Creamy Roasted Veggie Pasta
Prep. Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
1:25 hour
Servings
3-4 plates
Difficulty
Challenging
Soy-Free, Gluten-Free, dairy-free, egg-free
Sometimes pasta just wants to wear a fancier outfit. This one shows up in roasted veggie velvet, with cashews and coconut cream doing their best “we’re totally dairy” impression. The whole thing feels rich, but it’s built on simple tricks: roast a few vegetables you’ve got, let the oven do the heavy lifting, then blitz it all into a sauce so smooth it could pass for Alfredo’s cool vegan cousin. It’s weeknight cooking that looks dressed up for company, but really it’s just you, your blender, and a pot of noodles.
Ingredients
For the Sauce
1 cauliflower head
1 small basket (about 0.5lb/8oz/240g) of cherry tomatoes
1 onion (white or red), sliced
3 garlic cloves
For the Seasoning
1 tsp dry basil
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tbsp silan
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup tap water
For When the Veggies Are Ready
1/2 can lite coconut milk
3.5oz (100g) tomato paste
3.5oz (100g) raw unsalted cashews + boiling water (for soaking)
Pasta of your choice (for a gluten-free recipe, use GF pasta)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 420F (210C).
Boil water, and place the cashews in a small glass bowl. Pour the boiling water onto the cashews, and let it soak until the vegetables are ready, or for at least 20 minutes.
Boil water and pour onto the cashews. Cover the dish and let it sit for at least 20 minutes, or up to 1 day (refrigerated).
In an oven-safe dish, place cauliflower florets, sliced onion, whole peeled garlic cloves and whole cherry tomatoes.
Combine the seasoning ingredients, and drizzle as evenly as possible over the vegetables.
Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove the foil and place the dish back in the oven for 30 more minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta of your choice, and set aside a little cooking water (water from after the pasta is ready), to add it to the sauce later (see why in my notes below).
Take the dish out of the oven and let it cool a little.
In a blender with a steel blade, combine the roasted veggies, coconut milk, tomato paste and soaked cashews, and blend until the resulted sauce is smooth and consistent.
Serve this magnificent sauce with your cooked noodles, or refrigerate up to 3 days.
Notes
Those pasta water work like magic! They are highly starchy and it helps emulsify and thicken sauces to cling better to the noodles.
If needed, silan can be replaced with agava syrup or brown sugar.
The Latest Bite
No-Bake Pistachio Ice Cream Cake
I love ice-cream cakes, and it is so hard to find vegan ones in stores, so I knew at some point I'd want to try and whip a recipe up, but one thing that's always a factor for me is whether or not it'll be a time-consuming project or not. If I need to use my mixer, food processor or oven, it means I need to plan for more dishes and more time spent on this, and that's where I sometimes hold off on exploring and developing new recipes. I was not only aiming for an easy-to-make recipe here, but also one that requires very few ingredients and as allergen-friendly as possible. This makes it a store-in-the-freezer dessert for when I have unexpected guests, or when we are on the road and want an indulgent treat.
Made primarily from raw pistachio butter, coconut cream and almond flour, this easy no-bake cake is elemental and holds texture and flavor impressively. Compliments are guaranteed!