This meal was created by complete accident. By complete accident, I initially attempted making a cauliflower soup but didn’t like it the outcome. Of course, I wasn’t going to throw it away, so I kept the mixture in the fridge overnight to see if I could come up with a better use for it the next day.

Well, sleeping on it did the trick, and I managed to turn my bland cauliflower soup in a creamy, cheezy mushroom pasta, with the secret ingredient being…cauliflower! Yup, instead of making a heavy, more fattening nut base for the pasta as I had done in the past, I ended up reheating my soup, adding my all-time favorite vegan “cheese” flavor nutritional yeast, sauteing some veggies and voila! Instant, perfect, hot, creamy mushroom pasta!

This recipe can be made 2 ways: By adding actual pasta to the sauce as pictured above with my all-time favorite mung bean noodles, OR, you can make it even MORE healthy by substituting the pasta for zucchini noodles!

You can choose to make one or the other or both, as the sauce itself is enough for at least 2 meals for 1 person, and more than enough for 1 meal for 2 people.

So without further ado…let us begin!

You will need:

• 1 medium head of cauliflower
• 1 medium onion
• 1 package organic mushrooms
• 4 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 package mung bean noodles, rice noodles, or any other noodle you prefer, OR
• 4 zucchinis to make zucchini noodles

You will also need a large saucepan, a mixing spoon, a large mixing bowl, a high powered blender like a Vitamix, and a spiralizer for the zucchini

Step 1:

Chop the onion into small pieces and add to a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Cook on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden, but try not to brown.

While the onions are cooking, wash the cauliflower and break into florets, or cut up into small pieces. Once the onions are cooked and golden, add in the cauliflower, salt, pepper and the four cups water. Turn up to medium heat, cover and let simmer for about 30-40 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender.

Check your mixture often, making sure to mix the cauliflower pieces around so they will all get a chance to cook. If you are losing water, add some more in. Do not let the cauliflower lose all the water, as this is part of the sauce

Step 2:

Once the cauliflower is ready, remove from heat, and add into your blender. If you want to do in batches you can, but most blenders are large enough to do it all together (especially Vitamix blenders). Add the nutritional yeast, cover and blend all together for about 30 seconds. If you want a chunkier sauce, blend for less time.

Once the mixture is blended, put in a container to cool in the fridge.

Step 3:

Now for the rest of the sauce! Slice the mushrooms and garlic. Using a large saucepan (possibly the same one you used before to cook the cauliflower), add 1 tablespoons of coconut oil and your sliced garlic. Saute on medium heat until the garlic is browned. Add the last tablespoon of coconut oil and your mushrooms, and saute together until the mushrooms are slightly browned and golden

Once the mushrooms are browned, turn down the heat to low and add the blended cauliflower sauce:

Mix together, and you now have a cheezy mushroom sauce!

Step 3: Bean/Rice/Quinoa noodles, or Zucchini Noodles?

You now have 2 options. You can add the noodles to the sauce to cook together (this will only work for mung bean, glass noodles and rice noodles. If you are using any other type you will need to cook them separately), or you can spiralize the zucchinis to make zucchini noodles. I will start with the noodle version first, then move back to the zucchini noodle option.

Step 3a:

If you are using mung bean (my favorite!) noodles or rice noodles, take them out of the package and add to the sauce on the stove. With the sauce on medium heat, mix the noodles around until they become soft. This takes only a few minutes as mung bean or glass noodles cook very quickly

After a few minutes, remove the sauce pan from the heat and let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes. This will thicken the sauce as well as the noodles, allowing it to get to its final, creamy, thick state

Once the noodles have thickened, they are ready to eat! Top with cilantro, red pepper flakes, additional sauteed mushrooms or anything else you want, and eat!

Step 3b: Cauliflower sauce with zucchini noodles

Remove the sauce from heat to let it cool. Wash the zucchinis, then use your spiralizer to make the noodles. Make sure to use a large bowl to catch all your zucchini noodles in!

Step 3c:

Next, pour the sauce over the zucchini noodles.

Top your zucchini pasta and mushroom cream sauce with whatever you wish, then serve and eat! That’s it! You now have creamy, “cheezy” mushroom pasta sauce and noodles!

The zucchinis will be cold enough to cool the sauce for you, so this mixture will be ready to eat as soon as you mix it up!

You can also saute the zucchini noodles in a pan first. Some people like the flavor of sauteed zucchini better than raw, so it’s entirely up to you!

If you are using the mung bean noodle or cooked noodle option, a great side to go with this sauteed broccoli. Just place some broccoli in a pan with coconut oil, cook on medium heat for a but until soft, then serve as a vegetable side with the noodles!

Enjoy!