Polish tastes # 002 - vegan mush, sausage and the best but unconventional mushroom sauce

This is one of the quick staple Polish dishes. Because, the truth is, Poles like their food and a dinner, resembling the proper British Sunday Lunch, is something of a norm every day. So if you leave with a Pole and they demand cooked, hot food, but you really do not have too much time and have no idea what to cook then some sausages in sauce with mush can be the answer.

By the time vegetables for mush are cooked the sauce is ready too. Easy. 

As in our household we tend to lean towards plants rather then animal products [but not exclusively] so this is a vegan version of the classic. 
But you could replace the vegan sausages with any other meaty product [sausage, pork chop?] or you could skip it altogether (this time we used #tofurky kielbasa and #nakedglory sausages). 
Just the vegetable mush & mushroom sauce is tasty enough for a satisfying meal, but it is always good to add some protein to your meal, hence the vegan sausages.  


So this is the action plan to make it as smooth and painless as possible:

1. peel vegetables for mush and cook them

2. when they cook, prepare sauce,

3. when sausages are cooking inside the sauce, mush cooked vegetables,

4. eat!

My mush is made basically of anything I could find in my kitchen. but you could replace it with cooked buckwheat, quinoa or any other grains. The main element is the sauce, which is based on fresh mushroom mix (ours from #asda). Any fresh mushroom will do, as long as they are not very distinct in flavour. But that distinction I mean truffles or ceps for instant. They taste better in other dishes so keep them out from this one. 





What do you need? :

Enough for 3-4 people

Mush:

1 large sweet potato

2 floury potatoes like Maris Piper

1 large parsnip

piece of cauliflower - I had the size of a large potato

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp caraway seeds [helps with digestion, but if you do not like it you can omit it]

pepper or chilly flakes to taste

[but you could add celeriac, white onion, or not use some of the above. Altogether I had about 1-1.2 kg. I simply like mixing vegetables for my mush because I know by doing this I can top up my 30 different plant based products a week. Recommended for a healthy gut :-)]


Sauce + sausages:

150g of mixed fresh mushroom or white button mushroom [chop them into smaller pieces but do not make a massacre out of them :-)]

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic [peeled and pressed]

2 Tbsp red miso

1 Tbsp tomato pure

1 tsp sugar

2-3 Tbsp olive oil or any other cooking oil

Tbsp flour [plain or bread flour, but not potato starch or tapioca, as it would change the consistency of the sauce]

4-5 Tbsp of coconut yogurt [you can use greek yogurt instead]

200 ml water

6-10 juniper berries

1/4 -1/2 tsp chilly flakes

2 bay leaf

salt, pepper to taste, but add it at the end if needed

2-3 per person vegan sausages


How to? :

1. Peel, chop into smaller pieces, and cook vegetables. I only add water up to 1/3 of the vegetables. I do not like submerging my vegetables in water, so they could keep some vitamins and minerals instead of being completely washed out. You could steam them instead. I sometimes do that to.

Cooking will take about 20-25 minutes, so in that time let's start making the sauce.

2. Heat up wok or any other rather big frying pan. Add 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil and then add bay leaf, juniper berries, onion, garlic and mushrooms. Cook/fry over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes, stirring couple of times. Keep an eye on it, so it does not burn. If onion start browning a lot instead of just softening lower the heat. 

3. After couple of minutes add sugar, red miso paste and tomato pure. Cook for another 10-12 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until all becomes softer and nicely combined.

4. Sprinkle over 1 Tbsp of flour and give it a quick stir. 

5. Add yogurt and give it another quick stirs, so it is roughly combined.

6. Add water and keep stirring, while heating the whole sauce up. Gradually the sauce should thicken. After couple of minutes and cooking and stirring some bubbles should start popping on the surface. The sauce is ready. 

7. Add sausages [if using] into the sauce and cook for another few minutes [according to the sausages packaging. Some take only a minute and some longer.

8. While sausages are cooking drain the cooked vegetables of any excess water, but keep that cooking water for now. Mush vegetables with 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil, salt, caraway seeds and chilly flakes or ground pepper. If the mush is too dry for your liking add couple of tablespoons of the cooking water. I always tend to add 2-3 Tbsp to make it fluffier. By adding the same water you also preserve more vitamins and minerals, so less is lost. 

9. Serve!




Enjoy and have a nice day!




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