Pureed cashews make this lighter creamy tomato spinach pasta rich and silky. It will become your go-to vegan pasta sauce, and the recipe makes plenty of extra for leftovers that you can stash in the fridge or freezer.
There’s no shortage of pasta nights at my house especially Monday – Friday when we are all a bit crazy with work and school. Most of the time these meals involve canned tomatoes or lemon and always garlic and olive oil.
Cream sauces aren’t on my list unless they are a healthier version that skips the heavy cream. That’s why I turn to raw cashews, a vegan staple and incredibly versatile ingredient, for the sauce.
Soaking cashews in water and pureeing them into cream is a great way to thicken sauces while getting a boost of protein. You can use them to create a rich plant-based tomato sauce.
The best thing about this creamy tomato sauce recipe is that it incorporates spinach in a way that kids (or picky adults) won’t notice they are getting some greens. And you will end up with leftovers that you can stash in the fridge or freezer.
It is super simple to make cashew cream. You just need raw cashews and water. All you have to do is soak the nuts in a bowl of water for at least 4 hours or overnight. It’s the kind of thing you could set out during breakfast, and then you are ready to make it by dinner.
The cashews will plump up and soften once they have soaked. After that, drain the soaking water and put the nuts in a blender with an equal amount of water as you have nuts (the pre-soaked quantity). In this recipe, it’s 3/4 cup cashews and 3/4 cup water. Puree them and you will quickly end up with white, smooth cashew cream.
If you forget to soak the cashews in advance, you can combine the cashews with water in a small saucepan and bring them to a boil. Take them off the heat and let the nuts sit for 15 minutes, before draining.
This is what you need for the recipe:
The recipe makes about 5 cups of sauce, which is more than enough for a pound of fettuccine. Extra sauce can be kept in the fridge up to 5 days or in the freezer up to 1 month.
When freezing the sauce, I recommend doing it in serving-sized portions rather than all of it in a single container. It will be easier to thaw and you can use it for a single meal rather than eating the same thing on repeat.
The other night I spooned some leftover sauce from the fridge into a bowl. I warmed it with a few blasts of heat in the microwave. This happened while I simmered chickpea pasta on the stove. Finally, I stirred the pasta into the sauce. It could not have been easier
The flavor and silky consistency of the sauce are so good that I guarantee you won’t miss the dairy from heavy cream.
However, I do give you permission to top the pasta with shredded Parmesan if that’s more your speed than nutritional yeast. I get it. No judgment here.
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Pureed cashews make this lighter creamy tomato spinach pasta rich and silky. It will become your go-to vegan pasta sauce.
The recipe makes 5 cups sauce, so you will have extra. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 5 days and in the freezer up to 1 month.
Keywords: creamy tomato pasta, vegan pasta sauce
Yum!! I’m going to try this tonight!!! Do you think i could use chickpeas instead of cashews?
That sounds interesting! I’ve never made a sauce like that with chickpeas. Let me know how it goes.
Can’t wait to try this 😍