Quick Pasta with Vegan Ricotta and Asparagus
Pasta with sauce works any time of day and any time of year. When the first warm rays of spring sunshine show up though, who really wants to spend hours at the stove cooking a big, comforting Bolognese? Sure, we like doing that too, but spring just calls for a light, fresh pasta sauce – this time made with vegan ricotta from cashews. No vegan cream or other substitute products needed. Because pale pasta with a pale sauce might not look super cheerful on your plate yet, we grabbed the ultimate spring vegetable and piled grilled green asparagus on top of our pasta.
How do you make vegan ricotta?
Ricotta is actually a type of cream cheese that I remember as always being very creamy but still a bit chunky. I didn’t eat it very often, so it’s actually quite hard for me to recall the exact taste. But that’s obviously not going to stop us.
We’ve updated this recipe so the finished dish lands on your table even faster now. Instead of soaking the cashews, we cook them. That gets us to the texture we want much quicker, and you don’t have to remember to soak the nuts in advance. Then you can blend them into a lovely, creamy mixture that’s slightly chunky and actually comes quite close to the texture of ricotta. We add nutritional yeast, garlic, and a bit of lemon to bring the flavor closer to cream cheese as well.
Fancy more vegan spring recipes?
There really isn’t much more to say, because this recipe is super simple and quick to prepare. It’s perfect if you don’t want to lose any time and would rather go out and enjoy the good weather.
If you do feel like spending more time in the kitchen this spring, we’re obviously not going to stop you, instead we have some more recipes for you like this vegan quiche with peas, spinach and herbs or a vegan salmon tofu with asparagus. Have fun cooking!
Quick Pasta with Vegan Ricotta and Asparagus
Ingredients
For the vegan ricotta:
- 250 g (0.5 lb / 1.7 cups) cashews
- 1 lemon (juice)
- 80 ml (0.3 cup) water
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 clove garlic
- salt
- pepper
For the pasta:
- 500 g (1 lb) green asparagus
- 500 g (1 lb) tagliatelle (or other wide pasta)
- 10 g (0.3 oz) fresh parsley
- vegan parmesan
- salt
- pepper
- vegetable oil
Instructions
For the cashew ricotta, cook the cashews in plenty of water for approximately 10 minutes.
In the meantime, wash the green asparagus, trim the woody ends, and cut the spears into large pieces. Heat some vegetable oil in a grill pan or frying pan and fry the asparagus for approximately 5–6 minutes until cooked through and lightly browned.
Add the cooked cashews, lemon juice, water, nutritional yeast, and garlic clove to a blender or use an immersion blender to blend everything into a creamy mixture. Add more water if needed until you reach the desired consistency – it should be creamy but still slightly chunky. Then season with salt and pepper to taste and optionally add more nutritional yeast.
Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Before draining, scoop out approximately 250 ml (1 cup) of the cooking water and set aside.
Toss the cooked pasta with the cashew ricotta in a large bowl. Add as much cooking water as needed until the sauce becomes slightly silky and coats the pasta. Serve with vegan parmesan, fresh parsley, and the grilled asparagus.
