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Spinach Penne with Red Bell peppers Spinach Penne is a creamy, filling and vegan pasta dish.
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Meatless monday or any weeknight quick fix! Powder some cashews, mix in with water, salt, roasted garlic, chipotle habanero sauce. Get your pasta ready. Stir fry some veggies, toss in the pasta and sauce, cook for 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens. done! You can call this alfredo-ish sauce if you add some nutritional yeast for the cheesy flavor. Easily made gf too. The cashew cream makes this very filling.
In case you missed the homemade, not store bought, Doritos Spice in this Quick Pasta dish.. you should try it for another fun weeknight meal!
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Dont like pasta, Add the veggies and cream to some cooked whole grain like Quinoa, barley, wheat berry!
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Its one of those days when I dont want to take 100 pictures and edit them! I’d much rather spend time in the kitchen and keep cooking/baking and of course eating. Instead of thinking up compositions, lighting, photographing the result and then editing the whole bunch.Â
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Spinach Penne with Red Bell peppers, Cherry tomatoes in Chipotle Habanero garlicky Cashew cream sauce. vegan
A creamy, filling and vegan pasta dish
Ingredients Â
For the sauce:
- 1/4 cup raw cashews powdered
- 1/2 cup water
- 5-6 garlic cloves
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Chipotle Habanero Hot sauce or to taste, I used Melinda's Chipotle Hot sauce, start with 1 tsp and add more 🙂
- Or 1 chipotle pepper and 1/2+ teaspoon plain habanero sauce or any hot sauce.
Pasta:
- 1 teaspoon organic canola oil
- 1 cup veggies, we uses some sliced up Red and Green bell peppers and cherry tomatoes
- 1.5 cups whole grain Spinach Penne
Toppings:
- 1/3 cup Cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- nutritional yeast, optional
InstructionsÂ
- In a large pan, add the oil and heat on medium. Add garlic cloves, stir and cook till they are golden 2-3 minutes, or use roasted garlic cloves and continue to the blend step.
- In a blender, add powdered cashew, roasted or golden garlic, water, salt, chipotle hot sauce(or chipotle peppers and hot sauce) and blend until smooth.(It will be a thin cream)
- Prepare pasta according to instructions. Reserve some of the water.
- In the pan with the oil, add sliced/chopped veggies. We used sliced red and green bell peppers and a few cherry tomatoes. Cook on medium till the veggies are half done.( 3-4 minutes).
- For Oil-free version, saute the veggies in water or vegetable broth.
- Add the pasta and cashew cream, mix well and cook on low until the cream starts to bubble and thicken.
- The cream will start thickening very quickly after this point.
- Taste and adjust salt and spices. Add a few Tablespoons of the pasta water to adjust sauce if needed.
- Take off heat.
- Serve hot topped with halved cherry tomatoes, some dried basil and nutritional yeast sprinkle.
Notes
Nutritional values are based on one serving
Nutrition
Calories: 711kcal, Carbohydrates: 116g, Protein: 28g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Sodium: 508mg, Potassium: 982mg, Fiber: 9g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 9485IU, Vitamin C: 38mg, Calcium: 136mg, Iron: 8.6mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this recipe? Rate and comment below!
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This pasta is heading to Slighlty Indulgent Tuesdays, Hearth and soul blog hop, Allergry Free Wednesday, Ricki’s Wellness Weekend.
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On this delicious note, a must read “Clean your plate and save the world“
An estimated 30 percent to 50 percent of the food produced in the world goes uneaten.
The average American throws away 33 pounds of food each month. about a 5000$ per year.
33 million tons of food waste hit landfills and incinerators in 2010.
Eat small portions. Finish your food! Find ways to use up leftovers.
Growing up in a middle class household in India, we always knew the value of food, money, what we have and how to reuse, recycle, use, finish, what we use or eat. Throwing away is frowned upon. It is one of the lessons which takes a back seat as soon as you land into the consumeristic, everything more than needed kind of outlook. Eventually though, the good old lessons learnt while growing up, work best whether it comes to food or anything else in life.
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You are being modest Richa..your pictures are gorgeous..too beautiful, and you should start writing photography tips.
And this pasta looks too good, love the cherry tomatoes, and cashew cream is a brilliant idea.
Thank you Raji. I am still quite far away from photography tips.. i hardly know enough about photography jargon and camera adjustments.:)
awesome pasta
The pasta looks fantastic i love the idea of cashews in the sauce. And the cherry tomatoes are wonderful on the pasta too!!
wow!! looks so creamy.
Lovely recipe…Going to try it very soon…
First, I agree with Isobelle. Your food photography is lovely! Second, this dish looks so amazing! Cashews can do anything, and I don’t use them for savory sauces nearly enough. This must change. Finally, you’re so right about being diligent about not wasting food. I’ve become a lot more conscious of that over the years. I try to repurpose my leftovers in new and interesting ways, so that it feels like a new meal, even when I’m using up scraps.
Thank you Cadry!:) I love adding cashew cream to a lot of savory dishes. they make for a great sub for regular cream in indian curries too.
Thats a great idea. Thats what mom used to do as well. use up veggies to make burgers or fillings for flatbread and such to refresh the leftovers!
Yummy ……….and perfect….. !!!!!!
Love these kind of quick fix pastas for dinner.. Healthy and filling!
Serve It – Stir Fried
Whatttt? You are an amazing food photographer, Richa! I am always amazed at how crisp and clean your photos look. It makes the food seem that more yummy (not that it doesn’t already look yummy enough, because it does).
This alfredo sauce sounds delicious, too! I guess I don’t really eat pasta (gf pasta for me) but I see it around in the gf section at the grocery stores. I think I’m just scared of the carbs 😀
Thanks Isobelle, that is all the hard work.. taking 100s of pictures, sorting thru them, editing them.. etc etc. It will be so much simpler if i can take 10 pictures and they dont need editing to look this good:)
You can put the veggies and cream over some cooked quinoa;)
I would probably leave out the peppers since I am not a fan of spicy foods, but a garlic cashew sauce sounds so wonderful!
Thanks Shannon.. yes garlicky cashew cream is a fave here too!