One of us in this household is training for an ultramarathon, and I’ll give you a hint: it’s not me or the baby. [An ultramarathon doesn’t have a precise definition of length—it’s broadly considered to be any race longer than 26.2 miles. In this case, the race in question is 50 miles, the first 15 of which take place on the Appalachian Trail. No big deal. A totally casual workout.]
One of us is also mildly obsessed with Rich Roll, the Stanford-educated ultra-endurance athlete and public speaker and author and wellness proponent. (Again, hint: not me or the baby.) Rich Roll is known for being a vegan and he’s particularly vocal about his journey from elite college swimmer to drug and alcohol addict to overweight, out-of-shape, unhappy 40-year-old to vegan endurance athlete. He talks a lot about how eating a plant-based diet has allowed him to change his life, to push incredible boundaries as an athlete, and so on.
Now, are you wondering: HOW DO YOU PLACE in the top 10 of a 320-mile-ultraendurance triathlon (which he did) by eating only plants? Don't you need a steak? Twenty steaks? Some bacon? A lot of Brie cheese and chocolate ice cream?
Great question. Totally unclear how that all works. But the point is that his story is very compelling and someone in our household is captivated (yes, you guessed it, not me or the baby) by it all—so I ended up cooking and baking mostly vegan food for 6 months of the past year, before we put a stop to that nonsense and went back to grilling sausage and slathering butter on our toast.
(To be clear, by “we” I mean NOT ME. I was pregnant for all of those months and therefore I was eating as much dairy and scrambled eggs and BLTs as I could get my hands on. But it was a good exercise in kitchen creativity!)
Now, we’re back on the vegan train—for a bit, at least. That means that about 60% of the time, I cook whatever I feel like eating for myself—no holds barred—but I start with a vegan base. Then I can add in cheese or meat or…whatever. The rest of the time I just do fully separate meals, because if I don’t have to eat lentils at an alarming rate, and if there’s butter to be had, I’ll have it, thank you very much!
So what does a vegan eat all the time? Again, great question. As it turns out, Rich Roll has a cookbook. Who knew?! (Now we all do. What a world.)
The recipes aren’t that thrilling to me for the most part—I’ve got a pretty good handle on vegan cooking at this point, and on how to keep it interesting. But he has a few that seemed intriguing enough to give me some new ideas.
First up, he makes a pasta with a tomato sauce using cacao nibs. Bizarre, I thought at first. But it’s not really that odd if you think about it—cacao nibs are bitter and smoky, and chocolate can be savory and does pair well with tomatoes (think of a mole sauce).
Instead of following his recipe, I considered how I could use cacao nibs in the same fashion. They’re sort of like nuts, I thought, and a classic romesco came to mind—the traditional Spanish sauce of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and almonds.
Combining both concepts turned into an exceptional discovery: one of my favorite pastas I’ve made in a long time. I mixed roasted tomatoes in oil with fire-roasted red peppers, plain tomato puree, shallots, and cacao nibs. After cooking it all together with some water and a splash of vinegar, I blended it into a thick sauce and tossed it with pasta. SO DARN GOOD.
But man cannot live on roasted tomato cacao nib pasta alone (at least, I don’t think so), so the vegan cooking innovation continues.
But we’re not just trying to make vegan food, we’re making burning-roughly-a-bajillion-calorie vegan food. See, when you’re training for a very long ultramarathon, you end up doing having to casually run marathons every Sunday morning as your “training runs”. This means you need a lot of food, particularly carbs. Thus, we need to know how to make a lot of really good vegan pastas.
Last weekend I attempted mac and cheese—but I don’t like using (and don’t have the option of easily buying) vegan “cheese” or vegan “butter” substitutes. Instead, I try to find ways to replicate the creaminess and cheesiness with other ingredients, like miso and cashews and nutritional yeast.
In the past, I’ve made decent versions of vegan mac and cheese, but none have come close to matching the coziness and comfort of regular mac and cheese…until now! This version is so good that I’d happily eat it as a non-vegan. Since it’s baked, it reheats nicely, making it a good option for a meal to make ahead and eat over a couple of nights.
Recipes for both below!
Note: If you want to roast your own tomatoes to use in the sauce, just spread halved tomatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle generously with oil. Bake at 425 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
Roasted Tomato + Cacao Nib Pasta Sauce
Makes enough to 1 pound of pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped shallots
1 cup tomato puree
8 ounces fire-roasted peppers
1 cup roasted tomatoes
3 tablespoons cacao nibs
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the oil to a large skillet or Dutch oven. Heat the oil over medium-high heat for a minute, then add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots soften (about 2 minutes).
Add the tomato puree, peppers, roasted tomatoes, cacao nibs, and salt. Lower the heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Transfer the mixture carefully (or let it cool slightly first) to a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour over cooked pasta (I used this cool shape called zucca which means “tiny flower”). The sauce will keep refrigerated in a Mason jar for about a week.
Very Good Vegan Mac + Cheese
Serves 4 to 6
10 ounces dried pasta
1 cup peeled, diced yellow potatoes
1/4 cup peeled, diced carrots
1/3 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup raw unsalted cashews
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup panko
1 tablespoon olive oil
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until just shy of al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Place the potatoes, carrots, and onion in a steamer basket set over a pot of simmering water. Cover and steam for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft.
Transfer the steamed vegetables to a blender and add the cashews, almond milk, nutritional yeast, vinegar, salt, garlic, paprika, and red pepper flakes (if using).
Blend until smooth.
Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and transfer to a greased 9” x 13” baking pan. Sprinkle the panko over the top in an even layer and drizzle with the olive oil.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. (You can prep the pasta up to this point, the refrigerate it, and bake it right before serving.)