Flavorful Vegan Pasta

I am packing up to leave Taiwan soon, and I am trying to scrape by on the minimal food that I still have in my apartment. Tonight I used up the remaining veggies, black soybeans, and lasagna sheets that I had lying around to make a pretty neat pasta dish. I will be honest, I had to go to the grocery store to get just a couple of extra things, but not much.



This dish is loaded with amazing nutrition from all the veggies, and loaded with flavor from the balsamic vinaigrette, capers, tomatoes, and garlic. Some say that vegan meals can't be very flavorful because of the lack of meat and dairy, but there are a ton of other ways to flavor food, and the flavor of this meal is very, very strong.

I love dishes like this because they are the perfect way to realistically use up the veggies in your fridge that need to be used. The flavors that power this dish are enough to over ride most veggies. In my case I used celery and sprouts. The celery was actually a lucky accident because it gave the dish a nice needed crunch. 

As usual I'm powering the protein in this dish with some black soybeans. Any kind of beans really work because beans tend to not have a strong flavor.

Here are the ingredients...

6 medium tomatoes 
a whole bag or container of leafy greens
several mushrooms
8 cloves of garlic
a cup of and kind of cooked beans
1/3 cup of balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup of capers with some of the brine (so much flavour)
about 8 sheets of broken up lasagna sheets, or about 2 cup of your choice of pasta
whatever random veggies need to be used in your house.
a bit of olive oil for cooking it all up.

1. Chop up all the veggies. They are so beautiful laid out.

2. Begin boiling water for pasta.
3. Heat the pan with some oil. Add the chopped tomatoes first, letting them break down for a minute before adding the balsamic vinaigrette, and garlic to get those major flavors heating up together.

4. Begin cooking pasta. Cook on low for about 12 minutes or however long the packaging says to cook it.
5. Add in the rest of the chopped veggies, EXECPT the leafy greens! They need to be stirred in last because they will overcook and get disgusting!

6. Let these veggies cook for a couple of minutes, adding in the beans and veggies last to just stir in and heat up. Allow the greens to wilt down to almost nothing for just a minute or so, stirring them in.

7. Your pasta and veggies should finishing cooking at about the same time now. Drain your pasta and lay it out in your bowl. Top with the incredible veggie sauce. Stir together and enjoy.