Mushroom and Spring Vegetable Sauce

We made this sauce for our “Homemade Gnocchi” Class and it was outstanding. It would be equally delicious over your favorite pasta. You could always substitute different vegetables if these are not your favorites. I was trying to keep to what was seasonal for our April class.

Ingredients:

1 batch of GF gnocchi

1 ½ lb. mushrooms (I like to combine 2/3 baby bella with 1/3 wild)

1 cup frozen peas

3 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup dry sherry or white wine

Olive oil

4 Tbsp. vegan butter (I like Myoko’s)

Fresh thyme

1 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast

½ cup cashew cream (1 cup cashew, soaked blended with 1.5 cups water)

Kosher salt and pepper

Truffle oil, vegan parmesan and chopped chives (optional) for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add mushrooms directly to pan and sprinkle with salt. Toss gently and leave. The mushrooms will give off a significant amount of water. Once about ½ of the water has cooked off, add the sherry/wine to the liquid and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until all the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to stick to the pan.

2. Once the liquid has evaporated, reduce heat to medium and add 1Tbsp. of olive oil and 2 Tbsp. vegan butter to the pan, stirring to loosen the mushrooms and to coat them in oil. Add the peas/asparagus, nutritional yeast, and fresh thyme. Toss for about 1 minute. Add minced garlic and toss for another 30 seconds or until the garlic becomes fragrant.

3. Add another 2 Tbsp. vegan butter and melt, tossing everything together. Taste and adjust salt/pepper/garlic. Turn off heat and set aside while cooking gnocchi.

4. Cook gnocchi as per directions. When almost done cooking, return sauce to low heat and toss to warm, adding cashew cream to make a creamy sauce.

5.   Drain gnocchi using a slotted spoon and add to the sauce. Toss everything together until the ingredients are evenly distributed. If more liquid is needed, add a few tablespoons of the gnocchi cooking water to the sauce.

6.   Top with a drizzle of Truffle oil, vegan parmesan and/or chopped chives, all optional.