I'm a huge fan of maple. Maple donuts, maple candies, maple syrup, you name it - I love it! So imagine how excited I was to learn that maple is often used as a sweetener in plant-based cooking!
Last week, I got extra adventurous in the kitchen and prepared my own sweet potato ravioli from scratch. I cooked up a sumptuous maple cream sauce to go with it, and well... it was phenomenal. I had some extra maple sauce left over, so I stored it in a covered glass jar in the fridge, thinking I would find another use for it within the week. And sure enough, this experimental dish I made using the leftover maple sauce with baby bellas and Udon noodles ended up being simply delicious. So good, in fact, that I snapped a photo and am sharing it with you!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 pkg Udon noodles
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock or broth
- 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
Ingredients for Maple Sauce:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup vegetable stock or broth
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- salt and pepper to taste
- Herbs or chopped pecans for garnish (optional)
Instructions:
First, prepare the maple sauce. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until the mixture is smooth. Slowly add the veggie broth, maple syrup, sage, salt and pepper while continuously whisking. Reduce heat to low and whisk for another minute or two. Sauce will thicken. Turn off heat, cover sauce and set aside.
In a skillet, add the mushrooms and veggie stock. Heat to a gentle simmer; add seasoning salt. Stir well and continue to sauté mushrooms for 5 to 6 minutes until tender. When done, remove from heat, cover and set aside.
While cooking mushrooms, bring a pot of water to a boil. Reduce to medium heat. Add one pinch of salt to water, and add the Udon noodles. Cook for approximately 4 minutes in simmering pot. Drain cooked noodles and spoon individual servings into shallow bowls.
With a slotted spoon, spoon the mushrooms onto the noodles.
Reheat the maple sauce for 1 to 2 minutes if necessary. Turn off heat and spoon the sauce over the mushrooms and noodles.
Serve with steamed fresh green beans or sweet peas. Dig in, and enjoy!
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