Vegan Pesto Pasta with Mushrooms and Tofu Recipe - Healthy Vegan Recipes

This recipe for pesto pasta is so easy, fast and yummy.  I especially love this meal because it’s not only healthy but also satisfies cheese-lovers.  Also, you only need to use one pot, one pan, and a bowl, minimizing the amount of dishes Marc has to wash!

Use your creativity and substitute veggie chicken or veggie beef cutlets for tofu.  Or you can omit the tofu and/or veggie meat altogether and just enjoy the simplicity of sautéed mushrooms, onions and garlic.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp. Olive oil
• 3 tbsp. Pesto sauce
• 1 tbsp. Minced garlic
• 2 cups chopped Mushrooms
• 2 cups finely-chopped Onions
• 2 cups Extra-firm tofu, cubed (or veggie chicken meal starters)
• 2 cups Vegetable-enriched rigatoni pasta (or your choice of any small pasta)
• Fresh-ground pepper to taste

Directions for how to make Vegan Tofu Pesto Pasta with Mushrooms

1. Get pasta started first, as it will take the longest.  You can prepare the other stuff while the pasta is cooking.  Follow the directions for how to prepare pasta.  The quantity of water and pasta will depend on how many people you want to feed.  This recipe is for 2-3 servings.
2. In a saucepan, heat olive oil, garlic and pesto sauce on med-high.
3. Add onions and mushrooms.  Because they cook more slowly, I like to add onions a few minutes before adding mushrooms to give the onions extra time to cook.   You want the onions to be translucent, but you want the mushrooms to be slightly less cooked.
4. Once the pesto sauce is ready, dump it into a bowl and put it aside until it’s time to mix everything together.  Browning tofu amongst the other ingredients can be difficult because the tofu is delicate and may break apart.
5. Place tofu cubes into the same saucepan that you used for the pesto sauce.  I like to use the same saucepan to brown the tofu because the leftover flavor of the veggies and pesto will be absorbed by the tofu.  Cover, and toss every few minutes until most of the tofu cubes are seared to a golden brown.  Grind pepper to taste.
6. Drain all water from pasta and place pot back onto the stovetop.  Turn burner off.
7.  Add tofu and pesto mix to pasta.
8. Add ½ cup of shredded veggie mozzarella cheese and veggie parmesan cheese.
9. Gently toss all ingredients together in the pasta pot.  The residual heat from the burner should help to melt the cheese.
10. Serve with French bread.
11. And remember, she who cooks, cleans not.

Thanks Eric H. for passing along the idea for this recipe!