I’ve got two delicious, vegan, creamy pastas for you, and they are so good, and these are kind of like my own healthy spin on a few classic dishes. So the first dish that we’re gonna make is a vegan mushroom stroganoff. Stroganoff is typically made with beef and egg noodles, and we’re making it with mushrooms. We’re making a creamy vegan sauce that actually doesn’t use cashews. It uses another secret ingredient which is so tasty.
So that’s the first one, and then the second one is going to be a vegan cacio e pepe pasta which is made with a creamy, cashew-based sauce. Cacio e pepe actually means cheese and pepper. So it’s a very simple, classic Italian dish that comes from the Rome area, and we are veganizing it. So it’s gonna be like a creamy, peppery sauce over linguini noodles. It’s so good.
Let’s go ahead and dive into our vegan pasta recipes today. So like I said, we’re gonna start with the vegan mushroom stroganoff. We’re gonna start by adding some olive oil into a large pan.
Add in some shallots or some red onions, and you’re gonna just give this a quick sauté until the shallots have started to soften. It takes about a minute or so. Once they have started to soften, you can add in another tablespoon of olive oil, and then you’ll add in your garlic and all of your chopped up mushrooms. Now, I am just using baby bella mushrooms or cremini mushrooms.
You can really use any type of mushrooms that you want here.
And then again, we are going to give this all a quick sauté, and we’ll season it with salt and pepper, and basically, just sauté the mushrooms until they have softened and they are nice and golden brown and they’re starting to release some of their juices. From there, you will add in your quinoa flour, and we’re using quinoa flour here because we’re gonna add some stock in, and it’s gonna basically help to thicken the sauce. If you don’t have quinoa flour, you could use another grain-based flour. Something like rice or just regular all-purpose flour will work.
Once you’ve coated the mushrooms in the flour, you can start to stream in your vegetable broth, and you’re gonna continuously stir as you stream it in so that you’re avoiding any of the clumps, and once you’ve got that combined, you can basically just add the rest of the broth in batches until everything is nice and combined and smooth.
From there, you’ll just bring it up to a simmer, and we’re gonna simmer this for about eight minutes or so until it starts to thicken up and reduce a little bit, and then you can just add in the final ingredients which are nutritional yeast and coconut yogurt. That is what’s gonna make it nice and creamy. If you don’t have coconut yogurt, you can use another type of either non-dairy yogurt, or Greek yogurt would work, and we will mix that all together with our spatula.
Make sure that the yogurt is nice and smooth and combined and everything is totally creamy. Finish it off with some salt and pepper, and then we’ll actually just remove the sauce from the heat, and you can just add your cooked pasta directly into the pan here.
I love serving this for a rotini pasta because I feel like it’s kind of similar to egg noodles. I use a red lentil rotini, but you could use any type of pasta that you want. Give it a quick stir so everything is combined, and you are ready to serve it up. So this will serve between four and six people. It is absolutely incredible, and if you do use a bean-based pasta which I always do, you’re getting in your protein as well if you are on a plant-based diet.
So it’s kind of like a double whammy. You’re eating pasta, and you’re getting a completely balanced meal which is amazing. To finish this vegan mushroom stroganoff off, I love to garnish it with some fresh thyme. It just gives it a little bit of a nice earthiness almost. Also, some pepper, and the thick Parmesan which I use is just grated macadamia nuts which you’ll actually see me do in the next recipe.
So I hope you guys enjoy it. This definitely meal preps really well, and it tastes absolutely incredible. For our vegan cacio e pepe pasta, we’re gonna start with the sauce. You’ll add your soaked raw cashews into a blender.
Follow that with some whole peppercorns as well as nutritional yeast, some miso paste, or you could swap that out with sea salt, lemon juice, and water, and you will just pop your lid on your blender.
Blend this baby up until it is smooth and creamy. It will get nice and thick, and it will basically be a thick, peppery, vegan cream sauce. From there, we will cook our pasta. So I, again, am using some chickpea pasta here, but you could use whatever type of pasta you want. Cacio e pepe is traditionally served with a spaghetti or linguini-style pasta.
So that’s what we’re doing here, and you’ll just cook your pasta until it is nice and al dente.
Just look at the package instructions. It will tell you how long it takes to cook. Then you will just want to reserve a little bit of the cooking liquid because it’s nice and starchy. It really helps to make sauces creamy at the end.
So reserve some pasta liquid. I usually reserve about a quarter of a cup. You can remove the pasta from the heat, drain it, add it back into the pot, and then you’ll just top it with your vegan cacio e pepe sauce, stream in a little bit of that pasta liquid. Again, it’s gonna help make it really nice and creamy, and toss it all together with some salad tongs. Once it is all combined, it’s literally so good, you guys.
You can just serve it up on your plates. Again, this is gonna serve between four and six people depending on how much pasta you make, and I love finishing this off with, like I said, my vegan quote on quote Parmesan replacement which is just grated macadamia nuts.
You can also do this with cashews. It doesn’t actually taste like Parmesan, but it gives you that illusion. And then we’ll also, of course, do a generous crack of pepper to give it that extra peppery kick.
Finish it off with some fresh basil, and you are ready to go. This is a really decadent and delicious pasta. Again, with the bean-based pasta, you’re getting in your protein, and you’re eating pasta, and it is just fabulous.
So I hope you guys give it a try. And there you have it, my friends.
