Vegan Hamburger Helper with Homemade Cashew Free Cheese

If you’re an 80’s kid, like me, and you grew up in the States, you most definitely experienced Hamburger Helper as a part of your childhood. My mother went back to nursing school the same year that I went to kindergarten and when my brother was just out of diapers so needless to say, she was juggling a lot. I guess it goes without saying that we had a lot of “boxed” meals growing up. This recipe is all the nostalgia of those family dinners without any of the meat or dairy!

If I’m honest, I was a little hesitant to post this as a recipe because it wasn’t one that I carefully sat down and planned out. Truth is, I was under the weather last week and wanted comfort food. This was thrown together with a lot of odds and ends but when I posted it on IG last week everyone went a little crazy, so here we are! Hope that you all enjoy.

What you are going to need to buy:

Pasta, I used orecchiette because I had it on hand but an small noodle will work. I do like this shape because they are like little noodle bowls for the sauce!

Your favorite plant-based ground meat - (I used the ground from Impossible Foods)

Small Sweet Onion, diced

Minced Garlic - (like this jarred options from Spice World!)

1/2 cup Vegetable Stock - Or half a cup of water and a veggie cube

Butter - (We love THIS ONE from Earth Balance)

Salt & Pepper

Liquid Smoke

Homemade Vegan Cheese Sauce! (Find that recipe HERE!)

What you are going to need to do:

To start, let’s make the sauce!

I make this cheese sauce every month or so and have it in the fridge to throw into all kinds of things, which is just exactly what happened with this recipe! Hope on over and make it! Will you have some left over? Yep. Is that a bad thing? Nope!

GO TO THE CHEESE SAUCE RECIPE HERE

Welcome back!

The rest is pretty easy.

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, begin to cook down your plant-based meat, along with the diced onion. Once you put them in the pan try not to stir or move them around too much because you want to get some good color/char on the meat.

After about 1-2 minutes stir the mixture and add a tablespoon of dairy free butter, a tablespoon (or more if that’s your thing…) of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and pepper, 8-10 dashes of liquid smoke and continue to cook until the meat is done and the onions are nice and soft.

While the meat and onions cook, bring a pot of salted water to boil on the stove and when it’s ready, drop 4 servings of your pasta (follow the box directions for portions and cook time.)

Next, add your veggie stock to the meat and onions and using a wooden spoon, scrape up any of the little bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan! This is where all the flavor is hiding!

Add in 1 cup of your cheese sauce and stir to combine.

A note about the cheese sauce: If you make the cheese sauce ahead of time, and I hope that you do because it stays good in the fridge for weeks…it will solidify a bit. It’s much easier to “melt” it back into your Hamburger helper if it’s runny so you can just scoop out what you need and toss it into the microwave for 10-20 seconds, stir, and that should do the trick!

Drain pasta, but save 1 cup of pasta water.

Add the pasta to the cheesy/meat mixture and stir to combine. If the dish is too dry and not all that “creamy” slowly add the pasta water to thin the mixture and help the sauce emulsify. You may not use all the water and that’s okay because if you get it too runny then you’ll need to cook it longer and let some of that liquid evaporate.

Taste for seasoning. Add salt, pepper, if necessary.

I like to top mine with fresh herbs to serve. Either thyme or rosemary work really well!

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Shells Stuffed with Sage Sausage, Spinach, and Ricotta

Looking for a fall twist on an old comfort classic? While we’ve still got a couple more weeks until Autumn officially arrives…over here I was craving some fall flavors...and these Butternut Squash Shells stuffed with Sage Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta totally hit the spot!

The best part of this recipe is that, while the flavor profile is different, the assembly is basically the same, so if you’ve ever successfully made stuffed shells in the past, these will be a snap. The entire dish does take a bit of time to make because you’ve got to roast the butternut squash and make the sauce so I would recommend that you plan to make a couple of recipes with squash so you can do some prep for several meals at once! Once the sauce is made, (which can be done ahead of time) the rest of the dish comes together in less than an hour!

What you are going to need to buy:

Medium Butternut Squash

Jumbo Shells

Medium Sweet Onion, diced

Minced Garlic - (like this jarred options from Spice World!)

1 cup Plant-Based Milk

1.5 cups Vegetable Stock

Dairy-Free Ricotta

Dairy-Free Mozerella

1/2 lb Plant-Based Sausage

Fresh Spinach

Just Egg, egg alternative

Olive Oil

Butter - (We love THIS ONE from Earth Balance)

Salt & Pepper

Fresh Sage

Warming Spices (Allspice, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Ginger)

What you are going to need to do:

To start, let’s make the sauce!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Chop your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Liberally salt and pepper the cut side. Roast on a baking sheet for one hour, flipping halfway through, until the squash is fork-tender.

In a high-walled saucepan or medium pot, saute in butter, the diced onion and a tablespoon of garlic until soft and translucent. Reduce heat and set aside.

Scoop out the roasted squash from the skin and into the saucepan with the onion and garlic. Add the plant-milk and the vegetable stock. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add a teaspoon of each of the warming spices.

At this point, if you have a stick blender, it’s helpful to blend the mixture for a smoother texture but it’s not 100% necessary.

Let the sauce reduce until it’s the consistency of pasta sauce. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Now, onto the filling!

In a small saucepan, gently wilt one bag of spinach over medium heat.

In a large mixing bowl combine the following:

sausage (does not need to be cooked)

the wilted spinach

the equivalent of one egg

1.5 cups of ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

2-3 tablespoons of minced, fresh, sage

salt and pepper, to taste

The Shells:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Follow your package directions and cook your jumbo shells in boiling water.

After the shells are boiled and tender, remove and drain.

In a large skillet or baking dish fill the bottom of the dish with the butternut squash sauce.

Stuff each shell with the ricotta mixture and place into the baking dish.

Depending on the size of your dish you should be able to fit 15-20 shells. Do not overcrowd the dish. You want the sauce mixture to be able to rise up around the shells on either side.

Sprinkle mozzarella onto the top of the shells and cover with tin foil.

Bake for 15-20 minutes covered. Remove the tin foil and bake another 15 minutes until the sauce and cheese are hot and bubbly.

Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

While the shells are resting, fry up some sage leaves in Olive Oil until crispy and crumble the leaves onto the top of the shells for garnish.

Serve the extra sauce on the side.

Enjoy!

Impossible Patty Melt

These 100% Vegan Patty Melts, made with ground from Impossible Foods look a lot fancier than they really are…and actually make a great week night dinner…plus this happens to be THE dish if you’re looking to fool your meat-eating friends and family with your plant-based magic!

If you’ve been plant based for awhile then you like have a favorite faux-burger brand that you like best! This recipe was made with the Impossible Ground, which we think browns/crusts up the best for a “smash-style” burger that you typically see in a patty melt…but having said that, use what you like, or what you’ve got in the freezer!

What you are going to need to buy:

Impossible Ground (or your favorite meatless ground alternative)

Sweet Onion

White Mushrooms, sliced

Olive Oil

Minced Garlic - (We like the jarred kind from Spice World)

Balsamic Vinegar - (We get ours from this great little place here in Central Florida called The Ancient Olive)

Your Favorite Bread , Vegan or Otherwise - (I used Sara Lee® Artesano™ Bakery Bread)

Non-Dairy Cheese - (We used THIS CHEESE from Field Roast…melts like a dream!)

Liquid Smoke

Pickapeppa Sauce

Salt and Pepper

Onion Powder

Paprika

Non-Dairy Butter - ( We used Earth Balance)

What you are going to need to do:

Start by peeling and slicing your onion and, using a little olive oil on medium heat, cook with your mushrooms and garlic, adding onion powder, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Cook until mushrooms and onions are soft.

Combine your Impossible Ground with a teaspoon of Liquid Smoke, a teaspoon of Pickapeppa Sauce, a pinch of paprika and salt/pepper, to taste. Mix well and form into patties. Depending on your preferred size you should be able to get 3 or 4 patties from one package of ground.

Using a little Earth Balance Vegan Butter in your skillet, fry up your patties on medium heat…remember they should be a little thinner than a hamburger. I also like to kinda shape the patty to fit the bread I am using.

After you flip the patty to cook on the second side, load up the top with your onions and mushrooms.

Place your sliced non-dairy cheese on your top piece of bread and pop into the microwave for about 10 seconds. Place your bread, cheese side down, onto your onion and mushroom covered patties and flip the entire affair so that now your bread can griddle on the skillet.

Repeat the bread, cheese, microwave routine for the other piece and place that on top, flipping when the first side is golden brown so that the second side can griddle.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!

A quick note about Vegan Cheese: We all know it takes higher heat to melt vegan cheese! When I am making sandwiches that require my cheese to melt, I always lay out my vegan cheese on the bread and pop it into the microwave for about 10 seconds. and this just gives it a jump start to ensure a good melt without burning your sandwich!

Enjoy!