Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Creamy Creole Pasta with Crispy Seitan & Broccoli [[Revisited]]

I posted this recipe about 9 months ago. It's easily my favorite thing to make. And since posting it, I've really updated this recipe a lot. And my camera. So here is my creamy creole pasta, again. With some prettier pictures and new twists...

Veganism can't do a lot of things well in way of replication. Vegan cheese by most standards, sucks in high quantities-- macaroni and cheese will be a life long battle for some. Tofu scramble is awesome, but really doesn't shine a light on actual scrambled eggs. You'll never get a fried egg again.

At the end of the day, though, we're a bunch of freaking wankers. We chose to not eat dairy and meat [[and honey for most of us]]-- we signed up knowing our food will never taste the same.

But as vegans, your taste buds adapt. Some days I crave nutritional yeast cheese. I love the chewy, delicious texture of a fake chicken patty. And tofu scramble speaks the words of my heart.

Last night I made a creamy creole pasta. It's been a while since I had a dairy cream pasta, but to me this was reminiscent of those delicious, creamy pastas I once enjoyed. And while dairy products seem most difficult to replicate, I think this does an amazing job of it.


[[Creole Cream Pasta with Crispy Seitan & Broccoli]]
This made a butt load. Like two large dinner plates, plus two decent sized lunch plates. And the more I work with chickpea flour to thicken my sauces, the more I believe that white flour is completely unnecessary.

About 2 cups whole wheat rotini
-- Cooked per packed instructions
-- I like to cook the pasta, then set it in a strainer in the sink and use the same pot for the cream sauce. Then add the pasta back to the pan and stir so it warms up again.

1 cup seitan, cubed
oil
creole seasoning
-- Dust the seitan with the seasoning and brown in a pan with some oil.

1 cup chopped shittake mushrooms
1/2 red onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 cup spinach
2 roma tomatoes chopped
olive oil
-- Lightly sauteed in olive oil until soft. Add mushrooms, onions and tomatoes first. Then add spinach for last 30 seconds.

3 heads of broccoli, chopped
a drizzle of olive oil
-- Baked broccoli at 450 F in a glass dish for 15 minutes until tender and crispy.

Cream Sauce Ingredients:
2 tbs earth balance
4 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
4 tbs brown rice flour
1 1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tbs creole seasoning [[tony chachere]], if you make your own creole seasoning be sure to add salt and pepper!
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Cream Sauce Instructions:
-- Melt earth balance in a medium sized sauce pan on medium heat. Add garlic and seasoning. Cook for two minutes allowing the seasoning to brown a little and the garlic to become fragrant but not burnt.
-- Then add brown rice flour*. Whisk it quickly until you have a roux, like a thick goop. Let it bubble for 30 seconds or so.
-- Add the white whine. Whisk for a while on medium heat until it's thickened up again [[like a cream sauce, not like the goop you had before]]. Let this bubble too to remove some of the alcohol flavor.
-- Then add the milk and whisk again, allowing it to thicken like a velvety cream sauce.
-- Once thickened again, add your nutritional yeast and continue to whisk until fully combined.
-- Add the grilled onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach to the pan along with the noodles and stir to fully saturate the noodles.



*If you don't have brown rice flour, that's fine, you can use chickpea flour, corn starch, or any thickener like flour. Brown rice flour is found at whole foods, kroger, anywhere really.

1 comment:

Ally said...

just wanted to let you know I've made this creole sauce with pasta multiple times for my in-laws (who are not vegan or anywhere close to it!) and they loved it! Thanks so much for sharing you recipes!