Cashew Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Besides being an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants mushrooms are available year round, so versatile, and simply delicious, especially when they come with a heavenly creamy sauce on top of your favorite pasta. This recipe is so quick and easy to prepare, absolutely delicious, and definitely a candidate for a second serving!

You will need:

• a high speed blender

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (140 g) raw, unsalted cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 medium-size sweet onion, diced
• 4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 lb (450 g) crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 3 large kale leaves, stems removed, roughly chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 – 2 tsp Celtic sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• a squeeze of lemon juice to taste
• 1/3 cup (50 g) pine nuts
• vegan Parmesan (I use “Follow Your Heart” brand)

Preparation:

Drain soaked cashews, then place them into your high speed blender. Add water and nutritional yeast, and blend until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes.

Wash and cut veggies.

Preheat a large sauce pan on medium heat. Add olive oil, then diced onion, and sauté for about 10 minutes until soft. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Now add mushrooms and kale, and sauté until all the liquid has evaporated. This takes less than 10 minutes. Add celery and sauté for only 2 more minutes.

Pour cashew cream over sautéed mushroom/veggie mix, and season to taste with Celtic sea salt and black pepper. Simmer on reduced heat for about 5 minutes until thick and creamy. Stir occasionally.

Preheat a frying pan on medium heat, add pine nuts, and fry for only 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Stir continuously! Remove from heat immediately and transfer to a small bowl.

Season your mushroom sauce with a squeeze of lemon juice and maybe some more salt and pepper to taste and, if necessary, add about 1/4 cup more water. Serve on your favorite pasta and top with pine nuts and vegan Parmesan. Enjoy!

Notes:

• For the pasta, I used “bionaturae” – gluten free fusilli
• Instead of pasta you could also serve this sauce with brown rice or quinoa.
• If you’re not a fan of pine nuts, try chopped pecans fried in a little bit of olive oil.