Meatless Monday with Easy Stuffed Vegan Portabella Pizza in a Cashew Basil Cheese Sauce

Hello and welcome back to the Miratel blog for another edition of our Meatless Monday recipe share series. Miratel took the Meatless Monday pledge as it encourages eliminating meat from your diet one day per week to preserve the health of our planet (and ourselves!). We consider our support of this great movement part of our CSR business strategies as it raises awareness of the impact our food and other personal choices have on our environment.

Every week we share with you a new meat-free meal to help take the guesswork out of what to make for dinner. On our vegan menu tonight is easy stuffed portabella pizza in a cashew basil “cheese” sauce, which comes by way of Oh She Glows, an incredible website for all vegans so do yourself a favour and check it out if you haven’t already. Let’s get cooking.

Easy Stuffed Portabella Pizza in a Cashew Basil Cheese Sauce Ingredients:

• 8 Portabella mushrooms
• 2 cups pizza sauce
• Vegan Cashew Basil Cheese Sauce (see recipe below)
• 1/3 cup of each: red, green, orange pepper, diced
• 1/3 cup sweet onion, diced
• 2-3 large basil leaves, finely diced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven by setting the broiler on low. Take a baking sheet and cover with a silicone non-stick baking mat or parchment paper for easy clean up. Make your Vegan Cashew Basil cheese sauce by using the recipe below. Set aside. Remove stems of Portabellas and gently rub Portabellas with a wet cloth to clean. Place Portabellas ‘belly’ side up on the baking sheet. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of pizza sauce into each Portabella. Now spoon about 2 teaspoons of Vegan Cashew basil Cheese Sauce on top of the pizza sauce (see recipe below). Grab a cutting board and knife and chop the onion and pepper and then sprinkle onto Portabellas. Finally, shake on some red pepper flakes and sprinkle finely diced basil on top. Broil in the oven on the lowest temperature setting on the middle rack for about 10-12 minutes, watching closely as broiler temperatures vary. Serve immediately.

Vegan Cashew Basil Cheese Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1/3-1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt, to taste
• 1/2 tsp cold-pressed sunflower oil
• 1 fresh basil leaf
• 1 small clove garlic
• 1.5 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Place 1 cup of raw cashews in a bowl of water, cover, and soak overnight in the fridge. When cashews are ready, drain and place all ingredients (cashews, Himalayan sea salt, cold-pressed sunflower oil, basil, garlic, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice) into a food processor and process until smooth, stopping to scrape sides of processor as necessary. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Place any leftover cheese in a container in the fridge and enjoy with chopped vegetables, crackers, bread, and chips!

The easy stuffed portabella pizza in a cashew basil “cheese” sauce is vegan, gluten-free and will yield three to four portions. Let’s not forget you can make them in less than thirty minutes, so you can have a fabulous meal for very little work. To complete this meal serve alongside a tomato or big green salad topped with your favourite vinaigrette.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work and promote CSR business initiatives to make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.