There aren’t many things in life better than a beautiful bowl of pasta. Especially when had with a nice cold glass of white wine, but we’ve been struggling to find that one recipe that really sticks! We’ve tried all sorts of tomato-based sauces, pestos and ragus etc, but we usually get bored and move onto a creating a new recipe, immediately forgetting our old ones! So when I found myself constantly craving this creamy vegan lemon, garlic and asparagus dish almost every week, I knew we were on to a winner!
I’m not sure what the non-vegan Italian version of this would be, perhaps an Alfredo sauce? Either way, it’s totally delicious! The creamy sauce is made from a cashew nut base with lemon juice, fresh garlic, almond milk, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. It’s sooooo moreish I was honestly eating spoonfuls of it straight from the blender! Once this is added to your favourite pasta, it makes for the most warming, comforting, delicious home-cooked meal, that never seems to get old.
This dish also has one of my all-time favourite veggies in it; asparagus! These little gems are not only super delicious when roasted, but are also obviously really good for you too! They’re full of antioxidants, vitamin E, B and K amongst lots of other wonderful nutrients. We love sprinkling a bit of garlic powder over the asparagus before it roasts. It seems to go perfectly with the creamy lemony sauce.
It’s a pretty simple recipe, with only the sauce, some pasta and asparagus making up the whole meal, but it could definitely be jushed up with some extra veggies, garlic bread or a side salad if you wanted to make more of a meal of it! We love having this for dinner on any day of the week and would be more than happy to make this for friends and families on more fancy occasions. It may be simple to make but it tastes as if you’ve put way more time and effort in than you really have, which is what makes this dish so great! You can fool everyone into thinking you’ve spent hours slaving away creating a homemade cheese when really, you whipped the whole thing up in half an hour!
If you like the sound of this creamy vegan lemon, garlic & asparagus pasta you might like our other recipes: vegan carbonara with tofu bacon or easy vegan bolognese sauce.
Creamy Vegan Lemon, Garlic & Asparagus Pasta
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 1 + 1/2 cups cashews
- 2 packs (or 30 heads) of asparagus
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- pinch salt and pepper
- 320 g farfalle (bow pasta)
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Toppings
- big pinch salt & pepper
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 4 lemon wedges
- fresh parsley
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Pour 2 cups of boiling water into a saucepan then turn the hob onto a low heat. Add in the cashews and simmer for 20 minutes. This will soften them so they blend into a nice smooth sauce.
- Place the asparagus on a parchment-lined baking tray, then drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and the garlic powder, then place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. 5 minutes after you’ve put the asparagus in, cook the pasta.
- Once the cashews have softened after 20 minutes, add them to a blender with almond milk and water and blend until smooth. Then add in the nutritional yeast, garlic, salt, pepper & lemon, then blend again until everything has mixed together.
- Add the creamy sauce to the pasta with the asparagus, saving a few tips for the top, then garnish with a wedge of lemon and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.
Notes
If you gave this a go, we’d love to know how you got on! Write a comment, like, or share this recipe with your friends.