A really delicious and easy pasta dish. Which also happens to be vegan and gluten free! Really happy with how delicious this came out and it came together in under 30 minutes as well. I love that in stores its so much easier to find dairy free and vegan options. Plus, today, they don’t taste that much different from the real thing, so the quality is great too.
Sometimes its so nice to just have a creamy and comforting pasta dish. This mushroom and kale creamy penne is smothered in a creamy vegan parmesan sauce, and you’d never know it was vegan. My secret is using canned light coconut milk. I find that in recipes like this, you don’t taste coconut whatsoever and it works much better than using the carton milk alternatives that people typically use to drink or in cereal. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I find using the canned coconut milk, it just comes out so much better.
The girls didn’t even mind the greens in this, because the sauce was so good. If you wanted to make it even creamier, you could use full fat coconut milk (I used light). To switch it up you could also use different types of mushrooms, or a combo of fresh and dried mushrooms.
This was a really great weeknight meal, and there were leftovers, which were great warmed up the next day.
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 500 grams penne pasta (dry) I use Tru Roots Ancient Grains Pasta which is gluten-free
- 3 kale leaves (stem removed), chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese (vegan or regular)
- 1 400 mL can light coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp butter (or vegan margarine)
- 1 Tbsp gluten-free or all-purpose flour
- Cook your pasta according to package directions.
- In a large skillet, spray with cooking spray. Add the mushrooms in an even layer so they can cook and brown. Flip, and when they have browned a bit, add in the chopped onion and cook until the onion is translucent.
- Add in the kale and garlic and cook down until the kale starts to become soft.
- Remove the mushrooms, onion, garlic and kale from the pan. Set aside.
- Now to make the sauce. Melt the butter and 1 Tbsp flour and whisk for a couple minutes in the large skillet over medium heat.
- Add in the can of coconut milk to the butter/flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add in the salt, pepper and parmesan cheese and whisk until melted together into a creamy sauce.
- Add back in the mushrooms, onion, garlic, kale and simmer together for a few minutes.
- Add in the drained pasta and toss together.
- Serve with extra parmesan cheese on top if desired.