A pasta vegetable bake is a great meal for a meatless day! I use individual dishes or if you are feeding a family or group use a larger dish! For the sauce experiment with Ricotta instead of Philadelphia and vary the herbs to your liking, I like the Italian flavours of basil, oregano, but paprika and whole grain mustard are nice additions! Nutritional Yeast naturally has a cheesy nutty flavour, so it is a good addition here and it means you use less cheese.
INGREDIENTS Serves 6:
- 300g of any small/ medium pasta shell you have
- 6 mushrooms
- 1 courgette
- 1 red / yellow pepper
- 2 shallots or ½ yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- Olive oil
- 50g grated cheddar for the top of dish or 1-2 tbsp of grated cheese if using individual dishes.
- BECHAMEL WHITE SAUCE:
- 1 egg
- 100g Philadelphia Light
- 100g Fat Free Natural Greek Style Yogurt
- 2-3tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons whole grain mustard (optional)
- Dash paprika (optional)
- Basil / Italian herbs (optional)
- Sea salt & Black pepper
METHOD:
- Using olive oil, sauté the onion, garlic for 5-10 minutes on a low heat.
- Add in the diced mushroom, courgette, peppers, salt, black pepper, seasonings take off the heat after another 10 mins.
- In a saucepan boil some salted water, add your pasta and cook for 10-15 mins or until al dente, slightly soft.
- Sauce: in a jug beat the egg, add in the yogurt, cheese of choice and herbs and beat until smooth
- Mix in your vegetable mix and pasta in a large bowl.
- Pour into individual dishes or one large dish.
- Sprinkle with grated cheese.
- At this stage you can bake at 150 ovens for 25-30 mins, cover with foil for the first 15 mins and then remove so you do not burn.
- Alternatively, if you are having the next day you can leave in the dishes and finish off the baking the following day, leaving the flavours to infuse for a little longer!