HEALTHY RECIPE: Vegan Pasta Pie

This savory pie is a lot like a roasted vegetable frittata or even a roasted vegetable noodle kugel. Invented out of the need for a one-dish supper, it’s light and easy and guaranteed to leave you with leftovers.

Ingredients

• 11/2-2 cups gluten-free spaghetti noodles, cooked
• 2 cups vegetables for roasting: leek, mushrooms, grape tomatoes
• 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped to taste
• dried Italian herbs: basil, thyme, oregano, parsley to taste
• sea salt and ground pepper
• vegan white sauce, (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup gluten-free cornbread crumbs
• 6 fresh asparagus spears for garnish, trimmed
• One tablespoon olive oil
• Use 1 1/2 cups nondairy milk, (I used plain hemp milk)
• 1 tablespoon rice or sorghum flour
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 3 tablespoons white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1 pinch nutmeg to taste
• onion and garlic, minced fresh rosemary, chopped, to taste
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a deep 9-inch pie plate and set aside.
2. Slice the leek and mushrooms and toss them into a roasting pan. Add enough grape tomatoes to bring the amount to heaping cups or so. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Season with sea salt, ground pepper, and herbs; toss to coat. Roast in the preheated oven until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, make your white sauce.
4. In a saucepan add the olive oil, nondairy milk, and potato flour; whisk and cook over medium heat. The potato flour will thicken the milk. Add the nutritional yeast and whisk. Add the wine, mustard, nutmeg, minced onion, and garlic, and stir till thickened. This is your basic vegan white sauce. Mix up egg substitute for two eggs using warm nondairy milk. Stir it into the white sauce. Add the millet or rice flour and one teaspoon baking powder and whisk to combine.
5. When the veggies are roasted, layer the cooked pasta in the prepared pie plate. Pour in the vegan white sauce mixture and shimmy the noodles a bit to allow the sauce to seep in. Top with the roasted veggies. Toss the cornbread crumbs in a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle over the pie. Press down a bit too compact the layers. Sprinkle with chopped fresh rosemary. Arrange the uncooked asparagus spears on the top.