Creamy Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pasta – One Pot Meals Series

This whole food plant-based cashew-based vegan roasted red pepper pasta sauce recipe will have your carnivores coming back for seconds. Learn how to make this vegan creamy roasted red pepper sauce in thirty minutes or less.

What’s in the roasted red pepper recipe?

Cashew Cream

There are plenty of good recipes for cashew cream, but you can refer to my Vegan Pimento Cheese Spread Recipe for more explicit instructions. Generally, you want to have soaked cashews blended with salt and nutritional yeast. We’ll walk you through how to make this in the recipe described below. 

Roasted Red Peppers

Roasted red peppers add a bit of flavor and color to any dish. Many chefs and bloggers tend to roast their own red peppers, but for the sake of time in this recipe, we are using jarred roasted red peppers. I find that the extra water helps develop the texture and flavor of the sauce. 

Roasted Garlic

Roasted garlic adds an extra layer of depth to any dish. Roasting garlic is very easy to do ahead of time – cut the top off of a head of garlic, wrap it in foil, and douse with olive oil. You can let it sit in the oven for 30 minutes at 400F or until tender. The garlic should be soft and fragrant when it’s finished.

Roasted garlic will permeate the air and leave your mouth watering. It’s an ingredient that easily integrates into any dish and part of your meal prep. If you don’t have time to do this, simply sauté garlic before adding the pasta back in the pot. If you have the time, we definitely recommend this step.

Pasta

While you can use any pasta here, I prefer a short texture like penne, or in this case, we used Campanelle, a cone-shaped pasta with a ruffled edge. It’s intended to be used in a thick sauce, like this creamy vegan roasted red pepper sauce. 

Sustaining you and the planet

This recipe is a great way to indulge with the planet in mind. In most instances, creamy pasta dishes, specifically creamy red sauces, chefs use heavy cream to achieve a creamy, indulgent texture. While heavy cream will make any dish taste delicious, I recently discovered my sensitivity to cream. In addition, heavy cream is high in saturated fats and cholesterol. While dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol are not strongly correlated, there is strong evidence that an increase in saturated fats can raise LDL cholesterol levels, which is the kind that increases your risk for heart disease and stroke.

This recipe for a vegan cashew roasted red pepper sauce delivers the creamy and indulgent texture you’ve been longing for, all while providing protein, good fats, and fiber. 

Food Science Tip:

Save a bit of your pasta water to help the texture and thickness of your sauce. You can also make either the sauce or the pasta ahead of time. I would recommend not storing it for more than two days unless it is cooked first. Raw foods are more likely to experience food spoilage at a faster rate than cooked foods. 

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Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Yields: 5 servings

Recipe How to:

Part 1: Cashew Cream

1. Soak your raw cashews in water for about 8 hours or with boiling water for 15-20 minutes, or until soft
2. Drain your cashews, and place into a blender (You can use an immersion blender here, but a high powered blender like a Vitamix works great)
3. Add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and salt
4. Blend until smooth and creamy
5. Store Refrigerated if making ahead of time.

Part 2:

1. In a bowl or container, add your cashew cream, roasted garlic, and roasted red peppers.
2. Blend together with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy (Don’t forget to scrape the bottom)

Part 3:

1. In a separate pot, cook pasta until al dente. Strain, but reserve 1 cup of pasta water to adjust sauce texture. 
2. Using the pot that was just holding the pasta, sauté onion in olive oil over medium heat
3. Next add the pasta back into the pot,and add the romesco sauce to the dish
4. Mix until well combined, adding pasta water to loosen the sauce as needed
5. Add freshly chopped basil to the dish when it is almost ready to serve.

Recipe Variations:

• If you’re in a pinch, you don’t have to roast the garlic. You can always sauté it with the onion. If you have the time to roast garlic, I highly recommend it.
• If you’re looking to add some more vegetables to the dish, add spinach while the sauce is heating up. The spinach will help add some color and nutrition to the dish.

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