Vegan Farmer’s Market Pasta Alfredo
This flavorful vegan pasta alfredo is packed with nutrients from all the fresh farmer's market produce. The blackening spice adds a ton of flavor and a wonderful contrast to the creamy, cheesy sauce.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 521kcal
Ingredients
- 1 box Chickapea Pasta shells
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 carrots
- 2-3 cups fresh green beans
- 1 sweet corn
- 4 mini bell peppers
- 1/4 cup parsley finely chopped
- 1/4 cup pecans chopped
- lemon slices optional
Alfredo Sauce
- 1/3 cup cashews soaked overnight
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cauliflower ~1 pound/ .5 kg
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast*
- 1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 lemon, juiced (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
Blackening Spice
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- cayenne to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Soak cashews overnight. If you don't have time for this step, boil water, pour over the cashews, and let soak for 1 hour.
- Mix together spices in the blackening seasoning, and set aside.
- Add olive oil to a large frying pan, and heat over medium high heat.
- Roughly chop garlic and onion, and saute for 5-7 minutes. allowing to soften but not to brown. If your onions and garlic brown, your sauce will have a brown tint to it.
- Roughly chop cauliflower, and add it to the frying pan, along with 1 1/2 cups of water. Cover the pan, and reduce heat to just below medium, and allow to steam for 15 minutes (check after 10 minutes to make sure water hasn't boiled out. Add more if necessary to keep veggies from browning).
- Add soaked and drained cashews, and onion/cauliflower mixture to a blender. Add the rest of the sauce seasonings, starting with 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Blend on high speed for 2-3 minutes to allow sauce to become very creamy. Taste, and adjust salt and yeast. In order for it to give the pasta a really cheesy flavor, you want to sauce to be saltier and stronger in flavor, so even if the sauce tastes fine, you will want to salt it a bit more than you would something you would eat plain.
- Set alfredo sauce aside.
- Boil water, and cook Chickapea pasta per package directions. I recommend boiling for only 5-7 minutes until it's al dente, because it's texture is most similar to regular pasta at this stage.
- In a large skillet, add olive oil, and heat to medium high heat. Add carrots, and season heavily. Saute a few minutes until the carrots have softened, and then add the other veggies, seasoning those as well.
- When the veggies are done to your liking, add the alfredo sauce to the pasta, and serve the pasta topped with the blackened veggies, and garnished with parsley, pecans, and lemon slices.
Notes
*I found that 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast adds the most cheesy flavor and makes the sauce the most similar to a traditional alfredo sauce-- however, the kids preferred the sauce when it was made with only 1 tablespoon of yeast. Experiment, and use what your family likes the best!
Nutrition
Calories: 521kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 1412mg | Potassium: 792mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin C: 66.2mg | Calcium: 132mg | Iron: 6.2mg