Best recipes never come alone. They come with friends, with ‘no-plans’ evenings and intuition boosts. This one started from Li’s proposal to make some vegan tripe soup, a supposedly superdelicious substitute dish for the original one. Not that I’d have any idea about the resembling taste… okay let’s do it!

That being said, we haven’t cared much about the recipe and basically wove around what was in the fridge. Back home, after one or two more experiments likewise, I ended up with this beautiful yellowish sauté, where leek slices, celery shreds and squash pieces are mildly spiced and dipped together with pleurotus in a rich cashew cream. Here’s how it goes:

Turn the veggies in the size you wish them to be, having in mind the texture you want to create. Being essentially a stir-fry, it won’t stay more than 15-20min over the fire, so move quickly.

Prepare the cashew cream by mixing soaked cashew nuts with water, lemon and salt in a high power blender.

Prepare the seasoning: crush a few cloves of garlic, cut in very fine pieces some ginger and ground some pepper. Now fry them in little oil and be sure they won’t stay as long as to be making a crust. Scramble in your favorite kind of tofu cut in small pieces (I used smoked tofu) and sprinkle pepper and turmeric and/or chilly flakes, if you wish.

Immediately after add the mushrooms and cover until they turn watery. Remove the lid and cook 5 minutes more, then add celery, leek and only at the end, squash. Stir gently from time to time to keep texture firm. Pour the cashew cream and serve with kale or spinach leaves and optional, slices of raw red onions. Squeeze more lemon to your taste. Enjoy!