Monday, January 11, 2016

Baked Spinach and Artichoke Pasta




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My son loves spinach and artichoke dip, so he is my inspiration tonight. This was a modified version of the cauliflower alfredo I make for my kids. The idea struck me, while grocery shopping, that I could do better than just plain alfredo for dinner tonight. I wanted to make it hearty. A meal to stand up to this cold weather and make you feel loved. I think I accomplished that with this dish. This is a dish good enough to take to a potluck & have no one notice it's vegan. I served this with broccoli steamed in fresh lemon juice and tossed in a little italian seasoning... it was a perfect meal for the kids tonight. I hope you family will enjoy it on a cold night in the future. 



For the Pasta sauce :

1/3 cup olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed 
3 cups Frozen or fresh cauliflower, thawed & chopped into small pieces
2 1/2 cups unsweetened plant milk
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 (12 oz ) jar artichokes, rinsed and drained
1 (16 oz) package of cooked rigatoni

For the breadcrumbs:

4 slices of bread
2 Tbsp vegan butter, melted
1 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp. dried parsley

To Assemble:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat oil and garlic over medium low heat until garlic is golden brown and fragrant.

Add milk and allow to come to a boil.

Add cauliflower, salt and pepper to taste. Cook an additional 5-6 minutes.

Remove from heat and add nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Set aside.

Toast bread.

Break toast up into rough pieces and add to a food processor with nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, & dried parsley.

Pulse on high until toast becomes breadcrumbs.

Add cauliflower mixture to a high powdered blender.

Set to "food puree" and blend until smooth.

Pour cauliflower sauce over rigatoni in a deep mixing bowl . Add spinach and artichokes. Stir to combine.

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.

Pour rigatoni into casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs.

Drizzle melted butter over breadcrumbs.

Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until breadcrumbs are golden brown and pasta is bubbly.

Makes 4-6 servings


3 comments:

  1. Did you mean to type 6 Tablespoons of oil or was that a typo? Thank you! - Heather

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was written as 6 Tbsp because that's how I made it the first time. It is changed to 1/3 cup now.. that's the equivalent measure. I hope this didn't cause too much confusion. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That’s a lot of oil. Is it possible to use less oil?

    ReplyDelete