Penne pasta with mushrooms and vegan alfredo sauce.

So…day 3 has almost passed and it is going okay. The smoothies are a delight. Today I purchased a couple of mangoes for tomorrow morning’s one.

For dinner I am attempting something new. Oh boy !!! Now this is my own recipe. I looked up a few sites trying to find something interesting to make and learned quite a lot about vegan/gluten free cooking. Naturally I also have to ditch sugar and soy…so it is time to do some reinventing.

Recipe for Jo’s penne pasta with mushrooms and vegan alfredo sauce.

• coconut oil
• 500 grams of mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of cashews
• 200-250 ml of coconut milk
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• mustard
• lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
• fine Himalayan pink salt and black pepper
• Italian herbs
• 100 grams gluten free pasta

One thing I learned from watching Julie & Julia was that when browning mushrooms you mustn’t crowd them or they won’t brown nicely. Thank you Hollywood !

If you have fur babies feed the wee beasties beforehand.

Or maybe not. That way if you drop anything on the floor they suck it up. Just be careful what you drop is not poisonous to them.

Chevvy is my own wee vacuum cleaner.

It is best to prepare the sauce first. To your blender add the coconut milk, garlic, lemon juice and mustard. I added about a 1/3 of a teaspoon of Hot English Mustard and 4 cloves of garlic. You could use another milder mustard if you don’t like heat. I suggest adding small amounts of both the mustard and the garlic and tasting as you go along until it suits your palette. If you’re not a real garlic fan you could roast it before.

Blend this well until smooth. Then add the cashews and blend again. I like to leave them a little crunchy but if you prefer smooth just keep going. I made the mistake of blending it all at once…which didn’t quite get all the garlic smooth, something I found out when crunching in to what I thought was a cashew.

Even for a garlic lover it was a bit much.

Chop up your Italian herbs…anything will do. It is winter here and herbs are in short supply so I cheated and used dried herbs…an Italian mix.

Boil the water and add the gluten free pasta when it is boiling. Some people like to add salt…personally there is enough flavour in the sauce to not be necessary. I used penne pasta for this, and it worked for me brilliantly.

Now add some coconut oil to a fry pan. Just enough to coat the pan. And then place the mushrooms in so they all have their own space to do what they should…brown.

Heat the oven and as you take the mushrooms out [and add more], put them in the oven to stay warm.

Once the mushrooms are cooked and the pasta al dente, drain the pasta. Add it back to the pan and add the sauce and mushrooms. Place it back on the heat and warm. If using dried herbs I suggest adding them before heating. Fresh herbs might be nicer if left until just before serving.

Now…bon appétit

This was enough for dinner for me and I have some left over for lunch tomorrow. You could add more pasta to bulk it up, without detracting from the dish, if making it for two.