In college, we juggle being full-time students, working part-time jobs, finding time to be social, and managing so many other things we have to do. On top of all of that, how can we find time to cook when we're never home?

During the weekdays, I arrive home around 7:30-8 pm, exhausted and hangry. So, yeah, I don’t have time to cook. I like to buy take-out, but occasionally I want a nice home cooked meal. I know a lot of people prep their meals ahead of time. But, I don’t like the idea of constantly heating my pre-cooked meals. I don’t know why, but it bothers me. I can't eat food that's been sitting in the fridge for two or three days. In my opinion, meals lose their flavor after a while.

Thankfully, one day my professor canceled class. I was so relieved that I took the liberty to relax, catch up on Scandal, work on assignments for my other classes, and possibly find something to cook. I hadn’t gone grocery shopping in days and barely had any food in my fridge. So I quickly thought of what I could make with the ingredients I had in my fridge and checked the cabinets as well. I also checked online to find recipes that would fit my situation.

I found so many recipes, some had extra ingredients that I didn’t have or included ingredients that I disliked. As you can see, I am a picky eater. I don’t eat pork, seafood, or dairy, but eat everything else. I was inspired by looking at all the recipes I encountered. The vegan pasta recipe I'm sharing today is loosely based off of this spaghetti recipe. I even cooked this meal for my family. They loved it and didn’t know it was vegan. Also, I got my 11-year-old sister who dislikes vegan food to eat it because it's all vegetables.

Vegan Chorizo Pasta

  • Prep Time:5 mins
  • Cook Time:20 mins
  • Total Time:25 mins
  • Servings:6
  • Easy

    Ingredients

  • 12 ounces soy chorizo
  • 1 box fusilli pasta
  • 5 quarts water
  • 4 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 handful basil - sliced into thin ribbons
  • 8-10 baby tomatoes - sliced in half
  • 1 cup diced onions
  • 2 garlic cloves - minced
Sindy Cruz

  • Step 1

    Bring water to boil and cook and flavor pasta as described on the box.

  • Step 2

    Cook soy chorizo in a large pan and mash it. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and cook soy chorizo over medium heat for 6-8 minutes. Once cooked, place soy chorizo in a bowl.

  • Step 3

    On the same pan, lower the heat to simmer and add 3 teaspoons of olive oil. Add your onion and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.

  • Step 4

    Next, add your pasta. Mix and raise the heat to medium. Then mix in the tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. The tomatoes should dissolve.

  • Step 5

    Add your soy chorizo to the pan and mix it again. Then add your basil and cook for 1 minute. Feel free to add more olive oil if you’d like. And BAM, you are done!

    Sindy Cruz

I served my vegan chorizo pasta along with some salad because I was feeling very vegan. But if you want to take it up another notch , grab a glass of wine and share your meal on Snap 'cause you worked hard creating this masterpiece within 30 minutes.