“mac n cheese” but vegan
This meal is everything you wish for in a comforting meal. The broccoli with the creamy sauce and macaroni pasta is a well-balanced and vegan version of the og mac n cheese.
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 10 minutes
TOTAL: 20 minutes
MAKES: for 3-4 people
INGREDIENTS
For the pasta:
300g (3 portions) vegan macaroni pasta
(I recommend using whole-grain if you have access to it)1 head broccoli
3 tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 white onion
1-2 tsp olive oil for the cooking
For the sauce:
1 can (400ml) coconut milk, full fat
100g cashews, soaked & rinsed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric, ground
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Soak the 100g of cashews in a bowl with water for a minimum of 1 hour. Drain and rinse before using it. You can skip this step, but it helps to reduce anti-nutrients in cashews, making the iron more bioavailable (easier to absorb).
Boil water and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Make sure to properely salt the water before adding the pasta. Save 1/4 cup of pasta water while the pasta is cooking, in case we need it later.
While the pasta cooks, chop up a head of broccoli into small bite-sized pieces. Add these to cook with the pasta in the last 5 minutes of the pasta’s cooking time, then drain together (= e.g. if the pasta takes 11 minutes to cook, add the broccoli to the pasta at 6 minutes).
Chop up the tomatoes into small bite-sized pieces and mince the peeled onion and garlic cloves.
To prepare the pasta sauce, add all the ingredients (“for the sauce”) into a blender, and blend until smooth.
Into a large pan on medium-high heat pour the olive oil and once the pan is heated, sauté the onions and garlic for one minute. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry these on medium heat for around 3-5 minutes, adding pasta water when necessary, so nothing burns.
Pour in the pasta sauce, along with the drained broccoli and pasta. Mix well and let them cook together for another minute or two before serving. I recommend adding some chilli flakes on top when serving.
Enjoy!
