Vegan Italian Mac & Cheese

Vegan Italian Mac & Cheese Recipe

By Stephanie Dreyer

🔪Prep Time: 10 minutes

👩‍🍳Cook Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

6 ounces cremini mushrooms

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 head (12 cloves) + 6 cloves garlic, divided

2 Tbsp olive oil

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

½ pound cavatappi

14 ounces vegan Italian sausage

1 cup vegetable broth

½ cup raw, unsalted cashews (Soak overnight if not using a high-speed blender.)

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn

Instructions

1Preheat oven to 400ºF.

2Clean and cut the mushrooms in quarters.

3In a medium bowl, whisk the olive oil, the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, thyme and pepper. Stir in the mushrooms and tomatoes, mixing well so that everything is coated. Transfer to a baking dish with the marinade.

4Place the peeled cloves of 1 garlic head in a piece of foil and wrap it into a ball. Place it in a baking dish along with the vegetables. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables every 15 minutes.

5Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions.

6While the pasta and vegetables cook, in a medium skillet cook the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon. (You may need to chop the sausage depending on the firmness of the product.)

7When the garlic is done roasting, prepare the sauce: In a high-speed blender, combine the roasted garlic, vegetable broth, cashews, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.

8When the pasta is done cooking, add the pasta and sausage to the pan with the mushrooms and tomatoes. Stir well to combine and pour the sauce on top. Mix well.

9Bake for 10 minutes.

10Remove from the oven and top with the fresh basil.

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Earth of Maria

Earth of Maria

I’ve never been good at introductions because when they’re needed, I seem to forget every single interesting thing about myself. But I guess we’ll start with the basics. My name is Maria, and I am a twenty year old student from England. I study history at the University of Oxford and live in Brighton, but I was born in Russia and moved to the UK around ten years ago. I’m a vegan foodie (as you can probably tell by this blog), a lover of long walks and somewhere awkwardly between extrovert and introvert. Veganism and healthy eating are a huge part of my life, given that both have helped me overcome an unhealthy relationship with food. Finding balance took a lot of time and patience. But, as with many things in life, hard work proved 110% worth it! Whenever I’m not in the kitchen or working in my room, you’ll often find me at the gym, or at the grocery store looking for inspo for my next recipe.