Vegan pasta recipe: Ramsons and broccoli with nut parmesan

Feral garlic

We have just become acquainted with wild garlic leaves, or ramsons, as a cooking ingredient and are completely infatuated. If, like us, you love leeks, chives, onions, and garlic, you’re sure to appreciate the subtler, more feral flavour in this vegan pasta recipe. In addition, there’s a slight sweetness to ramsons, and the taste is less overpowering than cultivated garlic. Ramson pesto has a warmer quality. This vegetable is one of the easiest and safest to forage for in rural and urban settings. In the same vein, along with bluebells, it is an ancient woodland indicator plant. Wild garlic has been enjoyed for hundreds of years; the flavoured milk produced by cows fed on wild garlic was used to make a butter that was widely enjoyed in 19th-century Switzerland. But this is a vegan recipe! So how about this tidbit: soldiers in the First World utilised the antiseptic properties of wild garlic. Although we have opted to use broccoli in this recipe, you could also try asparagus. If you like your vegetables more strongly flavoured or if you are in the mood for something slightly more comforting, delicately stir-fry the vegetables and herbs in a healthy oil like rapeseed, then add a bit of the pasta water at the end to loosen the ingredients.    

Beautiful lemon

The lemon in this recipe brings a cleansing astringency that is backed up solidly by science. Lemon juice helps the digestive process along and actively supports bile formation, thus assisting the liver in the flushing of toxins from the body.(1) Along with other citrus fruits, lemons are also an incredible source of vitamin C, which does wonders not only for the immune system, but also for the aging of the skin.(2)(3)

Nutritional yeast: a vegan's best friend

As you may well know, parmesan and Gran Padano are made using calf rennet, an enzyme extracted from the lining of calf stomachs. Even if you eat milk, cheese and other animal products, parmesan and Gran Padano are not suitable for vegetarian diets. Nut parmesan has been a wonderful solution for us. If you lean towards a plant-based diet and have not used nutritional yeast in your cooking, a whole new world will open up to you! These small, plain-looking flakes carry a rich depth of nutty, cheesy flavour that can be hard to access for vegans especially. After getting acquainted with this ingredient via this pasta recipe, you could try nutritional yeast on popcorn, and in soups or tofu scrambles to begin with. If you are thinking about adding nutritional yeast to your larder after reading about its benefits for health, be sure to find out whether you are purchasing fortified or unfortified yeast. Fortified yeast has been enriched with nutrients, but these are supplements; we at Erbology are believers in food in its most natural state. So much contained in a seemingly simple vegan pasta recipe!

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