel Hair Artichoke Pasta

Servings: 4

8 ounce(s) Brown Rice Angel Hair Pasta
8 ounce(s) artichoke heart, frozen
1/2 cup(s) black olive, sliced
24 gram(s) Sun Dried Tomato - slices soaked and diced
2 garlic clove diced
1 tablespoon(s) olive oil, extra virgin
1 teaspoon(s) Massel Better Boullion Powder chicken flavor
1 1/2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
3 tablespoon(s) rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon(s) kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon(s) Sumac - powdered
1/2 teaspoon(s) Aleppo pepper (or chile flakes)

Cook frozen artichokes as the package directs.

Soak the dried tomato slices in fresh water until they soften. Reserve 1/2 c of the soaking water. Then chop finely.

While the artichokes are cooking, whisk together rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and sumac in a medium bowl.

Drain artichokes and mix into the dressing. Leave to marinate.

Start a pot of water for the pasta.

Heat a 3-4 qt saute pan.

Start boiling the pasta

Add extra virgin olive oil to saute pan.

Add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds.

Add sun dried tomato pieces and stir to coat

Remove from heat until the pasta is done.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 c of cooking water and 1/2c of the tomato water.

Put saute pan back on heat, add pasta water and bring to a boil.

Add Massel's powder, black olives and drained artichokes

Add pasta and stir in well. Cook about a minute until everything is warm and the pasta absorbs the liquid.

Optional: sprinkle with your favorite vegan parmesan.

Serve immediately.