Eat like an Olympic athlete: Try this cauli-fredo pasta with cashew cream

Try this delicious vegan recipe from the Olympic Village menu, designed by Jeff Leidy, senior executive chef at Sodexo Live!

Transcript

00:00Hello, I am Chef Jeff. I'm an Olympic chef heading to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

00:06I am going to give you a sneak peek at the dishes served in the Athletes Village

00:10at this year's Olympics in Paris. Today I'm going to prepare for you

00:14an amazing plant-based pasta made with caulifrado with cashew cream.

00:21To prepare today's meal, we have tricolored cauliflower that has been roasted with a

00:26little olive oil and sea salt. We have the cashews that we made the cashew cream with.

00:31We have a vegan plant-based parmesan cheese. We have oven-roasted tomato, chili threads to add

00:39a little spice of flavor, a bucatini pasta, which is one of my favorites, diced shallots,

00:44and sliced garlic. As you can see, a lot of this has been pre-prepared to make meal planning

00:50quicker and easier. I'm going to start by using a high flame. To that, we are going to add olive oil.

00:59Put them out. Then to that, we have our pre-diced shallots,

01:07slivered garlic.

01:11Really love this dish. It's very aromatic. Okay, let the flame come up.

01:17We'll let this cook for a few minutes. This dish has great carbohydrate. It's something that adds

01:24a lot of calories for the athlete, and it's a great way to prepare for their event.

01:29So we'll let this get some color to it.

01:35Okay, then we're going to get one of my favorite pastas, bucatini.

01:40So we're going to add a portion of bucatini.

01:51Okay, while that's cooking.

02:00Okay, we're getting some good color.

02:04Now we've pre-cooked the pasta for ease.

02:10And then here is our cashew cream that we have pre-soaked the cashews overnight,

02:15and then you blend them in a blender until smooth.

02:21So we'll add the cashew cream.

02:28You can hear that cooking well.

02:33Okay, we'll heat this up. Nice and hot. Turn the flame off.

02:40And you can see how beautiful and creamy that is.

02:49Okay, then to that, we are going to zest some vegan parmesan to the dish.

03:00Like that. A nice portion of that. And then to that,

03:05we have these vine-ripe tomatoes that we've done. We've cooked slowly in the oven.

03:13Nice, slow-cooked simmer. It sweetens the tomato. And then we're going to add our cauliflower.

03:18This normally you would do roasted at home and serve warm, or you can saute it in the pasta.

03:25For today, we chose to do it separately.

03:30See the beautiful color on these? These, again, were roasted with a little olive oil,

03:35salt, and pepper. That's a beautiful color. And then to that, we'll finish it with a little chili

03:44or give it a pop of flavor and add a little color.

03:49And there you are. I personally love this dish just for the flavor. You don't miss that it doesn't

03:56have cream or butter. This is an amazing dish that tastes just like the original. Now, the best part

04:04is that you can add a little bit of salt. You can add a little bit of pepper. You can add a little

04:10like the original. Now, the best part of preparing this meal is to actually get to try it.

04:22Incredible. Enjoy.