Pasta With Green Sauce (Vegan)

Last Updated on October 30, 2023

This Pasta With Green Sauce uses few ingredients, full of healthy leafy greens. It’s creamy, filling, and yet, delicious! It only takes less than 15 minutes to put it onto the table!

Pasta With Green Sauce

This pasta dish is my number one go-to when I don’t feel like too much cooking and washing up. The process is so straightforward.

Cook the pasta of choice (I used gluten-free pasta) and stir it through with the homemade kale pesto.

If you want this dish to be more luxurious, add some baby spinach or thinly sliced zucchini and asparagus to the pasta. You’ll then have a healthy pasta dish with an extra nutritional boost.

I love my pasta with green sauce (like this Mediterranean Pasta Salad). They are a fantastic way to eat a lot of fresh greens and nutrients.

The most commonly used pesto is made with Italian basil. But for this dish, I gonna add one more green, my favorite superfood- Kale.

Kale is highly nutritious and associated with several benefits- fiber, antioxidants, calcium, vitamins C and K, iron…etc. It’s perfect to pair with basil and pasta.

Even people who don’t like kale won’t feel like they are eating kale.😁

Ingredients we need

The Green Sauce for pasta only requires a few ingredients. Aside from kale and Italian basil, I added some garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, nutritional yeast, plant-based milk, and maple syrup.

You will need a powerful blender to make the green sauce for pasta effortlessly.

• Pasta of choice– gluten-free, lentil pasta, black bean pasta…etc.

• Kale– Stem removed, washed and air-dried. We only use leaves from kale, otherwise, your pasta will end up very fibrous and look hairy.🤢

• Italian Basil– Stem removed, washed and air-dried.

• Garlic– added depth of flavor to our sauce.

• Pine Nut– You can also use walnut or cashews. If you like nutty flavor, you can light roast the nuts in the oven before using them.

• Nutritional Yeast (Nooch)– it’s a vegan substitute for parmesan cheese. It also gives our pasta the umami flavour.

• Plant-based Milk (unsweetened)– oat milk, soy milk, almond milk, macadamia milk…etc.

• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil– if you’re WFPB, you can skip oil and replace it with pasta cooking liquid.

• Maple Syrup– add a bit sweetness to the sauce.

• Seasonings– salt, and pepper.

How to make Pasta with Green sauce

The whole process is pretty straightforward. The overall workflow is in the picture below:

1.Remove stems from Kale and Italian Basil then wash them and air-dried. Add the ingredients for the sauce (kale and Italian basil leaves, extra-virgin olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, nutritional yeast, maple syrup, salt and pepper) into a high-speed blender.

2. Blending them into a smooth creamy sauce.

3. Bring a large pot of water to boil, and prepare the pasta according to package directions. Make sure to salt your pasta water well then cook your pasta al dente or to your liking. Meanwhile, preserve 2 cups of pasta cooking water for later use.

4. Drain the pasta water. Turn the heat to very low. In the same pot, pour the kale pesto sauce into the pot and add one cup of pasta cooking water first (if you like your sauce thinner, add more).

Toss your cooked pasta with the sauce until coated well, and turn off the heat. Serve immediately when hot. Sprinkle more nutritional yeast on top if you like, some pine nuts and red chili flakes (optional).

Hope you like this easy pasta with green sauce!



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