Despite the mad rush that I seem to have entered into for the beginning of this year, I’ve re-discovered my passion for recipe creation and innovative cooking.. I’ve been so into my work and absolutely loving it! I started my social media and creating recipes simply because I enjoyed it so much and over the years, it’s now become my full time career! I will always feel incredibly blessed and grateful that this has happened to me and that I’m able to spend every single day doing what I love! My business has built up incredibly over the past two years and I’m exited to see where this will go over the next year!
However, like with any jobs, there are always parts that I enjoy less than others and despite what it looks like over on the gram, I do have moments when I struggle with inspiration and lose my mojo for a little while. I think that being part of a highly creative industry, this is completely normal and is definitely bound to happen from time to time. I’ve found that taking a little step back and time away to gather some fresh ideas and rediscover your love for something can make all the difference.
Anyway, onto the matter in hand.. this cheesy pasta recipe! I mean.. who doesn’t love a big bowl full of creamy, delicious cheesy pasta?! However, this isn’t your classic dish as it’s actually completely plant based and therefore dairy free! Today marks the final day of Veganuary and I wanted to share one of my favourite vegan dinner recipes!
Pasta was always one of my favourite childhood meals and I was always so obsessed with macaroni cheese and creamy pasta sauces! The mushrooms this add an incredible depth of flavour along with the smokey aubergine bits! The key ingredient here is nutritional yeast, which gives it that delicious cheese like flavour. I’ve started by making a classic white sauce and used a super creamy oat milk to get that velvety texture in the sauce!
Serves 4 – Ingredients:
- 200g pasta of choice
- 3 tsp cornflour
- Heaped tsp vegan butter
- 100g chestnut mushrooms
- 1 1/2 cups oat milk
- Pinch nutmeg and paprika
- 1 clove garlic- crushed
- 4-5 tbsp nutritional yeast
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Pinch turmeric
- 1/2 aubergine
- Tbsp tamari sauce
- Tsp smoke paprika
- Heaped tsp coconut sugar
- Water
Method
- In a saucepan, gently heat the butter in saucepan over a low-medium heat until melted, then stir through a tsp of the flour to create a roux.
- Whisk through a little of the oat milk, then gradually pour in more milk so that you’ve added a cup in total. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Whisk in the garlic, turmeric, nutmeg nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and paprika until smooth and allow to cook on a very low heat, whisking occasionally.
- Meanwhile sliced the mushrooms and fry these off with a little oil until browned, then mix in with the pasta sauce.
- Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the pack.
- For the aubergine, heat a little oil or vegan butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Slice the aubergine into little ‘bacon bit’ sized pieces and fry these until soft and starting to crisp.
- Add in the soy sauce, coconut sugar, paprika and a splash of water and continue to cook on a high heat until crispy.
- Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce along with the aubergine. Serve topped with some extra black pepper and get stuck in!
