Creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta

In case you haven’t heard from our Instagram, the A & S Kitchen household is trying to go dairy free. Not for the sake of being trendy and hip, but for the sake of our stomachs. We want to say before we continue, that you should consult your doctor and do research before eliminating certain foods from you diet.

Anyway, going dairy free is challenging because it is hard to find meals that are fast, affordable, and satisfyingly. Not to mention the fact that we love cheese! Like actually. So we decided to turn one of our favorite lunch/dinner recipes dairy free, just to see if we could. Of course, you can add cheese if you really want to, but its phenomenal without it.

We would say this is a good recipe for someone who is ready to venture out of jarred pasta sauce territory but not ready to be grinding up things in a food processor. Also this may seem like a lot of steps, but its because we have broken down everything down as much as possible to make it easy to follow.

Okay, okay, enough with the dribble drabble, lets GET. INTO. IT. And we are gonna say this one time. READ THE RECIPIE ONE TIME BEFORE YOU TRY TO MAKE IT. Okay. You may proceed.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion

• 1 package of frozen spinach

• 10-12 mushrooms

• 1 package of penne pasta

• 1 ½ tbsp. balsamic vinegar

• Salt

• Crushed black pepper

• 1/4 cup (or more) nutritional yeast

• Onion powder

• Garlic powder

• Olive oil

• 2 cups Oat milk

• 3 1/2 tbs. All purpose flour

• Red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Follow package instructions to cook pasta. We recommend putting the water to boil before you start any of this other jazz.

2. Defrost and drain as much water as you can from the spinach

3. Caramelize Onions

   1. Thinly slice the onion into long slivers

   2. Put 2 tbsp. oil in a pan or cast-iron skillet. Let it heat till its shimmering.

   3. Dump in your onions and sauté on high heat for 10 minutes, mixing the whole time.

   4. Turn the heat down to medium and add in a ¼ teaspoon salt. Continue mixing for 10 more minutes.

   5. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add in the balsamic vinegar. Continue mixing for another five minutes.

   6. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add in the balsamic vinegar. Continue mixing for another five minutes.

   7. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside.

4. In that same pan add a little bit of olive oil (like 1 tbsp.) and heat it till it shimmers

5. Add in your mushrooms and cook for six minutes until all sides have darkened multiple shades.

6. Add your defrosted, drained spinach.

7. Add salt, pepper, and red chili flakes to taste.

8. Cook for 5 minutes.

9. Transfer to a bowl.

10. Add 2-3 tbsp. of olive oil and let it heat up. To the pan add 3 ½ tbsp. of All Purpose Flour. It is critical that you do not stop mixing WITH A WHISK at this point.

11. When the flour-oil mixture is thoroughly combined, add one cup of oat milk and stir. This mixture should resemble a thick paste.

12. After that is combined, SLOWLY add the remainder of the oat milk ¼ of a cup at a time. They key here is to pay attention to the consistency. We want something that is a little bit waterier than pudding. It is okay if you add less oat milk if you get the desired consistency.

13. Add ¼ cup of nutritional yeast. You may want to add more depending on the flavor you like.

14. Add salt, pepper, chili flakes, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste. Really, just what tastes the most cheesy to you. Start with the salt and pepper. Add 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder and garlic powder. Then keep adding spices as you like from there.

15. Mix in all your vegetables until the are completely coated in you sauce.

16. Add pasta a spoonful at a time, mixing slowly until everything is nice and coated.

17. Boom, you just made some great, creamy, VEGAN mushroom pasta (-;