I’ve been meaning to share this recipe for a while since going dairy free. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long, but now those of you who don’t follow my food blog can now get the best pasta idea ever.
This came about because I went dairy free for a while but still had a ton of pasta around that I wanted to eat. Luckily around the same time I saw a recipe on Oh She Glows for creamy avocado pasta. I took that recipe and ran with it, changing it a bit and perfecting it to my personal liking. Now I have something that I love, love, love and want to share with all of you.
Creamy Avocado and Spinach Pasta Recipe
Inspired by Oh She Glows and My Recipe.org.
Yield: Serves 2
Creamy Avocado and Spinach Pasta Ingredients:
- 1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup Fresh Basil
- 1 cup baby spinach
- protein choice optional (chicken, black beans, etc)
- 2 servings/6 oz of your choice of pasta
- 1/4 cup pasta water
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Creamy Avocado and Spinach Pasta Directions:
- Bring several cups of water to a boil, reduce heat, cook pasta about 8-10 minutes.
- To make the sauce place the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor and process until smooth. (I used the Cuisinart 9-Cup Food Processor.)
- Add avocado and salt to the mixture and process until smooth and creamy.
- Add basil and spinach to the food processor. Process until smooth and mostly blended. It will be really green!
- Add 1/4 cup of pasta water to the sauce mixture after the pasta has been cooked.
- Drain and rinse pasta in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour in the sauce and toss. Add protein choice if desired.
Serve immediately and ENJOY.
Creamy Avocado and Spinach Pasta
I love, love, love this pasta combination. It’s honestly the best thing I make in my food processor. (Side note: I looooove having a food processor! It’s probably my favorite kitchen appliance because it allows me to make so many extra things from home that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to make.)
I’ve eaten this creamy avocado sauce made in the food processor with spinach fettuccine, gluten free pasta, and others and it’s always good. It makes me love any kind of pasta. It’s also a great base to add anything to it if you want. I’ve had it plain, with chicken, with kidney beans, with black beans – every option so far has been delicious.
It’s hard to explain how much I love it. But you know if it’s on this part of the blog it’s GOOD. I use my food blog for experimenting and tracking, so when food ideas cross over to here it means you need to try them. Because they are the best of the best. And if you have cut out dairy or are cutting back then this recipe will give you creamy, delicious pasta without the milk. It’s fully of natural, healthy goodness and it tastes great. Win!
Enjoy my friends!
That looks delicious. I am definitely making that the very next time I buy avocado. Looks pesto-y, too. Sounds like a winner. :)
Yeah it’s like avocado pesto almost. Magical!
I made my own variation on this about a week after you posted it to the food blog. It was yummy! I added crumbled feta, spinach and red pepper to it. It didn’t smell great when I heated up the leftovers at work the next day but I didn’t care! It tasted yummy!
Health aside, traditional white sauces require flour and butter and whisking and this was just so much easier! I’m not a baker so I don’t really keep either of those around much.
Yeah, it doesn’t reheat well. I wouldn’t recommend trying to eat it as leftovers.
It is a super easy sauce to make. I’m glad you liked it!
I forgot to tell you that I added a bit of pasta water as I stirred, to keep the sauce from going all gluey. This made it left-over-able from a texture standpoint (hooray! I need leftovers for lunch at least once a week to keep me from going out and buying lunch). I think it was more the smell that got to my co-workers, not the texture. I never really thought about the SMELL of avocado before because I’ve never eaten it heated up before!
Yeah we add pasta water (step 5). We never really have or eat leftovers so it’s not a big deal that we don’t have them. I’ve never eaten avocado heated up as leftovers though so now I’m kinda curious as to how it smells!
Looks yummy!!
I loveeeeeeee avocado! :))))
Yammi, that looks delicious. I have been slipping back into my dairy life. Not too much, just a little. I will have to try this pasta. It looks so good :)
This is totally something I would eat for a non-raw meal… Yummy! Love the pictures!
ok you had me at the mere sentence ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN HOW MUCH I LOVE IT.
Im in.
Oooh, that looks yummy! Might have to give it a go. I’ll have to put it in the nutritional calculator and see when I can incoporate it in.
Oh my goodness!!! This looks amazing, Thanks for sharing!! Have a great weekend.
looks really good.. this recipe has two of my favorite ingredients avocado and fresh basil :-)