This creamy pesto pasta is my go-to easy recipe for when I want dinner ready in under 15 minutes. This sauce is easy to make, packed with nutrients, oil-free, and absolutely delicious. It comes together in less than 15 minutes and will become one of your new favourite dishes (and likely the best creamy pesto you’ll ever make!).
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups spinach leaves
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 2/3 cup roasted unsalted cashews
- 100g silken tofu
- 1 lemon (about 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup water or oat milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes
- 600-700g gnocchi (or gluten-free gnocchi)
Equipment
- Blender
- Large pot
Instructions
- Boil water for gnocchi.
- Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them each in half.
- In a blender, add the spinach and basil leaves, cashews, silken tofu, juice from 1 lemon, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, water or oat milk and salt. Blend until smooth and creamy, adding a dash more water or oat milk if needed for creaminess.
- Add the gnocchi to the boiled water and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the gnocchi start floating.
- Drain the gnocchi then add them back into the pot and pour the creamy pesto on top. Heat on medium for 2-3 minutes, just to warm up the sauce with the gnocchi.
- Serve with the cherry tomatoes, and enjoy immediately!
Notes
*Depending on the strength of your blender, you may need to soak cashews in boiling water before blending. I find the best blender for cashews is a bullet blender!
*Gnocchi doesn’t save very well for leftovers. If cooking for 1 person, I recommend halving the recipe, or making half of the gnocchi and all of the creamy pesto and saving the remaining half for later.
