Vegan creamy mushroom sauce
Do you have a certain meal that you always seem to have on a particular night of the week? Friday night is pasta night in my household, this started when I was working in corporate treasury and would be so exhausted by the end of the week that the only thing I had the energy to cook when Friday night finally came around was pasta. Boil water, add pasta, add sauce, pour glass of wine, eat food - and relax!!
Even though I've given up my corporate job, it's usually still pasta for dinner on a Friday, but now that I have more time to cook I can experiment with different sauces. This sauce is so creamy it fools even the most diehard vegan-sceptic into thinking it's loaded with dairy. The key to making this sauce full of flavour is adding nutritional yeast, which can be found in most big supermarkets, health food shops, or bought on line.
Mushrooms and garlic are always a winning combination, the marsala adds an extra depth of flavour, and the lemon zest really cuts through the “creaminess” of the sauce. I used to make something very similar using crème fraîche and lots of parmesan, however, this has been one of the easiest meals to “veganise” (is that even a word??). It was a pure experiment to see whether you could tell it was made without dairy, and you know what?!? It worked! If you didn’t know this was made with tofu, you really wouldn’t be able to tell.
The other added bonus about this dish is, that without all that dairy, it's much lower in calories and saturated fat, perfect if you're trying to lose some of that "holiday weight".
I usually have this with spaghetti, but any pasta would work, or even try it with rice.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and if you make it, I’ve love to see a photo, tag me on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #sweetandtwoveg
Ingredients
120g of spaghetti (or pasta of choice) 1 tablespoon of oil 2 shallots, finely chopped 5 cloves of garlic, crushed 500g chestnut mushrooms, sliced 4 tablespoons of marsala (or white wine) Zest of a lemon 300g Silken tofu, drained 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast ½ teaspoon garlic powder 3 teaspoons of lemon juice Salt and pepper to taste Large bunch of parsley, chopped
Method
Bring a large pan of water to boil, add salt and cook your pasta as per the instructions on the packet.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the chopped shallots, along with a pinch of salt and fry gently for 5 minutes until translucent.
Add the mushrooms and garlic to the pan and sauté for 7-8 minutes, or until the moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated, turn down the heat and add the marsala, or white wine, and lemon zest.
While the mushrooms are cooking add the tofu, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, lemon juice to the jug of a blender, and blend until you get a smooth sauce. You may need to scrape down the jug a few times. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer the sauce to the frying pan with the mushrooms and heat through.
Scatter over the chopped parsley, then pour the sauce over the cooked pasta.