This dairy-free basil pesto pasta is completely plant-based and made cashews for creaminess! This sauce is easy to make, packed with nutrients, oil-free, and absolutely delicious. It comes together in less than 20 minutes and will become one of your new favourite pasta sauces!
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 2 generous handfuls of basil leaves
- 3/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews
- 1 lemon (about 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 3/4 cup oat milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
- 200-250g pasta (or gluten-free pasta)
Equipment
- Blender
- Large pot
Instructions
- Boil water for pasta and cook pasta according to package directions.
- Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them each in half.
- Peel garlic cloves.
- Microwave oat milk in a glass measuring cup or bowl for about 40 seconds on high (the warm milk will make the creamy basil sauce a warmer temperature).
- The sauce will only take a few minutes to prepare, so I recommend blending only a few minutes before the pasta is ready. In a blender, add the basil leaves, cashews, juice from 1 lemon, minced garlic, nutritional yeast, oat milk and salt. Blend until smooth and creamy, adding a dash more oat milk if needed.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain and then mix the creamy sauce into the pasta.
- Mix in about half of the cherry tomatoes, keeping the other half as a topping.
- Enjoy immediately!
Notes
*For a nut-free version of this pesto pasta, substitute sunflower seeds for cashews in the sauce.
*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!
