Pasta with Creamy Cashew Sauce
Creamy vegan pasta with vegetables is the perfect choice for dinner recipe for busy weeknights. With whole grain pasta, kale, mushrooms, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes, it's the ultimate combination of pasta and veggies, and it's all coated in a creamy cashew sauce. No one will know that the lush cream sauce is dairy-free!
Ingredients
For the Pasta
- 12 ounces whole grain or gluten-free pasta
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium shallot diced (about ½ cup)
- 2 cups button or crimini mushrooms sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 bunch kale chopped (about 6 cups)
- 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes cut into thin strips, soaked for 15 minutes if they’re too stiff
- ¼ cup kalamata olives chopped, optional
For the Sauce
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked for 2 hours, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 ½ cups vegetable stock or water
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions.
- Heat oil in large pan over medium high heat. Add shallots and cook for about 5 minutes, until they begin to brown.
- Add mushrooms and garlic to the pan along with ½ teaspoon of salt and continue cooking for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are fragrant and have released their liquid.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes, beans, and kale to the pan and cook until the kale is wilted and slightly tender, for about 3 minutes.
- While the vegetables are cooking, mix the cashews, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, stock, and ½ teaspoon of sea salt together in a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Stir the pasta, vegetables and beans and cashew cream together. Top with the olives and serve.