Creamy Christmas Onion Leek Pasta

Navigating family & holiday time as a vegan

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• Social Tips: How to navigate family holiday gatherings

• Recipe: Creamy Christmas Pasta

The holidays can be difficult, especially when you’re vegan and your family and friends aren’t. Let’s talk about 2 scenarios, the first more general, and the second more specific.

[SCENARIO 1] You’re worried about family gatherings because of the ridicule from non-vegan family members.

I get it. I worried about this for probably the first 10 years of being vegan. Maybe it was a social anxiety thing, but the worry was real and I had to deal with it. Maybe it’s the same for you.

The best thing you can do here is arm yourself with a good dish. Yes, being vegan is not all about food. But food is a huge part of it.

Don’t tell your non-vegan family about veganism. Show them! Feed them delicious food that just happens to be vegan.

If you can break down their prior that “vegan food is different and therefore weird” then you will help them see veganism in a positive light. Then slowly, they will become more open to, and accepting of, veganism in general. This is what I did over the years. Now, me being vegan is no big deal! My family is used to it.

I know this can put a lot of pressure on you to bring the perfect dish, and I understand this as well. My suggestion is to make something that you know you want to eat, but make it special. For me, I don’t usually make fatty oily food out of preference, but for the holidays I’ll make something with cream (like the Creamy Christmas Pasta below) or something deep fried.

[SCENARIO 2] You’re given a non-vegan gift, like milk chocolate or a wool scarf.

Say thank you! The person who gave you the gift was kind enough to give you something. They didn’t have to do that! Thank them for this.

Then, keep it, and regift it. We don’t like waste!

Then, if this person is likely to give you a gift in the future, then at a later date tell them you’re vegan. Tell them what that means (no milk chocolate, no wool scarfs, you’d prefer they donate to charity for you, etc). No need to tell them right away in the moment and burst their bubble.

Of course, if the person knows you’re vegan and was being malicious, then that’s another story. I’m assuming positive intent.

I described this in a TikTok 2 years ago and it surprisingly got 100K views, so here it is again:

I hope this helps <3

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Here’s an example of a recipe that’s great to bring to a family or friend gathering around the holidays, or at any time. I celebrate Christmas so I’m calling it a Creamy Christmas Pasta. But you can call it what you want.

Creamy Christmas Onion Leek Pasta

Serves: 2 - 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Tools:

• A blender

Ingredients

• 300 g pasta (use more or less depending on your preference; I used rigatoni)

For the “Veg”

• 3 onions, sliced thinly

• 1 large leek, sliced thinly (about 3 cups)

• 6 cloves of garlic

• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp nutmeg

• 1/4 cup olive oil

For the “Cream” (makes enough for leftovers)

• 1 cup raw cashews

• 3/4 cup water

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• 2 tsp lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven: Set your oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Prepare your ingredients: Slice the onions and leek. Mince the garlic.

3. To a baking tray: add the onion, leek, and garlic. Add in the salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. Add the olive oil over top and mix to combine evenly in the tray.

4. Bake: cover with tin foil and bake for about an hour. The onion and leeks should come out caramelized. In the meantime:

   1. While the onions and leeks are baking, prepare the cashew cream. Blend together the raw cashews, water, salt, sugar, and lemon juice until nice and smooth (this takes 90 seconds with my high speed blender).

   2. Just before the onion/leeks are done, cook your pasta. So do this about 50 minutes after putting the onions and leek mixture into the oven. No down time this way!

   3. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, but reserve about 1/4 cup to add to the cashew cream. Blend again. This helps keep it wet so the cream and pasta don’t dry out.

5. Finally, once the onion and leek mixture is done, add the cream. Mix. Add the pasta. Mix. You’re done! Enjoy.

DO NOT OVER BAKE YOUR ONIONS AND LEEKS LIKE I DID! :)

Creamy Christmas Onion and Leek Pasta

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• Want to make it even tastier? More oil always helps haha. Vegan butter too. Or salt. Try trying in some extra salt or fat into the cashew cream when blending it.

• Want extra protein? Use 1/2 cup of water for the initial blend, and replace that with 3/4 cup soft tofu.

• Sauce measurements: As laid out, the cashew cream sub-recipe will give you extra sauce. You can use this for other recipes or to make your pasta extra creamy.

• Add some veg: Try adding some kale or spinach to add some veg to this pasta.

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• Nutmeg: Use whatever spice you like. Nutmeg feels Christmassy. Sage does too.

• Cashews:

  • Feel free to use sunflower seeds which will result in a sauce that’s a bit less creamy but still good.

  • Alternatively, you could omit the cashews and use tofu instead. Instead of cashews and 3/4 cup of water, use 1 1/2 cups tofu. It should taste decent but definitely less creamy. You could also use a mix of cashews and tofu to save on the cost of the cashews, because they can be expensive depending on where you buy them. Cashews are one “luxury” item that I make an exception for.

• Leeks: If you don’t like leeks, you could omit it and make this an onion pasta.