Almond Cream Pasta with Roasted Brussels Sprouts (Vegan)

Why do I feel like I posted this already? Because I ate it over a month ago. Sorry!

Sometimes I get a craving for something super creamy. 
Being lactose intolerant and sharing the occasional leftover with vegan friends means I have to look to uncommon places for that satisfying sauciness.  Frankly, I was surprised to learn that this is an actual pasta sauce (I thought it was just something I dreamed up out of low pantry supplies and lack of motivation to go outside).
It ends up tasting somewhere between an alfredo and a white cheese sauce, and this depends on how much nutritional yeast (if any) you use.
The sauce is pretty easy: 
Take a cup of toasted almonds (skin on or off) and grind them in a blender until they're a fine crumb. Add one or two cloves of chopped garlic and pulse together.  
To this add 1-2 cups of water and continue to blend until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a pan and simmer. At this point you can add lemon zest, lemon juice, basil, or up to 1/4 c. nutritional yeast to taste, as well as salt, pepper or nutmeg.
Simmer the sauce until it's the desired thickness and serve over pasta.
On the side, I served roasted brussels sprouts. They were halved and tossed with curry paste, vinegar or citrus juice, some sugar or maple syrup optional garlic and a little olive oil and roasted at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  They're a dream of crispy chippy leaves and soft insides.
Yum!

Middle Eastern Style Tomato Chickpeas

Chickpea in the city

I love saucy chickpeas and beans.  From late night munchies at local middle eastern joint Ghazale to the delicious, saucy broad beans I had for breakfast in Istanbul, to my grandmother's Pasta e fagioli.
This dish was my attempt to finally capture the essence of the oily, long stewed beans you dip crusty bread into, or savour over rice.  I think I nailed it.

I took an onion, half a carrot and red/green/yellow pepper and sauteed them in a healthy glug of olive oil with some fennel and cumin seeds and some cayenne until they were soft and fragrant.  
Then I added in half a jar of loose tomato puree (conserva to my fellow wops) and two cloves of chopped garlic.  Following that, I patiently boiled the bejeezus out of the mixture for probably half an hour on medium high heat until it started to thicken and get slightly dark. I removed half of the mixture and pureed it with my stick blender and returned it to the pot, then added about two cups of chickpeas.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it a little longer, and voila!  Delicieux!  

     Fall can be dreary, so here's some inspiration: during trying times, with lots of illness in the family my elderly grandmother still found time to garden this spring, and to share some of the bounty with me when I visited.  She grew, shucked and froze 27(!) little packets of her own beans for the winter.  That is one self-sufficient lady! <3