Thursday, November 20, 2014

macaroni and...creamy orange sauce (or cabbage and creamy orange sauce)


I gotta write this down before I forget!  

This was invented out of ingredients I'm trying to get rid of from my fridge before I go out of town.  There was a butternut squash, a head of cabbage, onion, and a lot of home made soy yogurt.   I also was inspired by the vegan macaroni and cheese posts on the blogosphere, many of which use butternut squash.  They add things like lemon and mustard for tartness and non-dairy milks for liquid, so I figured yogurt would make an excellent substitute (even better in fact).  They also add a lot of salt, so I wasn't expecting mine to taste good without it.  That's why I was so surprised when I tasted it and liked it!  If you add salt, I know it will taste even better but this still tastes good without it.  Also I tend to go light on the spices so you will probably want more.

Ingredients for the sauce:
1 butternut squash
1-1.5 cups soy yogurt (to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (note the word "smoked", this adds a nice flavor)
1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (I was closer to 1, others will want more)
~1 cup veggie broth or water, as needed to thin the sauce

The "noodles":
cook up noodles of your choice
or
cook up cabbage and onions in a pot or pressure cooker

Preparation:
I baked the butternut squash last night, cooled it in the fridge overnight, then cut it in half and scooped out the seeds.  The skin peeled off easily with only a little help from me.  Cut that up  and put it in the blender with the soy yogurt and broth.  I used the liquid from cooking up the cabbage and onions and that tasted good.  Then add the spices and blend some more.   I tasted it and exclaimed "wow" because as I said before, I was expecting to be underwhelmed without the salt.  It was good on noodles, but guess what, it was even better on the cabbage and onions!   The noodles have some nostalgic appeal (reminiscent of macaroni and cheese), but the cabbage and onions have more flavor.