You want quick and easy? We got quick and easy! Tonight Mrs. Pants and I had a little something I like to call Harvest Casserole. It’s what I’m gonna call a “second-run” entree, in that the central ingredient is something left over from a previous meal.
In this case, the leftover in question is a delicious vegan Alfredo sauce, courtesy of Vegan Yum Yum. It’s a regular favorite at Casa McCracky, and very easy to make. We made this sauce the night before last, for a simple pasta dish, and doubled the recipe since we knew we’d be making this casserole later. (Yay meal planning!) This sauce makes a great creamy base for just about anything you want a creamy sauce for.
For the pasta, we use Bionaturæ organic semolina pasta. Semolina pasta isn’t as healthy as whole grain wheat pasta, but it is less processed (and therefore retains more nutrients) than refined white flour pasta, and we prefer the taste and texture of it over the whole grain pastas we’ve tried, so we look for 100% semolina pasta whenever possible.
Ingredients
Prepare the pasta, taking it off the heat a bit sooner than you normally would, so that it’s a little firmer than al dente (it will soak up some water and flavor from the sauce while baking). Meanwhile, if you don’t already have the Alfredo sauce on hand, this is a good time to prepare it.
Also get your pan ready. You’ll want a rectangular baking dish, greased with Earth Balance margarine or olive oil. Preheat your oven to 350°.
When the sauce is ready, combine it in a LARGE bowl (you’ll need plenty of room for all the ingredients) with the bag of Harvest Hodgepodge and the peas (these veggies don’t have to be defrosted). When the pasta is ready, you’ll want to mix that in and stir well.
The sauce will probably be a bit thick, so you can thin it out with soy milk until it’s a good consistency (you don’t want it to be soupy, but you want it a bit thinner than Alfredo sauce because some of the liquid will evaporate during baking).
Pour the mixture into the baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle fried onion pieces evenly over the top of the casserole.
Return the dish to the oven and continue baking, uncovered, for another 15-20 minutes or until the topping is nicely browned. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve!
If you like casseroles, this dish is a real winner. It has all the comforting, creamy richness you want from a creamy casserole. I think the crispy fried onions are the crowning touch.
If you wanted some kind of meat-like component, I suppose you could add some chunks of chicken-style seitan or marinated tempeh — I might try that next time — but this dish seriously needs nothing else to be incredibly satisfying.
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