Meera Sodha's vegan recipe for creamy macaroni with sweet potato and gochujang

From theguardian.com

A creamy vegan macaroni and cashew bake with a gochujang chilli kick

I buy sweet potatoes by the kilo, so I’m always in want of new and innovative ways to dispatch them into meals. Pasta is particularly receptive (I have Nigella to thank for the introduction), which is how this macaroni came into being.

It is embellished with cashews, the softest of nuts, which create a smooth cream (not dissimilar to a bechamel) and some gentle heat in the form of Korea’s store-cupboard genius ingredient, gochujang. Not the likeliest of bedfellows, admittedly, but a sweet potato well spent.

                       Meera Sodha’s creamy macaroni with sweet potato and gochujang.

   Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay

Prep 15 minCook 35 minServes 4

Fine sea salt

350g macaroni
Sunflower oil – I like Mr Organic
1 medium sweet potato
100g cashews nuts, roasted and unsalted
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp gochujang paste (or to taste)
2 tbsp white flour
2½ tbsp nutritional yeast
2 spring onions
60g breadcrumbs

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6, and bring a pan of water to a boil. Salt the water generously, drop in the macaroni and cook for two minutes less than the packet instructions say. Drain, drizzle with oil and toss to coat.

While the pasta is cooking, peel and chop the sweet potato into 1cm cubes, and put them in a small saucepan with the cashews and two of the garlic cloves. Add water to cover, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Drain (keep the pan for later), then put in a blender with 500ml cold water, the gochujang, flour, nutritional yeast and a teaspoon and three-quarters of salt. Blend smooth and taste – you may want to add more gochujang.

Toss the macaroni with the sauce and transfer to a roughly 20cm x 20cm ovenproof dish. Finely chop the spring onions and mince the remaining garlic clove.

Put two tablespoons of oil in the reserved pan over a high heat and, once hot, fry the spring onions for a minute, then add the garlic and cook for two minutes more.

Add the breadcrumbs and a quarter-teaspoon of salt to the pan, then stir them around the pot until the crumbs turn pale gold.

Top the macaroni with the crumbs, then bake for 20 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Leave to rest for five minutes, to settle, then serve hot with greens of your choice.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/21/meera-sodhas-vegan-recipe-for-creamy-macaroni-with-sweet-potato-and-gochujang