This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Spinach Penne with Red Bell peppers Spinach Penne is a creamy, filling and vegan pasta dish.
Jump to Recipe
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!
Dont like pasta, Add the veggies and cream to some cooked whole grain like Quinoa, barley, wheat berry!
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.
Spinach Penne with Red Bell peppers, Cherry tomatoes in Chipotle Habanero garlicky Cashew cream sauce. vegan
A creamy, filling and vegan pasta dish
Ingredients
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
Instructions
- 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!
This pasta is heading to Slighlty Indulgent Tuesdays, Hearth and soul blog hop, Allergry Free Wednesday, Ricki’s Wellness Weekend.
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.
What is cool about this recipe, it looks like it is a creamy recipe that is unhealthy…..then you read that fantastic recipe!!! It sounds wonderful:-) Gorgeous, Hugs, Terra
Exactly! it looks like its too creamy and heavy.. how am i going to eat it.. but hey its just cashews and even though they are filling, they are not going to give u heartburn!:) Hugs back!
Platter looks delicious,never tried cashew in pasta,..:)
Thank you! you should give it a try.. it will beat the usual cheesy buttery sauce by a mile!
Looks delicious! Using powdered cashews sounds like an awesome time-saving alternative to soaked cashews. Thanks for sharing the idea and fabulous pasta recipe.
yeah.. i made the thandai(almond and cashew drink) with powdered cashews and realized how easy they mix in with water! and the cream cooks up much much faster too!
Richa! You are making me so hungry today, I guess that is what I get for slacking and reading all your posts in one sitting – lessoned learned.
I am SO so hungry I am not even kidding – my tummy is yelling feed me this right this very moment!
Thank you Heather! You can whip it up in 20 mins! so go ahead.. feed your tummy!
I always loved creamy sauces over pasta…. and miss that so much.
I would love to try this cashew creme. thx.
Thanks Ella! Let me know when you try it!
awesome pasta!! i love the addition of the hot sauce!
This recipe look great! I would love it if you linked up this post to my springtime recipes blog hop for a chance to win a “Top Chef” cookbook: https://ow.ly/9Lmwj
what a delicious pasta dish! i love the contrast of green pasta with red tomatoes.
Thank you Caitlin. Yep, and it is quite spicy!
looks super creamy… would love to dig into it! the pics are lovely as usual
the pasta is looking good richa.
your photos are good richa. i know the amount of time we spent of sifting through 100 photos. so i have found a way of taking photos with a dslr and then just selecting what you want. it saves my time too. you can bother me. even though i have a busy life, i can share with you some tricks of the trade.
i never know so much food is wasted in america… and there are people i see that do not even have a morsel of bread to eat… what a world of sadness and contrast 🙁
Thanks Dassana. I will connect with u on fb!:)
Theres just too much wastage because of portion sizes.