I absolutely LOVE making old family favourites into healthy, plant-based versions. My mum was an exceptional cook and made a huge selection of healthy, hearty, family-friendly meals from scratch throughout my childhood. When she started to work full-time Dad and I took over the cooking, relying initially on convenience jars and spice mixes. I tried a premix for stroganoff sauce and was quite horrified by the long-life dairy-based sauce. That sauce was aeons away from my Mum’s sauce with fresh thyme, beautiful sweet paprika and yeah, loads of sour cream!
Needless to say, I got mum to talk me through the classic beef stroganoff recipe from scratch. Since my teens, I’ve updated this recipe to make it healthier and vegan, but the abundance of mushrooms and richness of the cashew cream still makes this a beautifully filling and hearty dinner recipe! If you wanted to you could also bulk it out with tempeh or your preferred protein.
This recipe serves 4 along with 1kg of steamed potatoes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews raw, soaked for 4 hours or overnight
- 1 med brown onion finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 500 g mushrooms sliced
- 1 tomato finely diced
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp dried thyme or fresh
- 1 tsp coconut aminos
- ¼ cup parsley finely chopped
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start by draining and rinsing soaked cashews. Then place in a high speed or bullet blender with 1 cup of the vegetable stock and blend until smooth and creamy, then set aside.
- Next, add a tbsp of oil to a large skillet and saute onions on a low-medium temperature until soft and translucent, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.
- Remove onions and garlic from the pan and place to the side in a medium bowl.
- Next, add 1 tbsp of the olive oil to the pan and saute half of the mushrooms on medium heat. Allow them to sit for a minute or two at a time to caramelize. Batch cooking your mushrooms prevents the pan from being overcrowded and mushrooms steaming rather than sauteing. This prevents mushrooms from becoming slimy.
- Once your first batch of mushrooms has been sauteed, set aside in the bowl with garlic and onions.
- Cook the second batch in the same way then add the diced tomato to the pan and cook, stirring, for one-two minutes. Then add the remaining cooked mushrooms, onions and garlic back to the pan and turn the heat to low.
- Next add the cashew cream, nutritional yeast, paprika, thyme and coconut aminos to the pan and stir through to combine.
- Add splashes of the remaining 1 cup of vegetable stock until the sauce is of a consistency that you like and simmer until the sauce is hot.
- Season with salt & pepper.
- Turn off the heat and stir through the lemon juice and parsley just before serving.
Notes
Check out Kate’s website, Hobart Green Guide to find the best vegan and eco parts of Southern Tasmania and some great vegan recipes.
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About the Author: Kate Parker
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Hi Kate, Just wondering if this meal is able to be frozen? Thanks
Hi Demelza, due to the water content of the mushrooms they may change in texture slightly. I prefer them to still have a little bite, so freezing wouldn’t be my preference. But have a go at freezing a small quantity if you make it at home, and see if you’re happy with the texture after defrosting.