💗 Meatless Monday : Valentine's Day Special - Vegan Stuffed Pasta Shells 💗

Valentine's day is coming soon, and whether your partner is vegan or not, this dish will be enjoyed by you both. The chargrilled vegetables add to your daily quota of fruit and vegetables and make a tasty addition to the sauce. You may wonder why I use pink salt in my recipes-it's because it is richer in minerals and it does not have the negative effects on blood pressure that ordinary salt does (plus pink is my favourite colour!).

💗 Vegan stuffed pasta shells 💗

20 pasta shells + 4 to allow for breakages!

For the vegan 'ricotta' cheese

100g cashews
120 ml water 
1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast - optional - the vegan cheese (see below) is quite strong so it depends how 'cheesy' you want it.

For the chargrilled vegetable sauce

1 tbsp oil
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
250g frozen chargrilled vegetables
150g tomato puree
1/2 tsp stevia
1 tsp pink salt 
1 tsp mixed herbs

Other ingredients

70g vegan cheese, grated

Soak the cashews in the water overnight, or at least for an hour or two in the fridge.  Whiz up in a high speed blender using 40ml of the water and nutritional yeast if using.

Place the pasta shells in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer for 8 minutes.  Drain and rinse the shells in cold water to make them easier to handle.  

Meanwhile, heat the oil and cook the onion for 2-3 minutes.  Add 150g tomato puree, stevia, salt, chargrilled vegetables, mixed herbs and 200ml water.  Bring to the boil then reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes.  

Put half the sauce at the bottom of an ovenproof dish and arrange the pasta on top.  Stuff with the vegan 'ricotta' cheese and drizzle the remaining sauce over the shells.  Sprinkle with the vegan cheese and place in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10 -15 minutes until the cheese melts.

Serve immediately. 

💕 Look out for more vegan Valentine's day recipes on the blog soon! 💕