Creamy Vegan Mushroom Sauce for Pasta

This Vegan Mushroom Sauce is incredibly rich and creamy. You simply won’t believe it’s made without cream. Delectable, dairy-free and made with cashew cream, it's an amazing pasta sauce!

Vegan or not, assuming we all like mushrooms, I promise you, you’ll really love this sauce.

To say it’s rich and creamy is an understatement. We’re talking over-the-top rich and creamy!

The flavor of this hearty mushroom sauce is deep, earthy and subtly sweet. It will enhance all sorts of dishes and it makes for an incredible vegan mushroom pasta.

The magic ingredient is cashew cream. (Link to the super easy recipe is below.)

The Ingredients

• extra virgin olive oil - I like this one.
• onion - Try to choose onions that are firm, heavy for their size and without bruises.
• mushrooms - I like to make this mushroom sauce with a few different varieties - Crimini, Shiitake, Button, Oyster, or any combination thereof. Look for mushrooms with the thick caps and avoid those that look wet, slimy, or shriveled.
• fresh thyme - Choose perky bunches of fresh thyme with a deep green color.
• cashew cream - Here's the link for How to Make Cashew Cream - it's easy!)
• dry sherry - The sherry is used to deglaze the pan after the mushrooms have caramelized, and it also adds a wonderful nut-like sweet flavor.
• vegetable stock - Preferably low sodium.
• black pepper - Preferably freshly ground.
• salt

(See recipe card below for quantities.)

Substitutions and Variations

• Fresh thyme. If you want to use dried thyme instead of fresh, use about 1 ½ teaspoons.
• Dry sherry. With a slightly sweeter flavor, medium and cream sherry are also okay. Vermouth is a good substitute, and if you want to omit alcohol all together, make up the difference with additional vegetable stock.
• If you love garlic, add minced garlic with the onions — about a teaspoon.
• Other herbs are delicious too — try oregano, rosemary or tarragon. Or any combination thereof.
• Please note that the cashew cream should be made ahead of time. It only takes about 5 minutes.

Recipe Tips

• When you're cooking a lot of mushrooms, it's best to add them to the pan in batches. They have a very high water content so at some point you will likely see a lot of liquid in the pan. You'll want to keep sautéing until the pan is dry and the mushrooms are beautifully browned (which is when the sherry will be added.)
• If the sauce is thicker than you’d like, add more vegetable stock until it's the consistency you want.

How to Make it

(More detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.)

- Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with olive oil and place it over low-medium heat. Add the onions and, stirring often, cook until soft and slightly golden, about 7 minutes. Add the thyme, mix and sauté for another 30 seconds or so, until it's very aromatic.

- Turn the heat up, add a bit more olive oil and half of the mushrooms. Stirring often, cook until they've shrunk considerably. Then add the other half and sauté until they're all beginning to brown.

- Turn the heat down, add the sherry and mix. Turn the heat back up to cook it off and use a flat-edged spatula to scrape any bits of stuck ingredients off the bottom of the pan and back into the mix.

- Turn the heat to low, add the cashew cream and stock and mix until warm. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

How to Use it

• This sauce makes for the most delicious vegan mushroom pasta ever! Add it to any pasta you like. Use about 1 ½ cups of the sauce for ½-pound of dry pasta.
• One of the reasons this recipe is so amazing is that it's a rich and creamy mushroom sauce without cream, making it perfect for a vegan diet. That said, one does not have to be vegan to absolutely love it. If you're not vegan, you will really like it spooned over chicken or served with steak.
• I also like to mix it into casseroles and rice dishes.
• You can replace cream of mushroom soup with it! Add vegetable broth to the desired consistency and heat!
• If you're vegetarian, not vegan, add finely grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce and serve it with Fettuccini, it will be a delicious vegan Fettuccini Alfredo.

Other Vegan (and Vegetarian) Mushroom Recipes

• Pan-Fried Oyster Mushrooms
• Marinated Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
• Savory Polenta Cake with Mushrooms
• Mushroom Cauliflower Risotto

Can you make it ahead?

You can make Vegan Mushroom Sauce up to three days ahead. Keep it refrigerated in a tightly sealed container.

To reheat it, add it to a sauté pan and warm it over low-medium heat. If it’s too thick, add a bit of vegetable stock to thin it. I would not recommend freezing this sauce.

I hope you love this sauce as much as we do!

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