I am trying my hands on making vegetarian/vegan meal. As I am neither vegetarian nor vegan. I had to browsed two handful recipes, getting the ideas of what the ingredients are and at the same time also wanted to be able to post it in Italian blogs.

What Is Panko? Google: “the word panko is Japanese—”pan” meaning bread and “ko” meaning flour). Real panko is always made from a special kind of white bread (as opposed to whole wheat) that is made without crusts that are baked using an electrical current”.

“Panko is lighter and flakier than regular breadcrumbs. Panko is also used as a crumb topping forbaked pasta recipes, casseroles, and macaroni and cheese. It can be incorporated into meatballs and veggie burgers as a binder and is used as a thickener for soups and sauces (stir in a tablespoon or two at a time). Basically, panko can be used in place of breadcrumbs in most recipes, including as a garnish, where it is best if they are toasted first.”

I guess, panko is allowed in the Italian blogs as panko is popular in American cooking. There are American Italian using panko. I use panko, vegetables, pasta and instead of cream I use almond milk and cornflour with water to thicken the sauce and bought my first vegan cheese: Sheese Mozzarella vegan cheese grated at $8.00 on sale and very hard to find.

I am pleased with my experiment: created a vegetarian meal. It’s taste good as I have never tasted vegan cheese before. Though I drink almond milk from time to time. At least, I did try make vegetarian/vegan meal. Let’s bake, see and taste. Serve it with a glass of Guinness Stout.

Ingredients

200 g shell pasta
2 medium size potatoes, cut about 1 cm thick
2 medium size carrots, cut to bite size
180 g mushrooms sliced
150 g Sheese Mozzarella vegan grated cheese, divided
3/4 c panko breadcrumb
3/4 c Almond milk, plus 1/3 c for dipping
1 Tbs cornflour plus 3 Tbs water (OPT)
1 Tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tsp onion powder
1/4 Tsp salt, extra
dashes pepper
oil spray (OPT)
chili flakes, garnish

Method

Preheat oven 190 degrees C. Cook pasta in microwave safe bowl with water and a pinch of salt for 16 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside. Par boil carrots about 12 minutes, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and 1/4 Tsp salt. Put 1/3 c milk in a bowl. Dip each slice of potatoes slices into milk, then coat well with the seasoned breadcrumb mixed and place on a lined tray set aside.

In baking dish, add cooked pasta, carrots and mushrooms. Toss to mix well. Next pour 3/4 c milk, cornflour mixture and mix to combined. Sprinkles about 50 g grated cheese over.

Now arrange crumbed potatoes on top, cover the pasta and vegetables mixture. Then scatter the remaining cheese on top of the potatoes. Spray some oil. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until potatoes are golden and cooked. Spoon onto serving bowls, sprinkles chili flakes and serve with Guinness Stout. Enjoy!!!!

Note: You can add any vegetables of your choice. You can make it non vegetarian/ vegan meal by adding dairy: cream, normal cheese and use normal breadcrumbs.

https://helenscchin.com/2021/01/07/baked-vegetables-and-shell-pasta/

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