Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo - VEGANIZED!

Kinda slacking here I just realized I never posted the Vegan Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo dinner I made for my husband for Fathers day, yikes!  I promised a few people this recipe, so sorry it's late but here ya go!

I make it my mission to keep my husband a happy vegan, when eating out that is often not possible because he thinks he requires more than just a veggie sandwich or side salad and here in our town vegan eats are slim, although looking up with the recent opening of not one but TWO very vegan friendly spots! Anyway... aside from eating out, when we are at home I think I've got it nailed down pretty good.  As I said a few posts back there has not been one meal  from our prevegan life that I have not been able to successfully veganize, that does not mean there have not been a few misses here and there, there have definitely been some misses! But you know... if at first you don't succeed and blah blah all that jazz...  So I try try again and in the end I almost always end up with exactly what we were trying for.  Vegan fettuccine has been one of the misses for me in the past, I tried several different versions and none of them had that creamy, saucy, fettuccine taste I was looking for, so it's been on the back burner for a while.  Well this Fathers Day I wanted to knock my hubby's tastebuds right out of orbit!  So... I got to thinking about things he loved before we were vegan that I have not tried to make yet or have not perfected yet... fettuccine popped in to my head and then, you know because figuring out how to fix something you failed at in the past was not a challenge enough, I remembered about the Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo he used to order all the time and quickly devour at our fave Italian place.  If you have never had this before it's popular at a lot of Italian restaurants, basically it's fettuccine alfredo served with a chicken breast that has been blacked with cajun spices and some of the spices sprinkled on top of the noodles as well.  It was one of my husband's absolute FAVORITE dishes so it was time to give it the vegan treatment.  

I set about googling vegan alfredo sauce to get some ideas and I found lots of recipes that looked an awful lot like the ones I had tried in the past, I wanted something new... something I hadn't failed at in the past and then I found one that used cashew cream as a base instead of soy milk and I knew I had a winner!  I love cashew cream, it makes EVERYTHING fabulous and it's so easy to make.


I made a HUGE batch of this because I knew my husband would love it and I wanted him to have leftovers for lunch the next day.  The recipe below is going to give you enough for dinner for a family of five with fairly large portions (hey it was Daddy's day... let em eat!) and seconds (and eat... lol) AND to have some left over for lunches the next day.  If you don't want that much food cut the recipe in half and you should have just enough for dinner for a family of 4 or 5 :) 

This recipe uses a Cashew Cream identical to the Cashew Cream from the Vegan Fried Chicken post.  You will need some presoaked cashews for this. 
Cashew Cream Recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups raw organic cashews
• 2 1/2 cups water

Soak cashews in water overnight or bring the cashews and 4 cups of water to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let soak 1 hour.  Drain and rinse the cashews. 

This makes like 5 cups of cashew cream, you will need need all 5 cups for the alfredo sauce but if you make up a double batch you can save it and use it to make vegan fried chicken! The cream can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.

 *TIP* I keep presoaked nuts of all kinds in gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  I buy nuts in bulk and soak them in large quantities over night, then rinse and fill up the bags and freeze.  When I need some I just take out what I need they are presoaked and I'm all ready to go without waiting for the nuts to soak.

You will need the following:

• 2 packages vegan fettuccine noodles *I dream of making my own pasta some day like these... but for now store bought noodles will have to do*
• 2 packages Gardein Chick'n Scallopini
• 5 cups of premade Cashew Cream from above

Blackened Chicken Spices:

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder 

Mix all together in a bowl and set aside.
*Note this is only enough spice to cover 1/2 of the chicken patties (4 of them) and sprinkle a bit on the grownups plates because I didn't put the spices on the patties I was serving to the little ones.*

Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce: adapted from munchin with munchkin

• About 1/3 cup evoo
• 1 lb sliced or chopped baby bella mushrooms (the little portobellos) *how small you chop em up depends on whether or not you have to hide them from your kiddos!*
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 smallish or 1 large leek thinly sliced
• 1 large shallot chopped
• 1 head of minced garlic 
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper 

I served my main course with oven roasted asparagus and crescent rolls brushed with vegan butter.  If you want to do the same you will need:

• 2 bunches of organic asparagus
• 1 head minced garlic *yes! we like garlic here!* 
• Salt
• more evoo for drizzling
• 2 packages of crescent rolls *yes they are vegan* we used the ones from Trader Joes
• some melted Earth Balance or other vegan butter for brushing on the tops of your rolls

If you are anything like me and you are obsessed with making sure everything comes out of the oven/off the stove at exactly the same time to serve everything piping hot and perfect you are going to be a busy bee in the kitchen for the next 45 minutes or so :) Get the kiddos set up with a Disney movie, baby yoga dvd... coloring books or whatever will keep them out from under foot for about an hour, gather all of your ingredients on to your counter and...  

Ready?  Set. GO!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 (or whatever your package of crescent rolls calls for).
2. Blend your cashew cream as stated above.  Set aside.
3. Premix your blackened chicken spices and set aside.
4. Wash/chop/dice/mince all your veggies set aside in small bowls.
5. Drizzle some oil on a baking sheet, wash and chop off the bottoms of your asparagus and place in a single layer on baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 head of minced garlic set aside.
   
   
6. Prepare your pan and roll your crescent rolls per the package instructions, and set those aside with your asparagus pan.
7. Set a large pot of water to boil for your noodles. 
8. Put your asparagus and and crescent rolls into the oven with the asparagus on the top rack and the rolls on the middle.  Set a timer to bake these for 15-20 minutes, or whatever the instructions on your package of rolls says.
9. Drizzle a large skillet with some additional evoo and heat to med.  Pan fry any of the Gardein you are not going to put the blackened chicken spices on according to the package directions, and set aside on a plate near or on your stove to stay warm.
10. Sprinkle most your blackened chicken spice on a plate.
11. Moisten the Gardein patties you are going to blacken with a little water and then coat them with the spices, then pan fry according to the package directions.  Set aside with the other ones to stay warm.  *If your little ones are as sensitive to hot spices as mine are you may want to put them on a separate plate or put a paper towel in between them so none of the spices rub off onto theirs*
12. For the alfredo sauce:  In a large stock pot heat a little less than 1/2 the evoo over med heat and saute your mushrooms until they are tender, deglaze the pan with 1/2 the white wine.  Scoop out your mushrooms and set aside. 
13. In the same pot heat the rest of your evoo over med heat and add your leeks and shallots.  Saute about 5 minutes, until tender.
14. Right about now the water for your noodles should be boiling, so while the leeks and shallots are sauteing add your noodles to the water and cook according to your package instructions. 
15. Back to the alfredo sauce... Add your head of minced garlic, and then drizzle with the remaining white wine.  Cook for a minute or two then whisk in your 5 cups of Cashew Cream, stir well.  Add lemon juice, onion and garlic powders, pepper flakes and nutmeg, stirring well.  Let it come to a simmer stirring CONSTANTLY until it thickens.  You will be able to tell right away when it is thickened, add in the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper to taste, add back in the mushrooms.
16. Your noodles should be done, drain and then pour the noodles into the sauce pot.  Use tongs to toss the noodles and coat with sauce.  
17. Your timer on the asparagus and rolls should be beeping at you so take them out.  
18. Plate your masterpiece!  Twirl fettuccine into nests on your plates, sprinkle the grownups noodles with some of the blackened chicken spices, rough chop 1 chicken patty on top of the noodles, add some asparagus spears and a crescent roll or two and you are done! 
19. Sit back and enjoy your meal and bask in all the ooohhhs and ahhhs of all your hard work :) a glass of wine would be great right now too!
20. Get someone else to do the dishes!

My husband's face when he saw the special meal I had veganized for him was soooo very worth every minute I spent over the stove making this for him!!

Kiddo sized portions

For dessert we had brownies ala-mode with chocolate ganache brownies, served over homemade almond ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce... can you say vegan dessert heaven!