Avocado Cream Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes + Cashew Parmesan {vegan, gf}

A simple and satisfying weeknight pasta dish – with a creamy avocado and cashew based sauce, the last of the Summer cherry tomatoes and a healthy sprinkle of vegan cashew parmesan. For a gluten free option just sub in gf pasta!

I’ve made variations of avocado pasta before, but I generally just made a kind of ‘guacamole’ sauce, it wasn’t creamy exactly. For this one however, I’ve added cashews and coconut milk to up the creamy factor and make it into more of a cream sauce. The nutritional yeast and optional white miso add a cheesy flavour, reminiscent of parmesan, that makes this +++++ crowd pleasing.

A bunch of peppery basil leaves thrown in is all that’s needed to round out the flavours; if you can get your hands on purple basil (I’m growing some in a little pot on the deck), use it! The colour contrast is too pretty to pass up.

You can use gluten free pasta for a gluten free version if you’d like, It’s actually what I used in this recipe – I used this amaranth and rice spaghetti and it turned out perfectly. Though a good quality durum wheat spaghetti (or linguine / fettucine) would be dreamy.

The cashew parmesan is essentially the same as the one from the Oh She Glows cookbook by Angela Liddon, and It’s delicious. I use it on everything (thanks Angela!). I always make a double batch so that I can use as much as I want on my pasta and still have enough left to sprinkle on top of other dishes in the week (it should last about 2 weeks in the fridge).

Avocado Cream Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes + Cashew Parmesan {vegan, GF}

vegan, dairy free, egg free, soy free, gf option

A simple and satisfying weeknight pasta dish – with a creamy avocado and cashew based sauce, the last of the summer cherry tomatoes and a healthy sprinkle of vegan cashew parmesan. For a gf option just sub in gf pasta!

Servings 4

Ingredients

parmesan

• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp miso paste
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

sauce

• 1 large ripe avocado flesh scooped
• 1 cup raw cashews soaked overnight in cold water or for about 2 hours in boiled water
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• juice of about 1 medium – large lemon or to taste
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp white miso optional – for extra cheesy flavour
• 2 medium garlic cloves peeled
• 1 tsp fine sea salt + more to taste
• roughly 10 – 15 grinds of a pepper mill

serve

• 500 g spaghetti / linguine / fettucine use gluten free pasta if gf
• 500 g / about 3 cups cherry tomatoes halved
• small bunch of purple basil / regular basil leaves finely sliced (reserve a small handful for the top of the pasta)
• sea salt & cracked black pepper
• quality olive oil
• aleppo pepper flakes optional

Instructions

parmesan

• Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and process on high until the mix is fine and crumbly/powdery. Place in a sealed jar and keep in the fridge until you are ready to eat.*

pasta

• Drain and rinse the cashews, then place in the blender with all of the other ingredients. Blend on high until creamy, smooth and emulsified, about 1 minute or so (try not to over blend as the olive oil may become bitter). Taste and add more lemon / salt / pepper if you feel it needs it. Keep the blender covered while you cook the pasta.
• Cook the spaghetti in well salted boiling water until al dente, then drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to thin the avo sauce later. Place the spaghetti back in the cooking pot (heat turned off), and pour most of the sauce into the pot along with the halved cherry tomatoes and most of the basil. Toss together until the pasta is well coated. Now taste and add more sauce if you feel it needs it, and/or a little reserved pasta water to thin it out and keep the sauce silky.
• Twirl big mounds of pasta into bowls and top with a generous sprinkling of cashew parm, the reserved basil, a few cracks of pepper, a little drizzle of quality olive oil and a tiny sprinkle of flaky sea salt. If you're feeling it, a little sprinkle of aleppo pepper flakes would not go astray! Serve with more cashew parm at the table. Eat asap.