Vegan Dinner Recipe: Creamy mushroom pasta bake

I wish this was the finished version. I didn't get to see the finished version, it was gone by the time I got home. Imagine this but a bit brown from being in the oven, okay?

I don't know about you, but as a vegan, one of the things I really missed was creamy pasta sauce. I lot of my pastas required it, and I didn't just want to switch to tomato pasta all the time. So I did my research like the diligent person I am, and discovered the secret.

Cashews. They just need to be pre-soaked.

Don't believe me? You NEED to try this. Just you wait.


This recipe is quite similar to pie, in that it should serve four, but if you are surrounded by people who are basically going to shovel it down their faces as though it's their last meal, then it will feed three.


Ingredients:

500 grams of pasta, preferably penne, spirals, or macaroni
 A tablespoon of oil
An onion
Two cloves of garlic
Facon (optional, Dave's pretty into it)
Four field mushrooms (or button quantity equivalent)
One cup of raw cashews, soaked in water for at least two hours
Two cups of veggie stock
Two teaspoons of arrowroot
Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast (if you can. It adds a flavour dimension)
A teaspoon of salt

Two roma tomatoes
A couple of handfuls of torn basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 180.

Boil a whole lot of salted water to cook your pasta in, and cook it as per the instructions on the pack, or however you usually cook pasta.

While the water is boiling/pasta is cooking, multitask.

Heat the oil in a deep frypan over a medium heat.

Add the onion and garlic, cook for a couple of minutes to soften a little.

Add the facon (if you're using it) and chopped field mushrooms, lower the heat a little, and cook for at least five minutes.

While you're cooking that, pop the drained cashews, stock, arrowroot, salt and nutritional yeast in a blender.

Blend thoroughly. You want it smooth. Be willing to listen to that HIDEOUS blending noise for five or so minutes, if that's what it takes. It should be super blended.

Are your mushrooms dark and cooked-ish? Like this?

Good. Keep the heat on the low side of medium and pour in the cashew blend.

You can raise the heat a bit, but keep stirring pretty constantly. You don't want it to stick to the bottom. The mixture will thicken and reduce, like a proper white sauce. It'll take about five minutes, keep stirring till it's thick.

Is your pasta sitting in a strainer in the sink in a well behaved manner? Good. Take the mushrooms off the heat and stir in the cooked pasta.

God, how good does THAT look!

Okay, oil a lasagne dish. Pour in half the pasta, and cover with a layer of sliced tomato, half the basil, and salt and pepper. In the picture, I have also added vegan cheese because if I don't use it up it's going to go off but it's TOTALLY unnecessary.

Add the rest of the pasta on top and cover in another layer of tomato, basil, salt and pepper.

Put the whole bloody thing in the oven for an hour. Remove when the top is a bit brown, the way a pasta-bake should be.

If you're a FOOL, go out during the cooking process and get home to a bare lasagne tray and a couple of contrite little faces. (I do not recommend this as part of the actual recipe).