I love creamy sauces and one of my favourite dishes pre-vegan consisted of lashings of cream, chicken and leek folded into pasta. Ever since I turned vegan back in 2015 I’ve been on a mission to replicate it.
At first, I tried making the sauce with a base of blended cashews and nutritional yeast. This worked fine, but it didn’t quite tick all the boxes in terms of texture and taste. I went on to experiment with a bechamel made using vegan milk and flour. With the right vegan milk it worked, but it was a faff that didn’t quite scream ‘quick easy comfort food for those days you really can’t be arsed’.
For a while, I ended up settling with a pre-made vegan cream, like this one from Oatly. That was until I lived in Vietnam for a few years when products like these just didn’t exist yet. One thing we did have lots of was tofu. By the bucket load.
One day out of desperation I decided to blend some of the silken tofu and mixed it into my pasta dish. I was gobsmacked, it had the thickness of cream and held together really well when mixed with other ingredients. I’ve been making it this way ever since and I don’t think I could be convinced to make it any other way again.
Equipment:
Ingredients:
Creamy vegan sauce
- 300 g Silken tofu
- 2 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp Vegan cream cheese (optional)
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Lemon the juice of
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Pasta ingredients
- 250 g Chestnut mushrooms
- 1 Leek
- handful Frozen petit pois
- 200 ml Vegetable stock
- 1/2 tbsp Vegan butter
- 1/2 tbsp Rapeseed oil
- 4 portions Pasta I use gluten-free fusilli
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Make the creamy vegan sauce
- Start by putting all the creamy vegan sauce ingredients into a blender with a good pinch of salt and ground black pepper
- Blend the ingredients for about 30 seconds until smooth. If your blender isn't that powerful you may need to add a little bit of vegan milk to help it to blend
- Set the blended creamy vegan sauce to one side as you continue with the rest of the dish
Prep the pasta ingredients
- Slice the leek and the mushrooms finely
- Put a handful of frozen peas into a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling hot water from the kettle
Cook the pasta dish
- Get your frying pan on to a medium high heat and add in your rapeseed oil
- Once the pan is hot add in the sliced leeks and sprinkle in a bit of salt. Stir the leeks a few times as they soften and brown. This should take about 5-6 minutes
- As your leeks are cooking start to cook your pasta, make sure to keep an eye on it throughout the next stages as we'll want it to be cooked al dente
- Turn up the heat on the pan so that it is quite high and add in the sliced mushrooms with another pinch of salt. Then drop in the vegan butter into the middle of the pan and stir around so it melts amongst the mushrooms
- Make sure to stir the mushrooms regularly until they have shrunk slightly and started to brown. This should take about 3-4 minutes if your mushrooms are sliced finely enough
- Drain your peas and pour them into the pan with your vegetable stock and turn the heat on the pan down to medium-high. Leave it to simmer away until the stock evaporates. This should take about 5 minutes
- Drain your cooked pasta and leave it to one side
- Once the stock has evaporated and there is just a little bit of liquid left around the leeks and mushrooms in the pan, stir in your creamy vegan sauce. Heat through for a few minutes and then take it off the heat
Serving up the creamy vegan pasta dish
- Mix your cooked pasta into the creamy vegan sauce and make sure the pasta is fully coated in the sauce
- Serve up your pasta and enjoy!
Leave a Reply