TacoCat (kinda) Cooks! #47: Coconut milk based Mushroom Pasta? 🍝
Hey Steemit!
We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the food we've been making at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Both because it's cheaper and also healthier to cook for yourself compared to eating out. While I usually stick to the usual recipes I do like to try new ones once in a while and figured I'd share the new ones I've tried.
I've shared some pasta dishes I've made but they're mostly similar to aglio olio i.e. dry pasta but I know Sean prefers his pasta with a cream sauce and tbh I do as well. My favourite would probably be with a mushroom cream sauce. However, most of those recipes call for heavy cream which is not the healthiest. I am also reluctant to buy milk since we're both lactose intolerant so the rest of the carton would be a waste.
Source: budgetbytes
The other day, I came across another pasta recipe on my instagram reels that used coconut cream/milk instead of regular cream or milk. It sounded intriguing and since I can get coconut milk a lot cheaper and in smaller portions this seemed perfect!
Here's the video if you want to check it out!
I altered the recipe a little bit according to what I had at the time, mainly adding more vegetables. Here are the ingredients I used:
- 1 large onion
- 5-7 cloves of garlic
- chili oil
- 250g coconut milk
- 250g pasta
- 2 carrots
- spinach
- frozen broccoli
- shiitake mushrooms
- enoki mushrooms
Step 1: Chop all the vegetables and enoki mushrooms. I sliced my carrots julienne so they wouldn't get lost when we strain it with the pasta later.
Step 2: Add the vegetables and enoki mushrooms to a pot of boiling water.
Step 3: While the vegetables are boiling, chop the shiitake mushrooms and the onion into thin slices.
Step 4: Once the veggies have softened up, put in the pasta and let it boil for a bit.
Once it has boiled enough, make sure to fit all the pasta into the pot.
When the pasta is boiled to your desired doneness, drain it and set it aside.
Step 5: Saute the onions in some olive oil on medium-high heat.
Once they've softened up a little, add in the shiitake mushrooms and garlic.
They should reduce to something like this, with plenty of aromatics.
Step 6: Add in the coconut milk/cream and reduce the heat to medium-low.
Stir it for a bit and let the coconut milk mix with the onions, garlic and mushrooms. Feel free to add in some chili oil or chili flakes here if you want a little spice.
Step 7: With the sauce ready, it was time to bring in the pasta! Dump the pasta and boiled vegetables onto the sauce and mix well to incorporate. Add in salt and pepper if needed.
I think I had too much pasta and too little sauce. I recommend diluting the coconut milk a little bit with some water or add in some pasta water or chicken stock to get more balance.
Once everything is well mixed, it's ready to serve!
It looked and smelled so good! The aroma from the coconut milk was quite strong so I was curious to see how it would taste.
In hindsight, I think I might've forgotten to season the pasta while it was boiling. So in the end it came out quite plain but the coconut milk taste was very strong. A little overpowering but somehow contrasted with the mushrooms too. I'm not sure I liked it but it was alright. I definitely had to add a lot of chili oil to balance it with some savouriness though.
Overall, I think this could definitely be a lot better but it was an interesting take on cream-based pasta. I think heavy cream is still better since it's more neutral tasting, but if you like coconut milk this would definitely be your cup of tea. I think if I had seasoned the pasta properly and added more chili oil or chili flakes in with the onions I could've balanced the sweetness out with some spice. I wouldn't mind trying this recipe again to see if I can make it better. Maybe with some pan-fried salmon or a chicken chop it would be good too.
I'm always looking for quick and easy recipes to try and make at home so let me know if you have any recommendations too!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
