Fact: we vegans will find any excuse to get an avocado on their plates.
But this pasta is no gimmick.
The avocado gives our pesto sauce an incredible creamy texture.
It’s fresh, vibrant and super satisfying.
Here are a few things to know:
- The extra virgin olive oil helps to make the pesto sauce extra smooth, but you can simply leave it out if you want a slightly healthier version.
- Simply use gluten-free pasta to make this gluten-free!
- You can also reduce the cost by switching pine-nuts for walnuts or sunflower seeds, or simply use any nuts or seeds you already have at the back of your kitchen cupboards.
Avocado Pesto Pasta 🥑 Our new cookbook ONE POT VEGAN is out now 👉 sovegan.co/onepv
Posted by So Vegan on Monday, 17 August 2020
Avocado Pesto Pasta
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Ingredients
400g pasta / 14.1oz (we use rigatoni)- salt and pepper
- 150g / 5.3oz frozen peas
- 300g / 10.6oz cherry tomatoes
- olive oil
- 2 avocado
- 2 garlic cloves
- 30g / 1oz fresh basil
- 100g / 3.5oz spinach
- 4 tbsp pine nuts
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, plus extra for topping
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lemons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F fan-assisted.
- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. As soon as it’s almost al dente, add the frozen peas and boil for a minute, then drain.
- Meanwhile add the cherry tomatoes to a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper and drizzle over a splash of olive oil. Mix, then roast for 8 minutes.
- Slice the avocados in half, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh. Peel the garlic cloves. Add both to a food processor, along with the fresh basil (discard the stalks), spinach, pine nuts, chilli flakes, 1/2 tsp of salt, a large pinch of pepper and the extra virgin olive oil. Finally add the zest from one of the lemons and the juice from both, then process into a smooth pesto sauce.
- Add the pesto to the drained pasta and peas, followed by the roasted cherry tomatoes. Stir the pesto into the pasta, then serve with extra chilli flakes
7 comments
This looks divine!!!!!
Thanks Mariki 🙂
Made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious…I wouldn’t change a thing!
Ah amazing, thank you Nancy! 🙂
Look great! Do leftovers keep to the next day or does it all need to be eaten at once?
Hey Alex. So the avocado in the sauce will begin to oxidise if left for too long, including in the fridge. TBH this won’t impact the flavour but it won’t look as fresh. Best to be eaten at once or you could reduce the quantities and cook less. Hope that helps 🙂
I like this recipe but it was way too much lemon for me. It was all I could taste. 1 lemon is probably more than enough. I’ll try it with less next time.