A vegan staple of mine: spaghetti

Before becoming (mostly) vegan, one of my favorite home made meals was spaghetti with sauce from scratch, with ground turkey meat. I'd have fresh garlic bread on the side. And if I had it around, a glass of milk. It was always so filling and satisfying.

Thankfully, that feeling remains when I cook the vegan version of this meal. Nothing is lost, in my mind. It's still super tasty. And just like before, it changes depending on what I have around the kitchen.

There are 2 differences between the old and new versions of this meal. First, the ground turkey is replaced with un-meats, like vegan sausage or frozen meatballs. Secondly, I use wheat pasta. That's pretty much it.

Here's the basics:

Fry up some red onion and garlic while the pasta is boiling. Add the frozen meatballs and reduce heat. I add them now so they thaw by the time my pasta is ready.

Add whatever veggies I have - I prefer either zucchini or yellow squash - chopped bite size. Add fresh chopped tomatoes and kinda smash them around. Lately I've been enjoying the locally grown heirloom tomatoes. It might look like one of these pictures at this point:

Add 1 small can of tomato sauce, plain, no salt added.

Throw some vegan parmesan style cheese on top and I'm good to go.

Here's another version I made recently with a spicy soy sausage, made by Field Roast Grain Meat Co.,  I cooked separately and added at the end.Yes, GRAIN meat. No soy in these bad boys. The ingredient list isn't even scary:

Mmmmm. that garlic bread looks so yummy. Earth balance vegan spread, fresh crushed garlic, a dash of dill and garlic salt. Quickly baked then broiled.

When eating veg seems too hard, I can always fall back on a trusted meal: Spaghetti.