Jess’s Pasta Sauce for Cheese Cravers

Jess’s Pasta Sauce for Cheese Cravers
Heather Nicholds, C.H.N.

This recipe was sent in by one of my readers, Jess, who just can’t stop craving cheese 🙂 ~H

Hi Heather,

A while back I wrote to you looking for tips on vegan ways to satisfy a cheese craving, and have enjoyed messing around with nutritional yeast and garlic.

Well today I stumbled on a blog about how to get more umami (savory flavor) into vegan foods, especially for those who crave cheese, and then I came up with this recipe, which hits the spot!

It includes many of the elements suggested by the blogger for vegan umami, including: alcohol, mushrooms, nutritional yeast, olives, and a little chance discovery of my own…

Pasta Sauce for Cheese Cravers

  • Your favorite pasta sauce, kicked up with some sherry, and reduced a bit
  • Green vegetable of choice, I did green beans
  • Liberal amounts of nutritional yeast
  • Enough olives like it’s one of the main vegetables
  • Mushrooms, sliced and fully cooked on an almost high heat to chewiness
  • And… gnocchi, boiled until it pops to the surface of salted boiling water. Not a whole food, I know. But chews like cheese.

Add everything to the reduced pasta sauce. Season to taste.

The reason it totally satisfies a cheese craving is because 1. the yeast, as you know, has a nutty/cheesy flavor that subs well for parmesan in a sauce, 2. the olives are bursts of salt like cheese is, 3. the mushrooms have a chewy meatiness, and 4. the gnocchi has the same chewy texture as a hunk of mozzarella.

Maybe to complete the picture, it would be good to pick whatever green veg has the most calcium in it (broccoli? spinach? I forget). Couldn’t hurt to also add some roasted garlic, I just didn’t happen to, but it’s supposed to also be good for umami.

I was so psyched to find a cure for my cheese obsession, I just had to share!!

All the best, Jess

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