Winner, winner vegan dinner!

(Full disclosure: I stole the title for this post from the friend who gave me this recipe, but it so perfectly describes the meal that I had to use it!)

I've been a vegetarian for 23 years now and have toyed with a vegan diet off and on for the past 15 years or so.  I was a full-on vegan for about 5 years in the mid- to late-1990s.  Then I got a new job, started traveling a lot, and between not having as much time to cook due to a long commute and being on the road in places that were not vegan-friendly (think Peoria), I reverted to my lacto-ovo diet. I've been wanting to get back to eating vegan, though, because when I truly commit to it, I feel great, lose weight, and have more energy.

So at the start of this year, I decided to give the plant-based diet thing another go. I allow myself to eat a bit of eggs and cheese when I'm out or at a friend's house for a meal, but I try to stick to plant foods as much as possible. I've actually been really successful with it and I'm enjoying cooking more and trying out new recipes. One of my favorite finds is the Happy Herbivore cookbook. It has a ton of yummy vegan - and low-fat! - recipes that are pretty easy to make and, for the most part, use ingredients I already have at home.  I'm sure I'll post some photos of HH recipes soon, but today's recipe came from Vegan Planet: Creamy Picatta Orecchiette over Roasted Cauliflower Steaks.

This is the second time I've made this and I made some tweaks this time around that I think really improved it.  In addition to the cauliflower, scallions, and grape tomatoes that the recipe calls for, I also threw in aspargus to roast.  Yum!  I didn't use olive oil for roasting as the recipe suggests.  Instead, I just sprayed the pan and the veggies with an olive oil spray (like Pam). Less fat and it worked just as well.

The sauce also required a bit of adjusting.  I used less lemon than it called for, but added more garlic and cayenne.  The recipe also calls for adding basil right at the end before serving, but I pureed it with the rest of the sauce and think it was better that way.  I also left out the capers since I am not a fan.  Instead of orecchiette, I used tiny star-shaped pasta.  I think any pasta will work but I really liked the look of the stars!

Here's a photo of the veggies after roasting:

And here's a plate of the final meal:

(Sorry for the crazy color.  The plate is a mustardy yellow and I think it's to blame for the weird light.)