Dining In - Kate Middleton's Pasta Alfredo

Kate Middleton's Pasta Alfredo - Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

I first made this dish last December for Christmas. I had just gotten Chloe Coscarelli's new cookbook Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen (buy yourself a copy here to fully enjoy!) and was rapidly making my way through it. My mom helped a lot with this one! It makes a huge batch when using one pound of pasta so get ready for leftovers, or feed to a large group.

I just made this again for dinner for my boyfriend and I. With a reminder on the taste, I can say it's on the sweeter side because of the caramelization of the vegetables. It's not your traditional alfredo sauce and without any soaked nuts to add fat it left me wanting a slightly creamier, more satiating sauce. Regardless it's still a good dish and with the added homemade vegan Parmesan (a little on the sweet side, as well) it was enjoyable. I don't know if it lives up to the adorable name, but for how easy it was to prepare it's worth a try!






Pasta Alfredo

12 oz. cauliflower florets, fresh (use a kitchen scale to measure)
5 garlic cloves, whole
1 onion, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 pound fusili pasta (I used Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Brown Rice Fusilli)
2 cups almond milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Ground black pepper
Italian parsley, fresh, for garnish


Parmesan Topping
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon maple syrup


To Prepare Pasta Alfredo:

Cauliflower, Onion, and Garlic Cooking

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix cauliflower, garlic, and onion with olive oil in a large baking pan, season with sea salt. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring a few times, and remove from oven when vegetables are fork tender.

While vegetables are cooking, prepare the pasta according to package in salted water. Drain and rinse, particularly if using gluten-free pasta as the water gets cloudy.

In a blender, add in cooked vegetables, almond milk, lemon juice, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt. Blend until smooth. Toss sauce with the cooked pasta and add pepper to taste. Top with parsley garnish and Parmesan topping.

To Prepare Parmesan Topping:

Making Blanched Almonds

In a food processor, combine blanched almonds, nutritional yeast and sea salt. Pulse until it forms a crumble. Add in maple syrup and pulse again. Use this to top each serving of the pasta alfredo. 

Parmesan Topping - Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

Leftover Parmesan Topping!

Dining In - Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Coffee Frosting (Gluten-Free)

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Coffee Frosting - Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

When my boyfriend's birthday rolls around it's time to jump in the kitchen and bake! In previous years I've made full cakes, including last year's ambitious duo of German Chocolate Cake and a Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cheesecake (divine!), but this year I hate to say I was pressed for time so cupcakes were the pick. I wanted to incorporate my boyfriend's favorite flavors and Chloe delivered with her new cookbook for a recipe that included coffee, banana, and chocolate. The recipe is in Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen (buy yourself a copy here to fully enjoy!). I chose to make these gluten-free like my last baking experiment, because it came out so well! I used Trader Joe's gluten-free flour and Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum. These were a delicious batch of cupcakes. I loved the chocolate chunks in the subtle banana-flavored cake, and of course coffee frosting is taking things to the next level of yumminess. The banana cake included similar spices that you would use in a banana bread, like ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, so it smelled great when baking! I did notice that the cupcakes got a little tough and chewier than normal ones, so my lesson learned was to bake for a little bit less time.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
2 cups gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Mashed Banana

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 ripened bananas mashed (equals about 1 cup)

1 cup canned coconut milk (I use Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk, canned)

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips

Coffee Frosting
1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder mixed with 2 tablespoons of water

To Prepare Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake tins for about 16-18 cupcakes.

In a large bowl sift together all dry ingredients up until the bananas in above list. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, coconut milk, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and stir together without over-mixing. Next add in chocolate chips and stir so they are evenly distributed.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. In my baking experience these would have been best baked for about 18 minutes then removed from pan to stop from cooking. Let cool.


To Prepare Coffee Frosting:

Use a stand mixer or handheld mixture to smooth out shortening for one minute. 

Slowly add in powdered sugar and vanilla, while beating on slow speed. Add one tablespoon at a time of the espresso liquid, blend in completely and continue adding tablespoon by tablespoon until you reach the proper consistency for frosting. Continue to blend on high speed for two minutes until frosting is fluffy. Set aside.

Once cupcakes are fully cooled, use a frosting bag and tip to frost or a frosting knife. 

* I went a step further to make these visually appealing by mixing up some chocolate ganache to drizzle on top. I heated up about 1/4 cup chocolate chips and a couple teaspoons of coconut milk to blend into a nice sauce that I then poured over the cupcakes and cooled in the refrigerator. 

Dining Out in Charlotte - Luna's Living Kitchen

Rawco Taco Salad - Luna's Living Kitchen

I've been frequenting Charlotte for work recently and though I don't have much free time when I'm there, I always find time for a good vegan meal! After dining at Fern on my first visit down, I went to Luna's Living Kitchen for a solo lunch on my second trip this March. My Uber driver even asked how I found out about Luna's because he takes other out-of-towners there fairly often (must mean not everyone can handle BBQ for every meal!). It's located in Charlotte's South End District at the Atherton Mill and Market, which is a very cool industrial style shopping center with retailers, a farmer's market, and quite a bit of history to it (built in 1919). The restaurant itself is bright and airy with high ceilings and lots of seating. I liked what I saw on the menu and in the Yelp photos. It's a clean, wholesome, vegan menu with lots of raw and gluten-free options and a large juice and smoothie selection. Despite it being Charlotte, this place is not cheap; prices here were in line with NYC prices. 

My first visit was dining in and I ordered the Rawco Taco Salad. It was a huge bowl of healthy ingredients: All layered on a bed of lettuce and raw crackers was avocado, pico de gallo, walnut-almond crumbles, cashew sour cream and a delicious hot sauce, served with lime wedges. This was fresh, vibrant, colorful and had the right amount of kick to it. As I sometimes find with raw meals, the walnut-almond crumble was a little bit salty, but the creamy sauce, hot sauce, and lime balanced it out. I ordered the Grey Hulk Smoothie to go, hoping it would keep well enough for breakfast the next day. Of course I sipped it my whole ride back; it was filling and not-too-sweet, though a little bit chalky and actually grey-colored! It had berries, banana, hemp milk, spiraling  mama, and hemp protein. With the spirulina and added protein I felt I was doing my body good.

Chia Breakfast Bowl - Luna's Living Kitchen

My most recent visit was a quick one, I picked up take-out to have for breakfast and lunch. To get my energy kick I ordered the Chia Breakfast Bowl, which they just packaged in a parfait cup. This sweet tapioca-like dish had chia seeds soaked in a homemade cashew milk with vanilla bean and orange zest, topped with fresh fruit and maple syrup. It was outstanding! I loved the vanilla flavor and the creaminess of the pudding. The fruit was fresh and bursting with flavor to complement the chia seed mixture. I also requested a Matcha Latte but iced and they were able to accommodate. It was the expected matcha earthiness taste with a very creamy almond milk. I could have used a tiny bit more sweetness. 

Lunch menu items are not available until 11am so I ordered the Living Bagel to save for a later lunch. It was a raw, savory bagel made with almonds, flax, zucchini and rosemary with cashew sour cream and topped with tomato, onion, avocado, basil and sprouts, jalapeños on the side. I didn't know what to expect with a raw bagel but this was really filling. The bagel held together nicely. All the toppings made this a delicious, much better-for-you bagel sandwich I could easily eat a few days a week as a full meal. It was certainly high in fat content because of the nuts and avocado, but I felt satiated right away.

Living Bagel - Luna's Living Kitchen

Needless to say I will be returning to Luna's whenever I can make it back to Charlotte!

Luna's Living Kitchen

2000 Boulevard

Charlotte, NC 28203

Luna's Living Kitchen Website