Taking a spin on one of my favorite Italian dishes – traditionally made with generous amounts of butter, heavy cream and parmesan cheese. This recipe is one of the many tributes to Mr. Alfredo who invented this revolutionary dish in Rome in the 1920s – thank you for tantalizing our taste buds for almost 100 years!
This recipe is vegan (no animal products) and uses ingredients that I myself wasn’t too sure about (soaked cashews – weird?). But, it is absolutely going on my favourites list! When choosing which pasta to use for this recipe, I took a look in my pantry and found a box of whole grain angel hair spelt pasta that had been there for quite some time. And what a mistake that was! Turns out the pasta is absolutely delicious (and nutritious) and went perfectly with the creamy pumpkin sauce! Spelt is an ancient whole grain that is high in fibre, making this pasta a healthy grounded-approved choice! For those following a gluten-free diet, be aware that spelt is a cousin of wheat and does contains gluten.
Usually I prefer a very saucy pasta, but because this one is quite creamy, I enjoyed it with a modest amount of sauce (at least in my opinion).
FYI the raw rosemary leaves are edible although I am using them more for decoration since I find them a little strong that way. Another decorative idea is to make spiders out of black olives to make it extra Halloween friendly when combining it with this pumpkin sauce.
Oh and one thing you can do in this recipe instead of soaking the cashews overnight is boiling them until they are tender!
Pumpkin Vegan Alfredo Recipe
Serves: 4
Ingredients
8 oz. whole grain pasta, uncooked (try spelt!)
1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight or boiled*
1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
¾ cup pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
Nutritional yeast (optional)
Directions
- Cook the pasta according to directions on the package
- Drain the cashews from the soaking water or boil them*. Add the soaked cashews and ½ cup of vegetable broth to a food processor and process until smooth
- Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds, and then add the rosemary and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Add the remaining broth, cashew and broth mixture, pumpkin and spices to the saucepan and mix well. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the sauce to the pasta and stir well.
- Sprinkle nutritional yeast on top for added flavour if you wish! Nutritional yeast tastes similar to a sharp cheddar cheese (without the dairy), which is why it’s so popular in vegan and vegetarian diets. It is a good source of vitamin B12, which may be a nutrient of concern for those following a vegetarian or vegan diet as natural sources of this vitamin are only found in animal foods.
*Boiling cashews is super simple! Place the cashews in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove pot from heat and let soak for 15 minutes, covered.
Let me know how this recipe went and if you plan on making it again!
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