Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Hello! I’m back from my break with a hearty pasta recipe. This combines meaty seitan ham pieces and macaroni in a creamy tomato sauce. As you know, I like to use tofu cream to add a creamy element to sauces. But this time I used cashew cream, specifically a blended mixture of soaked raw cashews and plant-based milk. The result is a rich and deliciously dairy-free alternative to cream, that has a higher heat stability than its dairy counterpart. It elevated this vegetable and tomato sauce, adding more flavour and richness to this dish

Serves; Four Cook time; 45 minutes

You’ll need;

1. One tablespoon of oil
2. One medium carrot, diced (roughly 110g)
3. Two sticks of celery, diced (roughly 110g)
4. One small red onion, diced (roughly 110g)
5. One 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
6. 250g passata
7. 225g cubed ham, I used my Smoky Ham Style Seitan
8. 50g grated dairy-free cheese
9. Two teaspoons of Italian style seasoning
10. 50g cashew cream
11. Salt and black pepper to taste
12. 300g (this is the dry, uncooked weight) macaroni
13. 80ml plant-based milk

For the cashew cream you’ll need;

1. 50g raw cashews
2. 80ml plant-based milk

To make the cream;

Simply soak the cashews in cold water overnight, then drain and blend with the milk until smooth. You don’t strictly need a high speed blender for this, but it’s quicker and results in a completely smooth texture. Once blended set aside

Method;

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it’s warmed up, add in the carrot, celery and oil, and give them 15 minutes to cook
• Next, add in the ham. Stir the ham through the vegetables and fry for ten minutes
• Use a blender to blend the tomatoes until they’re smooth, then add them to the frying pan. Then add the cream, passata and herbs. Give everything a good stir and let the sauce cook for five minutes. At this point you can also cook the macaroni as per the instructions on the packet
• Next, add the cheese into the sauce, pop a lid on the frying pan and continue cooking for another five minutes
• Finally stir the milk through the sauce and give it a good stir. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and stir it through the sauce. Once it’s well combined and the pasta is coated in sauce, it’s ready to serve

As I mentioned, I used some of my smoky ham style seitan. But if you’d rather not use that, I’d use the same amount of diced extra firm smoked tofu. Most supermarkets here in the UK stock Tofoo, and they make a really lovely extra firm smoked tofu. Also, both Lidl and Aldi sell extra firm smoked tofu too. This is a good replacement for both the flavour and texture of the smoky ham seitan