Guest Recipe: Tom's Creamy Scandi Vegan Mushroom Pasta

This Creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta is adapted from a Swedish recipe – although there is no need to search further that the veg aisle of your local store to source the mushrooms needed here. The ‘cream’ comes in the form of vegan crème fraiche – although Tom has also made this with a vegan double cream substitute and added half a teaspoon of lemon juice to offer a little sharpness to the rich sauce.

And don’t be alarmed by the volume of mushrooms you are required to cook...mushrooms sweat down alarmingly quickly to concentrate their woodland flavours.

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Category: Pasta,Lunch,Dinner,Vegan

Ingredients

• 1.5 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 900g chestnut mushrooms
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 200ml vegan crème fraiche
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• A very generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
• Salt to taste
• Freshly chopped parsley to garnish
• 500g Cellentani or Spirali dried pasta

Method

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan over a low-medium heat. Finely dice the onion and add to the oil with a pinch of salt. Clamp on the pan lid and soften in the steam for 3-5 mins. You want the onions soft and translucent – not browned.
2. Mince the garlic and add to the onions, stirring to combine.
3. Wash and thickly cut the chestnut mushrooms – including the stalks. Add to the onions and continue to cook over a low-medium heat for up to ten mins with the lid clamped on the pan. Stir occasionally to prevent the onions sticking.
4. After around 10 mins, throw in the sprigs of thyme and continue to cook uncovered until nearly all of the liquid has evaporated – approx. 10-15 mins.
5. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions – I cook mine for 10-12 minutes in a pan of boiling salted water.
6. When the pan of mushrooms has cooked down and most of the liquid has dried up, pop the cornflour into a teacup and slacken off to make a paste with a little cold water. Add this to the mushrooms and stir through before adding the vegan crème fraiche. Stir to combine before seasoning with a little salt and a very generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Remove the now bare stalks of thyme.
7. Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the pasta water. Stir this water through the sauce.
8. Pop the drained pasta back into the pan and pour the sauce over, stirring gently to combine. Serve between four bowls and garnish with some finely chopped flatleaf parsley and a further grinding of black pepper.

Tom Frizell-Shackley is a food writer, recipe developer and freelance PR consultant, based in the North of England. He lives with his partner, son and three spaniels. Since 2019, he has published recipes and kitchen tips for his Kitchen Notes food blog.