Day 15 - Creamy Vegan Pasta

Yes! Creamy + vegan + pasta can exist together harmoniously.

Necessity is the mother of invention apparently.  I have been craving pasta in a creamy soul-satisfying pasta sauce.  I knew what I wanted the finished product to be like but couldn't find a recipe that seemed to offer what I was wanting.  So I got to a bit creative in the kitchen and came up with this. 

I used the pinenut + tofu combo from PPK's moussaka as inspiration and it all came together very nicely from there.  Dear husband and I agreed that it was delicious!  And much more satisfying and creamy than we were expecting.

Below are directions for the pasta I cooked last night.  I will be making this again and I have a few variations in mind that I am keen to try out.  I have a feeling it is a recipe that I will come back to and mod until it reaches unparallelled perfection, (or something like that).

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Splash of oil
100gm sundried tomatoes
1 cup white wine
1 teaspoon veggie stock powder (alternatively you could use ~ ½ cup stock and little less wine)
200gm broccoli florets
200gm mushrooms (I plan to use more mushrooms next time)
300gm silken tofu
½ cup pinenuts
½ cup soymilk
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 teaspoon of sugar or corn syrup if your tofu has a sourish tast
Optional: A drizzle of truffle oil to serve takes this dish to new heights!

Directions:
1. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil over a medium heat.  I used the oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes because it is so flavorsome and it is much better than wasting it.
2.  Add the sundried tomatoes, wine, stock and broccoli.  Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes until the broccoli starts to soften.
3. Put the pasta on to boil
4. Whiz the tofu and pinenuts in a food processor until smooth.  Add the soymilk and process again.  Taste the mix - it should have a creamy texture, if it is sour to your taste buds then add a little sugar and whiz again to mix through.
5. Add the mushrooms to the fry pan and simmer for a couple of minutes.  Adjust the time depending on what kind of mushrooms you are using.   I used 100gm oyster mushrooms and 100gm enoki mushrooms because I am fancy like that (and a wonderful little fruit and veg shop opened next to my work recently and they have lots of lovely mushrooms).
6. Reduce the heat to low, add the tofu mixture, stir constantly and heat gently until warmed through.
7. Drain the pasta and add to the fry pan.  Mix it all together and then serve immediately.

This amount would easily serve 4 people.  Meaning dear husband and I had yummy left overs for lunch today.  I didn't even bother to reheat mine and it was delicious as a kind of cold pasta salad.  

I have seen a few vegan pasta recipes that use avocado for creaminess which sound yummy.  Anyone have any creamy vegan pasta recipes that they would recommend I try?

PS - I just passed the halfway mark of 30 Day Blog September!