Spaghetti Squash & Vegan Mushroom Cream Sauce
Now that fall vegetables have begun to pile up around the grocery stores and produce stands, I am wasting no time to be re-introduced to all of my favorites. Last week I knocked out acorn squash, so this week I moved on to spaghetti squash – one of my absolute favorites.
I wanted to do something other than the usual spaghetti squash with marinara and vegetables. My goal was to make something more decadent and rich tasting – like real pasta – but without the excess calories of traditional alfredos and cream sauces. One hour later, a recipe was born…
Spaghetti Squash & Vegan Mushroom Cream Sauce
Let’s begin with the squash, since that will take the longest. Last night’s victim…
Back in earlier blogging days, I did a tutorial on how to cook spaghetti squash. While the info is all great, and I still use the exact same method, the pictures are tiny and terrible – please don’t laugh.
I followed my favorite method, slicing in half, and scooping out the gooey insides before cooking.
Then I used my garlic press to mince 3 cloves of garlic, and this time I added 2 medium shallots for a little extra flavor. (Please ignore my 80’s hot pants.)
Apparently you CAN press shallots through a garlic press – success!
I coated both halves in a mixture of the shallots and garlic, along with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
And then baked it in a 375 degree oven for a little over one hour.
While my squash was busy cooking in the oven, I took advantage of the long cooking time and took my pups for a nice walk around the neighborhood. Without about 15 minutes of cooking time left, I got started on my delicious sauce. Get ready, because this one is going to knock your socks off.
Vegan Mushroom Cream Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 package sliced mushrooms
- 2 cups Almond Milk
- 2 tbsp non-dairy creamer
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp arrowroot or cornstarch
- salt and pepper to taste
To Prepare: Start with 1 full package of mushrooms, and sauté in a little bit of oil or Earth Balance. Let these cook about ten minutes, stirring frequently , so that they are nice and soft and starting to brown.
Next up, add the almond milk. I have recently fallen in love with this Whole Foods brand almond milk – hands down my favorite.
Only add 1 cup of the almond milk to start. Bring it up to a simmer and let it cook down a bit, concentrating the flavor and preparing a good base for the sauce.
Next add the 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast, to give the sauce a protein boost and a delicious cheesy flavor. YUM!
Add 2 tbsp of non-dairy creamer, and the other cup of almond milk and stir.
The sauce should have a good flavor, but it will be a little runny at this point. Continue to let it simmer, and prepare a slurry using 2 tsp arrowroot (or cornstarch). Do NOT add the cornstarch straight to the sauce!
Combine the arrowroot/cornstarch with 2 tsp water in a separate dish, and once it is well combined, add the mixture to your sauce, stirring immediately. You should see the sauce instantly thicken – make sure you keep stirring! Adjust your final seasoning with salt and pepper, and BAM – totally amazing vegan cheesy cream sauce.
At this point the squash should be ready for serving. Mmmmm, looks good!
Using a fork, test to see if the flesh pulls away easily into spaghetti like strands. If it looks like this, you’re ready to go!
Scoop both halves into a large bowl and do a final season with salt and pepper.
The end result? A truly decadent “spaghetti and cream sauce” meal with a fraction of the calories and fat, and ALL the taste of a rich dinner.
I’m gonna say it – this is one of my favorite things I’ve made to date.
It’s hard to believe that this sauce is vegan since it really tastes and looks like it was made with heavy cream.
The nutritional yeast brings in a tangy, cheesy flavor that reminds me of traditional alfredo sauce, mmmm.
And of course, who can resist the earthy smell and taste of slow-cooked mushrooms? The perfect sauce to compliment this healthy pasta substitute.
Enjoy!
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hi emily,
i loved loved loved this recipe because it was vegan, creamy, and easy! i’m not great in the kitchen, so i really appreciated it. i had my cousin there to explain what slurry was because the picture was on top of your explanation on my print out and i didn’t see it, so i kind of freaked out there a bit.
we got all the ingredients at whole foods so even shopping was easy. i loved finding the coconut milk creamer! and i was nice that you explained what the nutritional yeast was for, as i have seen that in several vegan recipes.
thanks so much for putting this recipe out there!
Thanks for the idea on this, Emily! I was looking for a creamy sauce to add to a squash lasagna recipe and this sauce was PERFECT. So delish. I swapped rice milk for the almond milk due to family food allergies. The only downside is that the sauce ended up a little runny after baking in the oven. It was thick enough to serve right from the pan, but once I added it to my dish and then baked it as part of the lasagna it became runny again. Thoughts on how to tweak it?
Made this last night…sooooo delicious. I followed the recipe as is. FYI – I used soy milk creamer since the only flavor of coconut milk creamer at my Whole Foods was Hazelnut. I am glad I found this blog.
So glad you liked it! And I’m glad you found the blog too. :)
This sounds so yummy! My husband and I went to, of all places Ruby Tuesday and they had a similar meal on their menu. It was yummy, so I look forward to making your version of this entree.
Also, just some constructive critique, it would be nice if a printable version of the recipe was available on this site. Thanks!
Colleen
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Excellent! First time I forgot the corn starch, and it was still good.
However, when I tried to make the slurry the second time…I mixed it well separately, and when I added it right awy, it had chunked up into big milky white jelly-like clumps in the mix. Do you know what happened?
I added more water to the corn starch then added it. Stir constantly
Can’t wait to make this, just need to re-stock my mushroom supply
Okay I made this today and it was so good!!:)
I left out the creamer (because I only had vanilla flavor for coffee which would’ve tasted weird) And I added spinach and peas to the mushroom sauce which went great. I used Cremini mushroom from Trader Joes.
I’m glad Oh She Glows had linked this through her blog guest post, I’m vegan and always looking for cool new recipes :-D
This looks great! I’m going to use the sauce for another dish which needs something ‘cream’ based. Any suggestions for replacing the nutritional yeast? I am bizarrely allergic to this kind of yeast, and it doesn’t agree with my stomach (although I LOVE how it tastes in food). Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you!
OMG!!!!!! It is so delicious!!! Im putting this sauce on everything!!!!
Its a good thing its lower in calories cuz i just ate the whole damn thing for lunch, snack. Linner, and dinner…..
I made this tonight and it was delicious and so easy. It even got the thumbs up from my non-vegan 18 yr old son!
I can’t eat almonds so I substituted rice milk for the almond milk. I ended up doubling the arrowroot/water slurry mixture to get a desired thickness.
Thanks so much for this delicious way to use spaghetti squash!
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I made this tonight, and it was PERFECT! My first try at spaghetti squash and I honestly don’t think I’ll ever eat regular pasta again.
I added a couple of splashes of low sodium soy sauce to the gravy and it was SO GOOD.
This recipe is going down in the favorites! Thank you!
This looks absolutely amazing!! I can’t wait to try this! These are like two of my favorite things combined!
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I made this last night and it was awesome! Thanks for the recipe.
This was so delicious! My husband and I have recently become vegans so I made it for dinner on Monday and just shared it on my blog. And now you have another follower to add to your list! Thanks for the recipes!
I made this tonight. This was the first time I have cooked squash. This dish was easy and really tasty. Thank you for sharing.
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Hi Emily. Thank you for such an amazing sounding recipe! I’m so looking forward to making it so I’m hoping you could help with a query I have. I’m curious as to what you’ve used the creamer for in the recipe. I’m in Australia & creamer isn’t easily found so I’m wondering what purpose it played in the recipe so that I can find a substitute. I’d really appreciate your feedback.
I haven’t tried this recipe YET but I sure plan on making it this week for my daughter and granddaughter…the ingredients sound like a combination of deliciousness …may add some frozen peas and kale to this dish too…thank you so much for creating and posting the recipe!