Wednesday, June 11, 2008

XXX SpaghettiO's

Rated XXX because these sexy vegan SpaghettiO's are for adults only. If they came through the mail, they would arrive in a plain brown package. If they were in a store, you would have to show ID before stepping through the velvet curtain. If they ...

Well, I could go on with the analogy, but I won't. Especially since it involves hot dogs.

I don't know why I get cravings for food I never really ate before I was a vegan, but I do. Today it was SpaghettiO's -- even though it's been about a decade since I've actually eaten a can of the chemical-rich, preservative-packed stuff.

I think I did a pretty good job replicating it, though. It was reminiscent enough of the tomatoey pasta I ate as a kid, but this version was spicy, thick and very grown-up.

Vegan spaghettiO's

Here's what you'll need:

- Anelletti pasta (O-shaped pasta)
- 2 cans condensed tomato soup (Or just one can if you don't like your pasta too saucy. But I personally think everything is just a vehicle for sauce.)
- small onion, diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
- 2 T. nutritional yeast (optional)
- fresh basil (optional)
- vegan hot dogs (optional)

Here's how you make it:

1. Boil the pasta. I made half of the 1-pound bag, and it easily made enough for four servings.

2. While that's boiling, heat some oil in a saucepan and saute the diced onion until softened. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Ditto with the crushed red pepper, if you want it.

3. Open the condensed soup and add to the saucepan. Thin slightly with a little soymilk (or soy creamer if you want a richer sauce). I also added some salt at this point because Jason thinks I eat too much salt, so he bought the low-sodium soup, and of course it wasn't salty enough ... it's a stupid, vicious cycle.

4. I also added nutritional yeast and fresh basil, then whizzed the heck out of everything with my immersion blender.

5. You know what? I like hot dogs. So I tossed a couple of sliced veggie dogs in the sauce and cooked until heated through.

6. Drain pasta.

7. Combine pasta and sauce.

8. Profess your undying love to me because it is so good.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this... I want it now!!!

greencow said...

Nice! I remember spagettiO's all too fondly, and with the hot dogs as well. I had forgotten about them as I haven't seen these o pastas, but I'm going to have to find them now.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to try this. Thank you!

mustardseed said...

COOL! What is condensed tomato soup?

Maggie said...

It's soup from a can that you add water to before cooking. Like this:
http://www.campbellsoup.com/condensed_soups.aspx

If you can't find it, I bet you could use any other tomato soup -- but let it simmer for a while first to reduce. You don't want it to be so liquidy.

Lily Girl said...

I love your blog. And I happen to also believe that most foods are just "a vehicle for sauce" :o)

Ace said...

This is awesome! My partner has been vegan for four years (only two myself) and he still hadn't figured out how to make Spaghetti-os. Thank you!

Elizabeth said...

I used Amy's tomato soup(boiled down)since I didn't want any corn syrup as in Campbell's. The texture of the sauce was wonderful, but flavor was not all that great, so the success of this recipe must depend on the exact brand of sauce you used when you created it.