Squash and Mushroom Pasta with Citrus

And.. I'm back!  I may have missed the entire MLA convention last weekend because I was too busy eating ice cream for breakfast, checking out dive bars with a hot girl, and going to the park, but I'm at least back to my old habits of cooking.  This is one of three dishes I made Thursday night.  I liked the idea of making a creamy sauce out of vegetables, and the addition of citrus seemed like an interesting twist.

My squash was too little, and part of it was rotten and had to be thrown out [ :(  ], so I threw in some carrots as well.  Because I was using fresh roasted vegetables instead of softer frozen ones, I pureed the sauce ingredients before transferring them to the pan.  I also used rotelle instead of farfalle, and way less of it than the original recipe called for.  Finally, I halved the amount of nutritional yeast.  If you ask me, a little bit goes a long way.

The combination of squash and mushroom with citrus was lovely and satisfying, but I felt that the sauce was a little too dry or mealy feeling.  Next time I will either add some ground cashews or more olive oil to the sauce to make it richer.  The sliced almonds are a really great touch; they add needed variety to the textures of the dish.

Squash and Mushroom Pasta with Citrus

(adapted from happy healthy life)

Ingredients

4+ cups cooked pasta (about 8 oz. dry)

*

Squash Sauce:

2 c butternut squash (and/or carrot) cubes, roasted

1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

1 tsp garlic powder

1 TB maple syrup

2 TB olive oil (or more)

dash of salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 TB nutritional yeast

juice of 1 orange

1 tsp orange zest

*

Chickpea Mixture:

1 TB olive oil

1/2 small white onion, diced

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1+ c cremini mushrooms, sliced 

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 TB lemon juice

1 c sliced almonds (roasted, unsalted) 

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to instructions.
2. After the squash/carrots are roasted and cooled, puree all the sauce ingredients in a blender, then transfer to a pan.
3. In a second skillet, heat olive oil, then saute onion until clear.  Add cinnamon, mushrooms, and chickpeas, and cook about 10 minutes.  Then add lemon juice and almonds and turn off heat.
4. When pasta is finished, heat squash sauce over low heat, then add pasta and toss well.  Then add mushroom mixture as well.  Serve hot.  Serves 4-6.