55 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 6
Ingredients
1 large leek
4 cloves of garlic
1 head of broccoli (375g)
olive oil
½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g)
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 litre unsweetened oat milk
500g dried pasta, such as rigatoni, macaroni, or penne
50g sourdough bread
150g vegan Cheddar-style cheese
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
200g baby spinach
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Trim, halve and wash the leek and peel the garlic, then finely slice with the broccoli stalks, reserving the florets for later and halving any larger ones.
- Place a large shallow ovenproof casserole pan over a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the sliced broccoli stalk. Strip in most of the thyme leaves, reserving a few sprigs for later, and fry for 15 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly.
- Stir in the flour, followed slowly by the oat milk, then simmer for 10 minutes, or until thickened, stirring regularly.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain.
- In a blender, whiz the bread with 1 teaspoon of oil and the remaining thyme leaves into fine breadcrumbs, then mix through ½ a tablespoon of nutritional yeast.
- Grate the vegan Cheddar-style cheese into the sauce, and mix well. Tip it into a blender (there’s no need to clean out any breadcrumbs that remain), then add the spinach along with ½ a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and whiz until smooth – you may need to work in batches (you can also use a stick blender for this).
- Season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, then stir through the pasta and broccoli florets, loosening with a splash of oat milk, if needed.
- Scatter over the breadcrumbs and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until beautifully golden and bubbling.
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