On our last trip to Napa, Tim and I picked up a bottle of wine from Mendocino that I've been saving for a special occasion. My last home-cooked meal in our current apartment seemed ideal. It's a smokey roset that I remember thinking would go well with cheese, if only I ate it. So instead I attempted a vegan fettucine alfredo.
I've made my share of vegan cream sauces before, usually cashew-based, but they usually taste... well, cashew-based. And nothing like the creamy Italian sauce I grew up with. But with the advent of the miracle food that is Daiya (seriously, who do I need to bribe to get this stuff into Australia?) I thought I might be able to make a better go of it.
And how right I was! I might make some tweaks if I were to attempt this recipe again, but this worked pretty darn well for me tonight:
Vegan Alfredo Sauce Recipe:
1/2 Cup Earth Balance
1 Cup Soy Creamer (I used Wildwood)
1/2 Cup cashew cream
2 Cloves garlic minced as finely as possible
1 tsp nutritional yeast
Cracked pepper to taste, a pinch of mutmeg
1 Cup Daiya Italian vegan cheese
Basil for garnish
1 lb. Fettucine
It's pretty simple. Start off by boiling your water for the pasta. Mix together all the ingredients but the Daiya in a pan over medium heat until it reaches a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Once you put the pasta in to boil, you can add the Daiya to your sauce mixture. Stir continuously until you get a creamy sauce. If it's too thick, add more creamer or soy milk to thin it out.
Drain the pasta and ladle on the sauce generously. Top with a basil chiffonade if you're feeling fancy. It's good with some sort of green veggie side like steamed broccoli with lemon juice.
It may not be the healthiest meal ever... in fact, for the sake of my new year's resolution, we'll pretend it never happened. But it's the closest I've come to replicating an authentic alfredo sauce and still probably way less heart attack-inducing. I sort of have this idea in my head that because everyone in Australia is so fit that as soon as I arrive there, I'll just start shedding pounds by proxy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
2 comments:
Mmm, that looks so good! And what winery up here in Mendo was the wine from? I have yet to go on a local wine tour, but it's in the works when some friends come visit in March. :)
Glad to hear you made it to Australia safely, hope everything goes well there!
Hi Megan! The winery was called Miner and I believe this was the wine we had: http://www.minerwines.com/08-rosato.html
We didn't actually go there; they were selling it somewhere else in Napa. I'm looking forward to getting to know the Australian wineries :-)
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