straight up veg

Like everyone, I’ve been noticing an influx of “zoodle” and other vegetable noodle recipes out there. I won’t lie, a lot of these recipes didn’t seem all that appealing to me, but I had a few sweet potatoes in my pantry, and thought I’d try it out and see if it was worth the hype. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. I can’t speak on the integrity of other vegetables, but these sweet potato noodles were really tasty, and actually kept their integrity as a traditional noodle/pasta substitute. For those that have never “sprialized” anything, you can either purchase pre-prepped noodles at the store, or you can use a handy device.

I paired the sweet potato noodles with a rich and flavourful stewed mushroom sauce. This dish can easily be made vegan.

**Feel free to click on the red links for photo references**

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and spiralized
• 2 lbs mushrooms, sliced thick (I used a mix of shiitake, oyster and cremini)
• 1 bulb of garlic, peeled
• 1 cup of yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp honey or agave nectar
• 4 leaves of sage, finely chopped
• small handful of parsley, finely chopped (for garnish)
• Salt

1. In a pan, add butter (or margarine) with 1 tbsp of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and stir until all mushrooms are coated
2. Sauté mushrooms for 5 minutes before adding garlic and onions. Let cook on medium-high heat for 20 mins, stirring only once every 5 minutes.
3. Add 1/2 tsp salt, sage and honey (or agave nectar). Sauté for another 10 minutes, stirring only periodically.
4. Add white wine, and cook down for approx. 5 minutes until alcohol has cooked off, and the consistency is creamy. Add salt to taste and transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl.
5. In the same pan, add remaining tbsp of olive oil, sweet potato and 1/2 cup of water. Ad a lid to the pan, and gently cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so. You want the noodles to soften, but still have a bite to them, so they don’t turn to mush or fall apart.
6. Add the mushroom mixture into the pot with the sweet potato noodles and gently mix together. Garnish with parsley and enjoy 🙂