Creamy Cashew Leek and Spinach Pasta with Tempeh Bacon.

Hey guys, here's a great pasta recipe that uses a vegan version of creme fraiche. You basically soak about 1 cup of cashews in hot water for 30 minutes, drain and then blend with 1/2 cup water, 2 TB lemon juice and a couple pinches of salt. Then you cook up some leeks, garlic, spinach and mix in with cashew sauce. I added tempeh bacon to mine. This is optional.

Some ingredients: spinach, vegan cheese and pasta. You will only need 1/4 cup cheese. Save the rest for pizza later in the week!

Chop up your leeks (I used 2) and garlic (2 cloves) . Quickly fry up the tempeh bacon that has been cut into bits.

Saute the garlic and leeks in olive oil over medium high heat. Once leeks have softened, add half a bag of spinach that has been roughly chopped.

This is what your cashew creme fraiche looks like all blended up.

Stir the cashew sauce into the leeks and spinach. It'll be very thick. At this point you can add some unsweetened soy or almond milk to thin it out, or even hot water. Add the 1/4 cup of vegan cheese. Season with salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon, red pepper flakes.

After the sauce is nice and hot and creamy, mix in the pasta. Add the tempeh bacon bits.

Eat!

Grocery shopping, Pantry items and Leek & Cheese Toastie & Agave Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.

My 99 cents store finds today. Lots of canned beans and a few produce items.

Nayonaise whipped for 99 cents! This stuff is good. Tastes like Miracle Whip. I don't know if it's a popular flavor. They may be discontinuing it.

A well stocked pantry is serious business.

I also stopped at Cost Plus World Market and bought more pantry items. Martini onions, a couple of Moroccan items, capers, HP Sauce, Curry ketchup, crackers and rich tea biscuits...I love it when you only need one thing but end up buying a bunch of other stuff. Recreational food shopping FTW.

Fentiman's cola is so good!

After unpacking all of my purchases, I proceeded to make the Leek and Cheese Toastie from River Cottage Veg cookbook. I subbed Daiya for the cheese and almond milk for the cream. It turned out perfect. It's very rich. The combination of sweet leeks and cheese on the toasted bread made a very satisfying lunch.

Also from the same cookbook, I made the Honey Roasted Cherry Tomatoes but instead of honey I used agave. Also very delicious on toast. The agave lends a very light sweetness.