Fettucine and Green Beans with Mushroom Creme!

No time to post really until after August 19th, sadly. I wanted to get this one up, though as it is a particular favorite of mine. As demonstrated in a previous post, you can make a respectable cream sauce with "silken" tofu. This sauce is kinda like Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, only not bursting with saturated fat-filled condensed cream.

Let's call it:

Fettuccine and Green Beans with Mushroom Creme

• soft Mori-Nu tofu - usually on the shelf in the natural foods section, not refrigerated
  
• mushrooms of choice, sliced
  
• low sodium vegetable bouillon or soup base - serving appropriate for 1 cup broth
  
• 5 oz. whole-wheat fettuccine
• 1 lb green beans
• nutritional yeast (optional) - Ellwoods has it in the bulk bin
  
• black pepper to taste

1. You can kind of see in the picture what the tofu package looks like - it's vacuum packed or something, so it won't be in the usual refrigerated section. It's worth the search, however, for the silken-style tofu because it's consistency is far better for sauces. For the pasta I used Trader Joe's sprouted whole wheat fettucine.
   
2. First, lightly spray a pan with cooking spray and saute mushrooms with the merest dash of salt until they start to release their moisture and get nice and browned. Remove from heat.
3. In a food processor or blender, combine the package tofu, 1 cup of the mushrooms, bouillon or vegetable base, and nutritional yeast. Return to mushroom pan, add black pepper to taste and simmer on low.
4. Meanwhile, steam green beans and cook pasta.
5. Combine all and serve. Maybe some fresh herbs would be nice if some are available - parsley or something.

The sauce should look something like this: creamy and smooth. Tastes fantastic. I love "cream" sauces, always have. If the prospect of using tofu for such a purpose is still daunting, try this recipe first for a vegetable-based creamless cream sauce.

Yummmm!