Vegan Green Garden Puree (For Pizza, Lasagna or Pasta)

Submitted by VegSocialWorker

"From Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I just received this gem of a cookbook for Christmas. We made this puree as a stuffing for lasagna last night and it was really good. Used whole wheat pasta, the puree, tomato sauce, spinach and mushrooms. Yum, yum, yum. Thought I'd share this recipe with you all. It takes the place of ricotta cheese in any type of pizza or pasta recipe. And it rocks! We left out the parsley because I forgot to buy it, and it was still a nice green color. Enjoy."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 6 cups
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 1 lb asparagus, ends discarded, and chopped into 3-inch lengths
• 1 lb green beans, halved, ends removed and discarded (or better yet composted!)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 2 garlic cloves (or more)
• 1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
• 4 scallions, green parts only, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1⁄2 lemon, juice of
• 1⁄8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 lb extra firm tofu (water packed, drained and pressed)
• 1 cup chopped basil leaves

directions

1. Have ready a large bowl of ice water.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
3. Add the asparagus and green beans; boil for 2 minutes. Add the frozen peas and boil for 2 more minutes.
4. Drain vegetables and submerge in the ice water to stop the cooking.
5. Pulse the almonds to a fine powder. I used the blender for this.
6. Add the vegetables, garlic, parsley, scallions, olive oil, lemon juice, and nutmeg; puree until smooth.
7. Note: My blender could not accommodate all of the ingredients so I needed to puree in batches. I also had to add some water otherwise it would not blend. All together I added about 1/2 cup of water and it was not too runny in the end.
8. In a large bowl, mash the tofu with your hands until it has a ricotta-like consistency. I used a hand held immersion blender for this and it worked beautifully.
9. Add the puree and mix well.
10. Fold in the basil.
11. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.