This savory dinner option is a great alternative to the traditional mashed potatoes and gravy. Let’s kick it up a notch! 

I made this yucca mash with a mushroom gravy for the first time at Thanksgiving and luckily it came out pretty awesome! I will say though that after I made the yucca mash I didn’t have to work out for a week because I put in work trying to cut that yucca! LOL. I went into about 3 different supermarkets looking for ready cut frozen yucca and NOBODY HAD IT! Finally I go to Wholefoods and all they have were fresh yucca the size of my 3 year old brother. But I told myself I was going to make yucca mash for Thanksgiving so by golly I was going to make yucca mash! So I bought the toddler sized yucca and the gentlemen in the supermarket told me “all you have to do is peel it like a potato and then cut it but remember to remove the center spine” so I’m like “Okay cool, got it.” When I tell you it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to cut in my life I’m not exaggerating!!  I lift weights and your girl was struggling (we’ll blame it on the knife.) So yes my pre-Thanksgiving turnup was quite eventful trying to cut this yucca but I did it! So long story short yucca is hard as a rock.  Don’t get me wrong I always think fresh is a better options but if you value your counter tops and your arms, and you can find frozen pre-cut yucca buy it!  Not all supermarkets carry it. I had a couple of people tell me afterwards that I would have been better off trying a hispanic supermarket or where they sell Latin American foods. So keep that in mind when you go grocery shopping!

Recipe Creator: Move & Munch

Prep Time: 20 minutes (if not precut yucca)

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

• yucca cut into small cubes (remove spine)
• almond milk
• 1/4 cup dairy free butter
• about half a large onion
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 2 cups mushrooms
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup veggie stock
• pepper

Directions:

Yucca:

1. Steam cubed yucca is a steaming basket on the stove (or boil) for about 25 minutes or until fork tender.
2. Transfer to a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork.
3. Pour in about 1/2 a cup of the yucca water used to steam or boil and the almond milk. Stir in well.
4. Season with a little pepper

Mushroom Gravy: 

1. In a large sauce pan warm butter then add garlic and onions and cook for a couple minutes until soft.
2. Add in mushrooms and soy sauce. Cook for another couple minutes.
3. Add veggie stock and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Then add a little pepper.
4. Let everything cook until the mushrooms have gotten really soft.
5. Let the sauce cool until warm to the touch then transfer to a blender and blend until creamy. You don’t want to put overly hot liquids straight into the blender. (The reason I do this step is because I really enjoy the flavor of mushrooms but Im not always crazy about the texture of them so I blended the sauce into a creamier consistence which to me is so much better. But if you are someone who likes the texture of mushrooms then you can skip this step. Bonus: this can be a good way to get kids to eat mushrooms, just saying!)

Try this for your next family dinner or get together,

it will be a hit!