Dairy Free Creamy Mushroom & Leek Pasta

Today's comfort food recipe is a savory one.  There's something about a rich & creamy dish that's warm and comforting.  In times of stress and sadness, it's so satisfying to dig into a hearty dish that will warm you from the inside out.  This recipe is one of those dishes.

This recipe was inspired by a Gordon Ramsay recipe Ryan and I watched.  We absolutely love Gordon Ramsay and have watched many of his cooking shows.  My favorite show of his is Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking, where he cooks delicious meals at home, sometimes with his kids.  He makes everything look so easy and I'm always inspired by watching him cook.  We watched this great video recently where he made a pasta with mushrooms and leeks and I was so disappointed at the end when he added heavy cream.  I really wanted to make this recipe, but heavy cream has way too much dairy in it for Ryan.  I thought to myself - they should really make a dairy free heavy cream alternative.  This was a thought I guess I had never had before because after a quick google search, I found that coconut cream can be used as a substitute.  

Okay, so I don't usually cook with heavy cream anyways because it's not good for you, but this was a recipe I had to try.  I went to Whole Foods and bought a couple cans of coconut cream (so we would have some for the future as well) and some leeks and decided we were going to make this dish.  Of course I had to add some protein to it as well, so I picked up some sweet Italian sausages and adapted the recipe with these substitutions.  

When I bought my leeks at Whole Foods, they had these huge green tops on them and I thought to myself, I don't think Gordon uses those in his recipe.  I re-watched the video and saw that he discarded the leek tops, which just didn't feel right to me.  The leeks I bought were about 75% green tops and 25% white bottoms and it seemed like such a waste to just throw that all away.  Again, I consulted my BFF Google and found that you can eat the green tops of leeks, but that they just need to be braised down because they are more fibrous than the bottom.  I read a recipe and thought - I can totally adapt this into my recipe AND it won't even take me any more time, just a little more effort.  I'm so glad I did this because the leek greens were absolutely tender and delicious.  The ratio of mushroom to leek wouldn't have been right if I didn't use the greens since my leek bottoms were so small, but it ended up working out perfectly in this recipe.  So I call for using the leek greens as well as the bottoms, separated.  If that's not your thing (or if you have pre-trimmed leeks like they sell at Trader Joe's), that's okay, just skip the steps for the leek greens.

Total Time: 45-50 minutes

Servings: 5-6

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet Italian sausage, de-cased

16 oz crimini mushrooms

2 leeks

2 tbs olive oil

3 large garlic cloves

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup coconut cream

8 oz spaghetti or any long noodle

Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Add de-cased sausage to a dutch oven on medium heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, until browned and cooked through.
2. While the sausage is cooking, chop the leeks.  Cut the green tops off the leeks and slice 1/4 inch thick.  Add the greens to a large saute pan over medium heat and add 1 tbs olive oil.  Saute over medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
3. While the sausage and leek greens are cooking, chop the mushrooms and leek bottoms.  Slice the mushrooms in thin slices and the leeks into quarters and then thin slices.
4. When the sausage is fully cooked, drain as much fat out of the pan as you can.  Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.  
5. Once the mushrooms begin to soften, add the leek greens and bottoms to the pan and stir to combine.  Salt & pepper generously and cook for 4-5 minutes until the leeks begin to soften.
6. Add the chicken stock and continue to cook until reduced by at least 1/2.  You want the sauce to thicken, so ensure that you give it enough time to reduce (10-20 minutes).
7. While the sauce is reducing, cook your pasta 1-2 minutes less than designated on the pasta container.  You want it very al dente as it will continue to cook in the sauce.
8. Once the sauce is reduced, add your cream and stir until combined.  Bring the mixture back to a boil and simmer for 3-4 more minutes.
9. Turn down the sauce, add the pasta, and stir to combine.  Once thoroughly combined, turn off the heat and plate.

Look at those beautiful leeks!  I couldn't stand the thought of wasting those amazing green tops.

All of this could have been wasted, but wasn't!  I'm never going to go back to using just the leek bottoms when I've got the equally tasty greens to cook with.

Here's the pot of sausage, mushrooms, leeks, garlic and chicken stock simmering away.

The end result:

This pasta is so full of rich, decadent flavor from the mushrooms, leeks, sausage and coconut cream.  The coconut cream gives just a hint of sweetness to the dish without being overpowering.  

Now that I know coconut cream can be substituted for heavy cream, I'm definitely going to have to try more recipes like this!  Although coconut cream has a lot of saturated fat, which isn't good for you, every once in a while as a treat it's okay. Don't think that because it's a non-dairy substitute that means it's healthy!  

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 971

Protein: 42g

Carbs: 129g

Fat: 34g