It’s always fiendishly difficult to get the quantities of pasta salads or pasta with veggies right. There’s often a decent amount left over. But don’t chuck it or just reheat it! You can turn it into a delicious cheese sauce pasta bake & eat it now or freeze it! If you’ve got some of my super cheese sauce in the freezer – it’s even easier. Put the pasta in a pyrex dish, defrost the cheese sauce and pour it over the top. Don’t use too much cheese sauce though, just enough to completely cover the pasta is fine – don’t drown it.
If there’s not enough pasta salad or pasta with veggies to make enough for a reasonable sized dish don’t worry. You can just add some more veggies to bulk it out a bit. Things you can add are halved sauteed baby plum tomatoes, some sauteed mushroom, or even halved black or green olives. There’s also capers, or any other sauteed peppers or courgettes lurking in the refrigerator.
I like to top the dish off with some grated vegan cheese and herbs and spices. It’s best to use a cheddar style as a first layer – not too thick, and then a super melty cheese. The cheezely mozzarella is the best I’ve found. Add a sprinkling of Italian herb seasoning or oregano, finally either some wholemeal breadcrumbs & paprika & chilli flakes.
When you freeze it, it’s best to put a layer of greaseproof paper on first, and then a layer of clingfilm. You can now get compostable clingfilm, but it may still contain pthalates, which are problematic chemicals for human health.
Make sure to take your cheese sauce pasta bake out of the freezer in the morning if you want to eat it that evening. Frozen dishes can take ages to defrost in the microwave and it’s never as good. Cook at 180°C for around 35 to 40 minutes to heat right through and brown the top nicely – but keep an eye on it.
cheese sauce pasta bake
Ingredients
Method
- put the pre-prepared pasta with veggies in a pyrex dish
- It wants to be 3/4 full - so if necessary, add extra veggies
- Use black or green olives, capers, sauteed baby plum tomatoes, any other sauteed veggies lurking in the fridge.
- spread into an even layer.
- pour on the cheese sauce - make sure it's fairly runny - add more plant based milk if too thick. Around 200g per one of the containers
- grate vegan cheddar first then a layer of melty style cheese on top - around 75g in total is about right.
- add some Italian herb seasoning & chilli flakes
- If freezing for later use I recommend adding a layer of greaseproof paper before using a compostable cling-film.
- Cooked and browned in the oven ready to serve.
Notes
- If making up the cheese sauce to freeze - put in 400g not 380g containers
- For each dish use 200g of cheese sauce - 180g isn't quite enough to cover it.
- Around 75g of the various vegan cheeses seems about right per dish. Add more if you like.....
- I'm also going to suggest a much lighter style cheese sauce becuase the vegan cheese heavy ones don't always work so well.
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!
Lighter Cheese Sauce for moussaka, pastitsio, lasagne, pasta bake etc
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Fry the flour in the oil until browning nicely. It's more on smell though as wholemeal flour is quite brown already. You'll get a nicely toasting smell when it's nearly ready. Make sure not to overdo it though.
- Add in the soya milk slowly and keep mixing. If it goes lumpy, just use a stick blender to get rid of the lumps. If you have a stick blender - who doesn't just pour the mlik in in one go and bring to the boil - then blend as it thickens.
- Add in the yeast flakes and 2/3 of the cheese and allow the cheese to melt and be incorporated in the sauce. Remove the sauce from heat while you make the rest of the dish your creating.
- Once the sauce is nice and creamy and smooth, in into the recipe wherever it says or pour it on top.
- Sprinkle cheese on top. Add some oregano.
- Add some oregano, smoked chilli and optionally some wholemeal breadcrumbs
- follow the main recipe timings - different dishes require different lengths in the oven. It should turn out like the picture whatever your doing with it.
