RECIPE: High Protein Creamy Mushroom Alfredo
Plant based and surprisingly high in protein, this pasta recipe from Laura Lea Bryant is a comfort meal you can feel good about! Image: Laura Lea Bryant
This recipe is courtesy of Laura Lea Bryant. Her cookbook is wildly popular and available right here for only $18. With a whopping 800+ reviews and an average five-star rating, this is a cookbook you’ll come back to again and again. Read on for Laura Lea’s notes on this deliciously comforting, surprisingly nutritious spin on creamy alfredo pasta.
For this recipe, Laura Lea says:
Few things satisfy more than a big bowl of creamy noodles, amiright? It’s up there with finally flossing out that piece of apple skin, scratching that ill-located itch and taking off heels after a long night of standing. Pure gratuitous satisfaction!
Mushrooms do an incredible job of mimicking the texture and heartiness of meat, so they’re an ideal addition to plant-based pasta dishes. Their earthiness reflects the grounding nature of winter, and it feels wonderfully appropriate to enjoy them in spades right now.
You might be wondering what makes this particular pasta dish ‘high-protein,’ and the secret is Banza chickpea noodles or Tolerant Foods lentil noodles. I discovered these through my friend, Courtney from Realfoodology, and I couldn’t believe that they’re made from legumes! … So I buy them in bulk now, in all shape varieties, and I absolutely adore how filling they are: each serving has twice the protein, four times the fiber and half the net carbs of traditional wheat flour.
You can absolutely make this recipe with any noodles you have lying around, or with zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash, but I’m on a serious Eat Banza and Tolerant Foods kick, and I recommend giving them a try!
Whatever noodles you use, this pasta is uber creamy, squishy-noise-in-the-best-way, stick-to-your-ribs-goodness, and it has already become a staple in our house! It’s very versatile, so you could toss in cooked sausage, bacon, chicken, roasted broccoli, green peas … you get the gist.
Recipe: High Protein Creamy Mushroom Alfredo
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 8 ounces pasta of choice I like spaghetti noodles
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms button or baby bella
- 1/2 medium yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium Tamari sub soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon molasses sub maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon dark balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock sub vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast plus more to taste
Instructions
PREP
- Add cashews to a bowl with hot tap water (not boiling) and allow to soak for 1 hour.
- While cashews are soaking, cook pasta slightly al dente according to package directions (1-2 minutes less than recommended time).
- Wipe mushrooms clean with a damp towel and set aside. Chop onion into 1/4 inch pieces, approximately 1 cup, and set aside. Minced garlic cloves and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together tamari, molasses, balsamic, dijon, salt and pepper. Set aside.
COOK
- Heat a large skillet to medium and add olive oil. When oil moves easily around the pan, add mushrooms and onions. Cook, stirring, until mushrooms have significantly reduced in size and any extra liquid has evaporated approximately 10 minutes.
- Turn heat to low and add garlic, as well as tamari mixture. Cook, stirring, until garlic is softened and fragrant, approximately 1 minute. Add 1 cup chicken stock and allow mixture to simmer.
- While mixture is simmering, add drained cashews to a blender, along with remaining 1/2 cup stock and nutritional yeast. Puree until smooth.
- Add cashew puree to pan and stir to combine. Simmer mixture until it has reduced in size by approximately 1/3. It is ready when you scrape a spoon through it and the liquid doesn't run back together.
- Add noodles and cook until warmed through, 2-3 minutes. Taste for more taste, pepper and/or nutritional yeast. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
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