Coconut and Berries

Healthy, Vegan Recipes by Emma Potts

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage

It’s Bonfire night! Since the 5th is a weekday this year, most of the fireworks displays took place over the weekend when it was, predictably, raining.

Bonfire night always seems to signal the real start of Autumn weather and indeed the temperature has certainly dropped these last couple of days. I’m back on porridge for breakfast and looking for warming meals to fill my tummy after coming in from the cold.

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage

I don’t eat pasta all that often these days. I think maybe I had my fill of it when I was younger when plain pasta was one of the few meals fussy little me liked. I tend to think of it as boring and not particularly nutritious, but I’m realizing that it doesn’t have to be so. Add some beans, greens and wintry herbs and you’ve got a tasty, healthy, and satisfying meal.

I know this dish doesn’t look terribly inspiring but I promise it tastes a lot better than it looks. The creamy sauce is made from white beans and packs a punch of protein as well as bringing the herby mushrooms, pasta and kale together nicely.

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage:

Pasta for 4 people (I like Dove’s Farm Brown Rice Pasta)

1/2T Olive Oil
1 Small Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
1C White Beans
1T White Miso
1T Lemon Juice
1 1/2C Vegetable Broth
1/2T Olive Oil
250g/8oz Mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced thickly
2T Minced Fresh Sage
Salt & Pepper
A few large handfuls of kale or other greens, chopped

Make the white bean sauce first. Sauté onion over medium heat for 5 minutes in the olive oil, add the garlic and continue to cook for a further couple of minutes.

If you have an immersion blender add the beans, broth, miso and lemon juice to the pot and blend until smooth. Alternatively, transfer onion mixture to a blender, add the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Return to pot and heat gently until warmed through. Add more broth if you prefer a thinner sauce.

Cook pasta according to packet directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the remaining olive oil in a pan and sauté mushrooms along with the sage for approx 5 minutes, or until they’ve released their juices. Season with salt and pepper.

Steam greens.

Either add everything to the pasta and mix well to coat with the sauce or layer the separate components on individual plates.

Serves 4

Creamy White Bean Pasta with Mushrooms & Sage

I’ve got so much I want to share with you but am lacking the time to post it at the moment. I hope you’ll all bear with me!

What are your favourite pasta-dishes?

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Comments

  6. I love pasta with beans though I usually don’t blend them. I went through a phase when I hardly had pasta because I’d had a gutful of it - but now I appreciate it in a different way - as something that takes a backseat to the vegies - just like your dish in fact

  7. I’m exactly like you with pasta - but this is exactly the sort of dish that I’m rediscovering in my efforts to break out of the ‘pasta is boring’ belief. Happy bonfire day celebrations too! It’s not something we have here in Australia but I’ve always loved the sound of it :)

  9. I know what you mean about pasta - it’s one of those thing I don’t often really crave. But I love mushrooms, kale and white beans together - such a good combination!

  10. I’ve always been a pasta lover, I don’t think I could get easily bored of it, although I haven’t had the cooked version in quite some time now. Another thing to put on my list to make now that I’ve allowed myself to enjoy cooked foods again. But I love raw pasta as well. I’m a sucker for pesto, on raw or cooked pasta. It’s funny, when we started dating, Geert hated pasta, he refused to eat it, while I loved it dearly. So we comprimised: I would stop smoking (yeah, did that once upon a time) and he would learn to eat pasta. He loves it now, eats it several times a week (he’s an exercise junkie so he needs the carbs and thank you lord, my man loves to cook himself). Still I probably got the better end of the deal 😉

    • I do think it looks inspiring as well as tasty :) I’m glad you’ve been reconverted to pasta. I’m not sure I could manage without it. By the way, do you know a way of veganising spaghetti Bolognese? Xx

      • Hello there! I was just wondering if you were reading earlier this evening. I owe you an email!
        For spag bol I’m a fan of lentil bolognese- I think I made you a simplified version in Barcelona? Onion,garlic, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste and herbs as you would make a typical bolognese then add dried lentils and veg stock, simmer until lentils are cooked, then season with salt + pepper. Voilà!

        • So you did. I had forgotten. I’m excited for the email! Also, something else that made me smile, when you google here one of your links that comes up is about lacuma :)

  11. Your white bean sauce looks so good! From what I can see in your pics, it looks like it has a similar texture to melted mozzarella cheese. If so, that is awesome! It’s definitely going on my ‘to try’ list! I’ve made white bean pasta sauces in the past and Lil’ L said that they taste like soup… he wasn’t complaining, but that’s definitely not what I was aiming for :/

    • Haha, a “soup” sauce! I can kind of see where Lil’L is coming from. This might be considered a little soupy but I think the miso and lemon gives it a little edge. I also kept it nice and thick.

  14. Hi,

    We’ve recently launched the website Alldishes.co.uk. It’s a search engine that aims to gather all the best recipes from UK and Irish websites and blogs. We’ve noticed that you have a lot of great looking recipes on your blog that we would love to feature on our site. To read more about how it all works and to sign up with your blog, please visit http://alldishes.co.uk or send us an email on info@alldishes.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
    Kind regards,
    Senka

  15. I love creamy pasta dishes - especially using the white beans! What a fantastic creamy white bean pasta dish - fresh sage, mushrooms, miso, and kale - beautiful!

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