This recipe was originally taken from my friend, Kris Quinones’ newsletter (kqbodywork.com). More on the story of this recipe on my other blog, blog.o2yoga.com.(http://blog.o2yoga.com/2011/04/13/finding-inspiration/)
It is yummy, healthy and relatively easy. There are two version below since my friend Kelly Halldorson made her own version. Take your pick or make both!
Kris’s Squasharoni Recipe
Ingredients
1 chopped onion
1 butternut squash skinned and seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 T. Olive oil
3/4 C Water or veggie broth
1 T. Tamari
1 T. Ume plum vinegar
1/3 C Tahini
Parsley
Salt and pepper
1/2 C chopped walnuts
Bread crumbs
1 box cooked elbow macaroni
Sauté the onions in large skillet in the olive oil until tender. Add the squash and veggie broth. Cover and simmer until squash is tender.
In the meantime, mix the tamari, vinegar and tahini together. When squash is done (drain excess water if there is any), mash it until it is smooth and creamy and mix in the tamari mixture and parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the cooked macaroni and the chopped walnuts. I also added peas for color and texture. Cover with breadcrumbs and back at 375 for 20 minutes or so. You can totally play with this recipe as you can see, my friend Kelly did below!
Kelly Halldorson’s version
Okay so I thought that was so yummy I was inspired to make my own..
Since I used sweet potatoes instead of squash and the sweet onion…I’m thinking it’s more of a Sweet No Cheeze Roni
Two big sweet potatoes. One white. One classic.
One box of whole wheat elbows.
Half of medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
Nutritional Yeast
Panko, Italian
Three-Five cloves of garlic, minced
Earth Balance sticks 2-3
Cap full (bigger size bottle) of Tamari
Cashews (planned on using walnuts too but didn’t)
Soy creamer (but I’m sure it would be yummy with coconut too)
salt
*note I was out of pepper but really wanted it so I would add…also next time I’m going to try and add a teaspoon of spicy brown mustard
So…
I cut up the sweet potatoes 1/2 cubes. I left the skins on. Boiled them in a medium sauce pan with just enough water to cover them. While they were cooking I cut up the onion and the garlic. Put aside in two separate piles. Crushed a handful of cashews, put aside.
Heated large cast iron pan and melted a stick of earth balance. Sautéed the onions in the earth balance. Then I used a slotted spoon to take the potatoes out of the water once they were mostly cooked/mashable and put them directly into the cast iron skillet and continued to cook.
I added a little more water to the saucepan (leaving the water from the potatoes) and added/cooked the macaroni
Meanwhile in the cast iron frying pan…I’m stirring and mashing the potatoes into a creamy mixture. I add the tamari then stir/cook more. I gradually (while stirring and cooking on med-high) add another stick (or more) of earth balance, two handfuls of nutritional yeast and maybe a third-half cup of creamer. Cooked, stirred added the garlic, handful of knife-crushed cashews and some salt.
Once the elbows are cooked I again use the slotted spoon and slowly fold each spoonful of elbows into the mixture.
I heat the oven. Cover the top with a mixture of the panko & crushed cashew and cook for about 20 minutes.
So yummy. The whole thing took maybe 45 minutes and it was super yummy. Thanks so much for the inspiration.
