Description
This creamy vegan tomato pasta uses cashews instead of heavy cream and forgoes the booze.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small or 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- One 15-ounce can tomato sauce
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons white miso* (see note below)
- 1 pound short pasta, like rigatoni or penne
Instructions
- Place 1/2 cup cashews in a blender and add 1 cup boiling water. Soak for at least 30 minutes or up to a few hours.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, chili flakes, and salt, and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Be careful not to brown the onion.
- Add the tomato sauce and black pepper, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce is a bit thickened.
- Meanwhile, add 2 tablespoons miso to the blender. Puree until completely smooth and creamy. Stir the cashew cream into the tomato sauce and turn the heat off.
- Salt the boiling water and cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta-cooking water, then drain the pasta.
- Return the hot drained pasta to the pot, and stir in the creamy tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. (Add more pasta water if a creamier consistency is desired.) Serve immediately.
Notes
Miso lends a salty, savory bite to the sauce. It can technically be subbed with an equal amount of nutritional yeast, though the result won’t be quite the same.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of the recipe
- Calories: 400
- Fat: 11.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 63.6 g
- Fiber: 4.1 g
- Protein: 12.5 g
