STEEMIT IRON CHEF Round 8 ~ Cheesy Spaghetti with vegetables and a fruity touch + a Fruit-Mascarpone-Dream

This week I did something for this contest I usually wouldn't do: I bought fresh grapes in February! This time of the year grapes don't grow anywhere in Europe. I had the choice between grapes from India, South Africa and Namibia. Mine came from Namibia all the way up here into the still wintery Germany. I feel a little bit like I sold my soul to the devil ... 😜 Anyway, this is my contribution to this week's #steemit-ironchef contest hosted by the honorable @progressivechef. The theme of the week is - you guessed it right - grapes 🍇!

This was a little bit challenging, because I hardly ever cook with grapes. I only buy them, when the time is right for grapes and almost immediately shove them into my mouth and one bunch of grapes is past ... 

The obvious thing for me to make with grapes was a dessert. But because I always make something that will feed us well for dinner or sometimes lunch, I also wanted to make something hearty and filling too. And that's the result:

Everyone who would love to participate and would like to know about the rules can read about them in @progressivechef's original post here: STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 01 Round 08

The main ingredients I thought I would use spelt spaghetti, fennel, carrots, sundried tomatoes, grapes, oyster mushrooms, oat milk, soaked cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper for the main course and grapes, sultanas, oranges, a pomegranate, crisp bread, soaked cashews, soy curd and ground vanilla for the dessert.

Preparation:

First I cut the carrots, the fennel and the sundried tomates in small cubes.

I cooked the carrots and the fennel in saltwater for a few minutes so they would be 'al dente'.

I prepared a cream, cheesey white sauce by mixing cashews (soaked in cold water for a few hours), nutritional yeast, a finely chopped glove of garlic, some oats milk and salt and pepper.

I cooked the spaghetti and fried the oyster mushrooms in a hot pan in the oil I drained from the sundried tomatoes, seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper.

When the spaghetti were ready I mixed them the cheese sauce. 

I tasted and seasoned again and prepared the plate. I wind up the pasta with a fork and drizzled with the vegetables, the dried tomatoes and the halved grapes and added the fried mushrooms.

For the desert I prepared a fruit salad made of pomegranate seeds, two filleted oranges, dried sultanas and halved blue and green grapes.

I made a incredibly creamy and delicious plantbased Mascarpone by mixing some presoaked cashews with some soy tard and some ground vanilla, no additional sugar! The result was so satisfying! I was surprised myself  and very happy with this.

On the base of two whiskey jars I crumbled some crisp bread and covered this with a bit of the fruit salad followed by a layer of my Mascarpone and decorated with more fruit salad, a teaspoon full Mascarpone some crisp bread crumbs and lemon balm.

I am lenting sweets until easter but because I didn't add any additional sugar to my wonderful dessert didn't count as sweet and I enjoyed it so much! 🍧

I hope you liked my recipes. Thank you for popping in. Feel free to leave a comment. I am very happy about suggestions and your thoughts! ☀️