Pasta with veggie shrimp, broccoli & vegan cream sauce

Pasta with veggie shrimp, broccoli & vegan cream sauce

On the same day as I made the amazing banana chocolate chip muffins, I had another fabulous cooking success. What are the chances? The cooking gods must have been looking down favourably on me that day.

I wanted to make something quick and tasty for tea (i.e. “supper”. Don’t ask me why the evening meal is called “tea” here, it just is). Pasta sprang to mind, though I hankered for a creamy sauce instead of the usual tomato-based one.

For this dish, I decided to use one of the four small packages of veggie shrimp that I brought back with me from my recent trip to the homeland. Also some broccoli that was in the fridge patiently waiting to be used.

I started with this recipe, though I had to change it a lot to veganise it. Also, I didn’t have any angel hair pasta, which I think would have been better with a cream sauce, though it was still delicious with the rotini that I did use. It also would be awesome with some homemade fresh vegan pasta. If you’re using a very quick-cooking pasta, you’ll want to prepare the rest of the recipe before cooking it.

I used a few prepared products in the cream sauce, namely vegan sour cream, cream cheese and hard cheese. But you only need small amounts of each of them, so the dish isn’t too expensive to make. Of course, it doesn’t clog your arteries or harm your karma like a dairy-based sauce would.

Enjoy!


British American
1 tablespoon vegan margarine (divided) 1 tablespoon
2 teaspoons plain (all-purpose) flour 2 teaspoons
190ml soya milk 3/4 cup
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon vegan cream cheese 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon vegan sour cream 1 tablespoon
3 cloves garlic, minced (divided) 3 cloves
28g vegan hard Cheddar cheese, finely shredded 1 ounce
2 tablespoons tinned tomatoes or passata (tomato sauce) 2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon
to taste freshly ground black pepper to taste
dash vegan Worcestershire sauce dash
160g fresh broccoli florets 6 ounces
100g vegan shrimp 3-1/2 ounces
180g rotini or other dried pasta 6 ounces

1. Melt two teaspoons of the margarine over low heat. Add flour and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the soya milk to make a smooth sauce, and simmer until thickened. Whisk in the fresh basil, cream cheese, sour cream and one clove of the garlic until smooth. Then add shredded Cheddar, and cook gently until it melts into the sauce. Stir in tomatoes, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Continue to simmer on very low heat while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Salt the water, then add pasta and cook according to package directions.

3. While pasta is cooking, steam broccoli for 3 or 4 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain.

4. Melt remaining one teaspoon of margarine and gently saute remaining two cloves of garlic for a minute. Then add the veggie shrimp and cook until they are heated through. Also add the steamed broccoli to reheat it.

5. When the pasta is finished, add it to the sauce, and top with the veggie shrimp and broccoli.

Makes two servings.

22 Comments

  1. I’ve been following your blog for awhile, and I do like it, especially the recipes.

    Do you know that you can get vegan/vegetarian ‘shrimp’ in the UK now? amazing stuff.

  2. Where do you get the veggie shrimp from? I love the Mong Lee Shang brand that we used to buy at a Chinese shop, but apparently it won’t be available for awhile as the factory in Taiwan is being refurbished.

  3. YUM! That looks so good Felicity!

  4. Hi Felicity,

    I discovered veggie world at the Incredible Veggie Show in London a few months ago. For me it was the best stall there, very innovative: vegetarian duck, vegeterian shrimp etc. Many of the products were made from seitan. They do mail order too and I think the prices are competitive.

    Please check out my blog where I have some pictures of their veggie shrimps and other veggie products.
    http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/04/veggie-bites.html

    I have one question for you and I do hope you can help, where do you get you vital wheat gluten flour from to make seitan at home from scratch, I struggle to find some in Scotland. Thanks in advance.

  5. Hi mangocheeks,

    We’ve actually bought stuff from Veggie World before, and it is really yummy. I love their Tom Yam soup base, not to mention their faux meat stuff. I’ve had their prawns as well, though I prefer the Mong Lee Shang prawns (bummer they’re not available right now).

    Thanks for the link! 🙂

    I bought my gluten flour mail order from LowCarb Megastore; it’s also available from The Flourbin. I’ve never seen it in shops.

  6. Your very welcome.

    Thanks about the info on the gluten flour. I am aware of the Flourbin, but buying in bulk is not feasible for me. So will check out the LowCarb Megastore link.

    PS I will keep in the mind the Mong Lee Shang brand of faux prawns.

  7. Oh yummy you are making me so hungry. Once again your cooking skills impress me and make me wish you could have me over for dinner. 🙂

  8. Like what CM said….your cooking skills is very impressive. As usual top-notch stuff from you!

    xoxoxo

  9. This looks so good! What kind of vegan hard cheddar did you use? And thanks for your recommendations around the ice cream maker..really appreciate it. I think I’m going to splurge on the small Cuisinart this week on it because my hand crank one just isn’t producing more than soup unfortunately!

  10. Amanda — I use Sheese brand sharp Cheddar. Funny you should mention the ice cream maker, because I don’t think I did leave you a comment about the one we have, but I was going to! Anyhoo, we have a Philips electric, the type that has a bowl that you freeze ahead of time. Works great, as long as the bowl is really frozen solid. I remember cherimoya ice cream being particularly yummy!

  11. I have to get some of that veggie shrimp. I keep meaning too–it looks so good Felicity!

  12. my freezer must have been calling to you to find something for me to do w/ the frozen fake shrimp I have in there. Looks amazing.

    I was at a bar playing trivia last night and one of the rounds was about canada. I kicked butt, well better than most people did. I attribute it to always living in a state bordering canada (Washington, Vermont, Maine).

  13. Dia — ya, it’s really yummy.

    Bethany — So cool that you kicked butt on Canada trivia. My junior high teacher always used to make fun of Americans and how little they knew about Canada… like the ones who believed the 49th was some kind of magical boundary that separated America from a sparsely populated frozen wasteland dotted with igloos and snow drifts, and whose inhabitants travel by dog sled… lol.

  14. I’ve just discovered veggie prawns found them yesterday in a supermarket in Glasgow called See Woo – oriental food specialist, and they are the Mong Lee Shang brand, so if you get up to Glasgow you’ll know where to go. I’d never been in before and was amazed by the range of veggie food… think it’ll be prawns for ‘Tea’ tonight!!!

  15. Taz — Upon reading your comment, we went to our local Chinese supermarket to find that they once again are carrying Mong Lee Shang veggie prawns. Woot, woot! Thanks for the heads-up 🙂

  16. Hi Felicity, I’m glad I found your site, your food looks delicious. I’m planning to go meat free and I have small children I need to find faux meat recipes as we can’t afford to buy the ready made meat substitutes.

    I’ve ordered some gluten flour and have been in my local chinese supermarket and vegan shop to find the other bits and bobs i’ll need to make Seitan. Luckily I have a breadmaker so will be able to use that. My partner is resisitant to me giving up meat for his own selfish reasons so I need to learn to cook tasty alternatives!

  17. Hi Karina — Burgers are usually popular with kids, and I’ve got several really good recipes. They’ve got the advantage of being easily cooked from frozen, so great for a quick meal. The hot dogs, sausages and meatballs should go over well with them too. Your partner will come around when he realises how good everything tastes and how much better he feels for not eating meat 🙂

    Let me know how you get on with it!

  18. you can get the shrimp from See-Woo. I got mine from see-woo in glasgow.

  19. Where can I purchase Vegan Prawn/shrimp in the UK?

  20. Hi Linda — My favourite brand of veggie prawns (Mong Lee Shang) is carried by Wai Yee Hong in Bristol and See Woo (branches in both Glasgow and London — thanks pd0c 🙂 ). Veggie World in Milton Keynes does mail order, and they have veggie prawns as well, though they’re not as good (IMO) as the Mong Lee Shang ones.

  21. Hi guys….It may be me, but I cannot find the vegan shrimps anywhere on the net….and the veggie-world link seems unavailable…

  22. Hi Monica — The Veggie World link should work… if not, do a google search for Veggie World Milton Keynes and it will come up. Sometimes they are called veggie prawns instead of shrimp. See Woo also has them, but I don’t know if they do mail order.

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