Vegan MOFO Day 5 - Tracey's Spaghetti Extraordinaire

Fred's sister Tracey sent me her and her daughter Nicki's alltime favorite spaghetti recipe. The original is chock full of beef and sausage, so she was not sure if it could be veganized. Well, thanks to my friends at the PPK, I no longer fear the meaty recipes and find them quite fun to veganize. I'm not going to kid you, the texture and flavor are slightly different, so you won't fool anyone into thinking this is the greasy, unhealthy, factory farmed meat used in so many dishes. But it is a hearty, delicious homage to the original.

I did have to make a few modifications to the original recipe. Of course I had to replace the ground beef. I did this by re-hydrating TVP with vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet to give it that deep "beefy" hue and flavor. Next the Italian sausage. This was a no brainer using Julie Hasson's Spicey Italian Sausage recipe. I always find that when I use meat analogs I must increase the liquids used in the original recipe. In this recipe I had to add a 15 oz can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes to the original recipe. The order of adding ingredients changed just slightly as well. All in all, this was pretty easy to veganize. As you can see from the picture below, it came out very nicely. It has that rich tomato flavor and a hearty meaty texture. I fed this to Fred last night. He inhaled it in no time. Great recipe Tracey! Thanks for sending it to me.

Tracey's Vegan Spaghetti Extraordinaire

1 Cup TVP (sub for 1 lb ground beef)
1 Cups Vegetable broth
2 links vegan Italian sausage
1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ medium onion, chopped
½ chopped green bell pepper or 1 Anaheim pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz white or cremini mushrooms sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon crumbled rosemary
32 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted)
16 oz can tomato sauce
15 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes

Spaghetti or Angel Hair pasta cooked, drained, and rinsed

Grated vegan parmesan for garnish (optional)
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet. Re-hydrate TVP by pouring hot vegetable broth over it. Let sit for 10 minutes to re-hydrate. Dice Italian sausage into small chunks, approximately ¼ inch. This can also be done by pulsing in the food processor.

In a 4 quart saucepan brown TVP and sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan sauté onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic in remaining tablespoon of olive oil until soft and mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes minutes. Add dried herbs and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, crushed tomoatoes and tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add browned TVP and sausage and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Serve over warm pasta and sprinkle with vegan parmesan if desired.