Additive-Free Eats: pasta

I've been wanting to try and make my own pasta sauce for a while now. I thought I would just make your basic pasta sauce with added veggies & spices. However, lately I've been dying to try something creamier or cheesier, like so many vegan pasta dishes contain that I read about. My only problem with most recipes I've come across, whether just to make a creamy sauce or cheese sauce, is that they contain Nutritional Yeast (aka: "nooch"). It's high in protein and B vitamins making it pretty popular among vegans. It also has a creamy, cheesy flavor that makes it a great cheese substitute. However, my problem with it is that it also contains high levels of free glutamate from its processing. I only tried nutritional yeast once and had a bad reaction, similar to how I would feel if I had consumed MSG. Therefore, I avoid it.

Thankfully, I read recently that using ground mustard is a good way to spice up, or add a nice kick and unique flavor to several dishes, included sauces. Typically, it compliments cheese (or nutritional yeast) in recipes. Since I already had a basic idea on how to thicken up sauce, I thought I'd experiment and see what I could come up using just ground mustard, minus the "nooch". I couldn't be happier with the thickness and taste of this sauce! This is a very basic recipe with a whole lot of flavor!

Pasta w/Creamy Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups marinara sauce

3/4 cups cashews

1/4 cup rice milk

1 tbsp ground mustard

salt & pepper to taste

16oz fusilli pasta (or pasta of choice)

2 cups frozen peas

Directions:

For "Creamy Sauce":

Place marinara sauce, cashews, rice milk, ground mustard, salt & pepper in food processor and blend until smooth and thick. Pour sauce into medium pot and heat over medium-low, stirring often until heated through.
*This recipes yields about 2.5 cups of sauce. Feel free to make more if you like a lot of sauce. I found it to be just enough for our liking.

For Pasta & Peas:

While the creamy sauce is heating up, prepare pasta according to package directions.

Towards the end of the pasta cooking (with around 8 minutes remaining), add peas and 1/4 cup of water to small pot. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes, until peas are bright green and softened. If any water remains, drain.

Top pasta with creamy sauce, then add the peas. Then say "yum!" :-)

Creamy Sauce simmering in the pot