Quick Pasta with Vegan Ricotta and Asparagus
Pasta with any kind of sauce, as we all know, is a great idea for every day and at any time of the year. But let's be honest, who wants to spend hours cooking a warming bolognese when it's springtime with the first warm rays of sunshine basically begging you to go outside? We admit that we're actually quite happy to do that too, but spring just calls for a bright, fresh pasta sauce, right? So today, we will show you how to prepare a vegan cashew-based ricotta sauce. Since light pasta with a light sauce might not look so cheerful on your plate yet, we grabbed the one and only spring vegetable and quickly mixed grilled green asparagus into our sauce.
As I remember it, ricotta is quite a crumbly cream cheese. I haven’t eaten it often, so it’s difficult for me to recall the taste. But as you know, that does not stop us!
So before you rush into the kitchen, we'll tell you how to make vegan ricotta: If you soak cashews in water long enough, you can blend them to get a great, creamy consistency that's still slightly chunky and comes close to the texture of ricotta. We will add nutritional yeast, garlic, and some lemon to create a taste that is similar to the original cheese.
Well, there’s not much more to say, because this recipe is super simple and quick to prepare – perfect to waste no time and take advantage of the good weather.
But if you do like to cook extensively, we don’t want to stop you and also have recipes for homemade vegan mezzelune or vegan rigatoni al forno on our blog. We hope you enjoy it!
Quick Pasta with Vegan Ricotta and Asparagus
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 500 g (18oz) tagliatelle (or any other long noodles)
- 500 g (18 oz) green asparagus
- 10 g (0.33 oz) fresh parsley
- vegan Parmesan cheese
- salt
- pepper
For the vegan cashew ricotta:
- 250 g (9 oz) cashews (soaked in water for at least 30 minutes)
- 1 lemon (juice)
- 50 ml (0.25 cups) water
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 garlic clove
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
For the cashew ricotta, add soaked cashews, lemon juice, water, nutritional yeast and garlic to a blender or use an immersion blender to mix it until creamy, but still slightly chunky. Add more water as desired until the preferred consistency is reached.Season the generously with salt and pepper to taste and optionally add more nutritional yeast.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. Before draining, reserve about 250 ml (1 cup) of the cooking water and set it aside.
Meanwhile, wash the green asparagus, trim any woody ends and cut the asparagus stalks into bite-sized chunks.
Heat vegetable oil in a (grill) pan and sauté the asparagus for about 5-6 minutes, or until cooked and lightly browned.
Add the cooked pasta and cashew ricotta to a large bowl and toss to coat. Add as much cooking water as needed until the sauce becomes creamy and coats the pasta. Serve with vegan Parmesan cheese, fresh parsley and the grilled asparagus!
