Vegan Pasta Alfredo

Before I was vegan, one of my favorite things to eat was pasta with Alfredo sauce. Oh, the creamy goodness of it! This was one thing I just knew I'd miss being vegan.

I did find a vegan Alfredo recipe in a cookbook but it fell far short of the original. It had NUTMEG in it, for goodness sakes! Ewww! I started removing ingredients and working on it and then....

One day while reading a new VegNews, there it was. Amazing Alfredo. It looked delicious! And it was but it still had that pesky nutmeg in the ingredient list. Yuck. I love nutmeg, but never I'm a savory dish. So here is my very simple adaptation of Amazing Alfredo.

Ginger's Vegan Alfredo Sauce

1 cup raw cashews
2 tbsp raw pine nuts
1 to 1 1/4 cups water
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (heaping if you're like me or reduce the amount if you're just not that brave)

In a blender, grind the nuts. Add water and garlic and blend until completely smooth. Taste and add salt and cayenne pepper. Adjust seasonings.

Pour into a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring almost constantly, for 7 minutes.

Cook 1 pound of pasta. I used whole wheat penne. I prefer my Alfredo sauce served with a tube shaped pasta that holds all the yummy sauce. I had also cut up about 3 cups of broccoli florets and had them waiting in the colander. When I drained the pasta over the broccoli, it cooked it just enough to be bright green but it retained some of the crunch. If you like your broccoli softer, add it to the pasta water for about 2-3 minutes before the pasta is done.

Serve with the yummy sauce. Enjoy! I have to admit I love this even more than the "real" Alfredo sauce. So does my 17-year-old daughter.

Spicy Lemon Pepper Pasta with Broccoli

Yesterday I was in WalMart picking up a few things and sent my 15-year-old daughter a text.  "What would you like for dinner?"  The answer?  "The broccoli pasta.  I've been craving it."  Oooookay!  So I sent my 17-year-old daughter off to get the ingredients while I remained in the pharmacy line for about 87 hours.  Okay, just 30 minutes, but it was torture the whole time.

Unfortunately, we were famished and polished off the pasta before I was able to get a picture, but I promise that LoLo's pictures on Vegan YumYum are much better than mine would have been.  Since her recipe is for one and mine was for a family, I'll post my amounts.

• 1 pound fettuccine
• half a bottle or more of julienne sliced sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (I don't drain it - I use that oil for stir-frying the broccoli instead of the olive oil Lolo calls for - I find I use less oil that way and it is more flavorful.)
• two big bunches of broccoli, florets cut into bite sized pieces
• about 2 tsp of red pepper flakes (I don't measure this - I just dump it in.)
• the juice of two large lemons 
• salt (at least 1/2 tsp) and black pepper to taste

Rather than dirty two pots for  this, I simply have all my other ingredients ready and waiting for when the pasta is finished.  I drain it, then add the tomatoes in oil, broccoli, and red pepper flakes to the pasta pot and stir fry it until the broccoli is bright green in color and slightly tender, but still has a little bite to it.  Add the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, then add the pasta back to the pot and toss it all together.  Taste and adjust seasonings.