Craving comfort food with a plant-based spin? Try these sweet potato and mushroom stuffed shells

The current growth in plant-based meals has introduced all the things from bean-made “pepperoni” to fake liquid eggs to grocery retailer cabinets, but when such intelligent dupes aren’t to your tastes, there are all the time simple veggie spins on consolation meals.

Quebec-based chef Jean-Philippe Cyr makes a speciality of veganized classics which can be simple to drag off, like this recipe from his newest ebook, “The Buddhist Chef’s Vegan Consolation Cooking.” Impressed by a dish he tried at a restaurant in New York, it requires pantry/fridge staples, plus a sprinkling of vegan secret weapons — like dietary yeast (a.okay.a. “nooch,” nature’s tacky, nutty, umami-rich flavour flakes). Right here’s tips on how to make it.

Candy Potato and Mushroom Stuffed Shells

Prep time: 40 minutes

Cook dinner time: 1 hour

Relaxation time: 20 minutes

• 12 jumbo pasta shells

• 3 tbsps (45 ml) vegetable oil

• 1 onion, chopped

• 8 oz (225 g) chopped mushrooms

• 2 candy potatoes (500 g), peeled and reduce into small cubes

• 4 oz (120 g) cashews, coarsely chopped

• 5 oz (140 g) child spinach

• 1 cup (250 mL) vegetable broth

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp (15 ml) maple syrup

• 3/4 oz (20 g) dietary yeast

• 1 1/2 tsps (7 g) salt, or extra to style

• 1/4 tsp truffle oil (optionally available)

• Black pepper, to style

• 3 cups (750 mL) tomato sauce

• Cashew parmesan, for serving

1. Cook dinner the pasta shells in accordance with the bundle instructions. Drain and put aside.

2. In a saucepan over medium warmth, warmth the oil, then add the onions and prepare dinner, stirring, for five minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms, candy potatoes and cashews, and preserve cooking for 10 minutes, stirring always.

4. Add the spinach, vegetable broth, garlic and maple syrup, and preserve cooking over medium-high warmth, stirring always, till the liquid is totally absorbed and the candy potato cubes are tender, about quarter-hour. Add extra vegetable broth if wanted. Take away from the warmth.

5. Add the dietary yeast, salt, truffle oil (if utilizing) and pepper. Stir to mix. Refrigerate the filling for 20 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

7. Use a 1/4-cup (60 mL) measuring cup to fill every pasta shell with the vegetable filling.

8. Unfold half of the sauce over the underside of a baking dish. Set the shells facet by facet on the sauce, then spoon the remaining sauce over.

9. Bake for half-hour.

10. Sprinkle with cashew parmesan and serve.

Serves 4.

Recipe excerpted from “The Buddhist Chef’s Vegan Consolation Cooking,” by Jean-Philippe Cyr, reproduced by association with Urge for food by Random Home, a division of Penguin Random Home Canada. Copyright © 2021 Jean-Philippe Cyr. Pictures © 2021 Samuel Joubert and Dominique Lafond. All rights reserved.