You may remember, way back on June 12th of 2014, I started a stupid, difficult, overwhelming, wonderfully, brilliant challenge. I decided that in 1 year I would post 100 recipes featuring 100 new ingredients. The 1/100/100 challenge. So here I stand and say sit and type, I have officially written 50 vegan recipes featuring 50 different ingredients, and now I have 50 more to go.
Well that’s very good news, right!? The bad news is I only have exactly 100 days left. Heart attack! Where did the last 265 days of precious cooking time go? Moving twice, my job, and dreading going out into the well below freezing temperatures might have something to do with it. But alas, never fear! I promise you 50 more vegan recipes that you can brag about cook for all your friends who think vegan food is gross.
Let’s celebrate with a big glass of wine and a giant bowl of Creamy Vegan Sun-dried Tomato Pasta. Omnomnom.
Wait, there is no wine in the house, damn you freezing rain for keeping me away from the wine store! Ehem, on to the recipe.
If you like creamy, and if you like pasta, you will like this dish. And if you don’t like those things, then you are wrong.
The creaminess comes from a homemade cashew cream, (seriously cashews, what can’t you do!?), toss that with lots of sautéed garlic, chewy and salty sun-dried tomatoes, a big handful of fresh basil, and hot pasta, then say hello to a scrumptious bowl of yum.
All you’re going to do is soak or boil cashews until they are tender, then blend with water until you reach a creamy smooth sauce.
Slice basil, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes.
Sauté the garlic with sun-dried tomatoes until golden and delectable.
Stir in cream, water, tomato paste, and basil, then toss with hot pasta. Easy, peasy, yes pleasey.
If you like creamy, and if you like pasta, you will like this dish. Hot pasta tossed with homemade cashew cream, lots of sautéed garlic, chewy and salty sun-dried tomatoes, and a big handful of fresh basil.
- 450 grams pasta (any shape) (gluten-free if preferred)
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (drained if in oil), sliced
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- Salt & pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta according to the package directions.
To make the cashew cream: Boil the cashews in water for abou 10 minutes until tender and drain. Add the boiled cashews and 1/2 cup fresh water to a blender and blend until completely smooth, stopping to scrape the sides as needed.
To make the sun-dried tomato sauce: Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium. When hot, add the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes and sauté, for 1 - 2 minutes until the garlic is just starting to turn golden.
Reduce heat and stir in the cashew cream, 1 cup of water, tomato paste, and basil. Once hot and bubbling, remove from heat, it will only take a minute or two. Add the hot pasta into the pan with the sauce, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Serve hot.
Nutrition
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Featured ingredient: Sun-dried tomatoes.
Bon Appetegan!
Sam.
Hi Sam! Gotta say that is was really really good. The only change I made was to sub fresh spinach for the basil. Next time I think I’ll resuscitate my dried shiitake mushrooms and add them in. Mmm!
Hey! Newbie vegan here – I can’t wait to make this later in the week. I picked up all the ingredients today but I’m wondering whether the cashews I’ve got are good or not. They are advertised as just “Cashew Kernels” and it doesn’t say that they’ve been roasted.. should I assume they are raw, or do you typically need to buy cashew specifically advertised as raw?
Thanks!!
My brother moved in with me and my husband this year, and we find ourselves cooking more and more plant-based dishes since he’s vegan. I had half a jar of sun dried tomatoes leftover from a spinach orzo salad we made, and this recipe was the perfect solution to my weeknight meal conundrum. It’s so lovely and simple! I cooked a minced shallot down in oil before adding the tomatoes and garlic (I used the oil from the tomatoes), and subbed dry basil for fresh since it’s what I had on hand. I added some lemon juice to the cashew cream for brightness and topped the dish with fresh spinach. I also used pasta water for my cashew cream and for the final cup at the end. Amazing! Will definitely make again. Thanks for your recipes and your cheer!
So happy you enjoyed!!
I usually don’t comment, but this dish I had too. This was so comforting and heavenly! I ate this 3 times in 2 days. I added sautéed mushrooms and spinach. DELISH!! thank you!
Haha! Well, thank you so much for commenting, Hang! Thrilled you enjoyed it so much 🙂
I added 1 can of navy beans (1.5 cups cooked) and a little extra water to the cream sauce for protein, and it as delightful! Thanks for a great recipe!
So happy you enjoyed it, Tara 🙂
Made this last night…it was a smash hit! Thanks for the boiling vs. soaking idea – really made the cream creamier. Can’t wait to make this again.
Yay!! So happy you loved it, Karen 🙂
Dang, this recipe is amazing! It tastes so rich and decadent! We had it for Valentine’s dinner served over cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe’s. We also added diced Field Roast Italian sausage.
That sounds amazing! So happy you loved it 🙂
ANOTHER winner Sam!!!! I added some spinach since it’s winter and I didn’t have any fresh basil and it was DELICIOUS! Will definitely be making this again. You are a genius!
YAY!!! Delighted you are enjoying so many recipes, Michelle 🙂
I’m so glad I made your recipe; my husband and I both loved it! Within the reviews, I read that someone had forgotten to reserve one cup of the pasta water; to ensure I wouldn’t miss this step, I placed my one cup measuring cup inside the colander. My husband and I recently began following a whole-food plant-based lifestyle. Since then, I’ve been searching for healthy delicious recipes with ingredients that we normally have on hand; this recipe fit the bill on this football Sunday. My husband voted to include your recipe into our rotation. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome recipe!
Wonderful!!! Thrilled you and your husband enjoyed it so much 🙂
Pre-vegan, one of my fav dishes was pasta in Cardinale sauce – this is an awesome sub! Can’t stop eating it. Thanks!
Wonderful! So happy you enjoyed it, kerry!
This turned out amazing! This is the third time I’ve tried using cashews as a cream base but this is the first time I really felt satisfied with the results. I think the boiling step is what made the difference – way more effective than soaking, in my experience. Thanks for the great recipe!
That’s wonderful! Thrilled you enjoyed it so much, Carolyn 🙂
Made this tonight for the first time and thought it was great. I used zoodles instead of pasta, and also added some spinach. It was just fantastic. What a wonderful change of pace, and how great to have a creamy sauce. On top of all that, I learned the cashew boiling trick!
Wonderful!! Thrilled you enjoyed it so much! Thank you for the comment 🙂
We had this today and it was a big hit. We will definitely make this one many times again in the future. We used smoked sun dried tomatoes since that is what we had and that worked really well with this recipe. 🙂
Oh awesome those sound delicious!! Thrilled you enjoyed the recipe so much 🙂
This is one of my favorite recipes now–I’ve made it multiple times since I tried it for the first time last month. Thanks!!
That’s awesome! Thrilled you enjoy it so much, Penny 🙂
This was amazing!!! My boyfriend loved it and he is picky when it comes to vegan dishes! I doubled the recipe and it was delicious!
That’s awesome! Thrilled you both loved it so much, Jenna 🙂
I blended it in a blender, all of it because I know my husband wouldn’t like pieces of tomatoes. It was AMAZING and we all loved it. It reminds me of a rosee sauce 🙂
Wonderful! So happy you enjoyed it! I do have a vegan rose sauce in my cookbook too if that interests you 🙂
can you use sundried tomatoe in oil instead of dry?
For sure!
My family is fairly new to the vegan world and I’m so glad I came across these recipes! I made this one tonight and everyone loved it! Someone asked me how we can be vegan. I sent them the link to this recipe. THIS and these easy recipes are how we can be vegan.
Woohoo!! So happy you loved the recipe and that my recipes are helping people to go vegan 🙂
This recipe is so delicious and easy to make! I made it with gluten-free penne and it was divine. Seriously this recipe hits every note; creamy sauce, tons of fresh, sweet basil, and chewy, umami-flavored sun-dried tomatoes– it’s like the taste of summer in your mouth with the warm comfort of a humble pasta dish. I wish I made this recipe sooner but I hesitated thinking that I might not like the taste of the sun-dried tomatoes. Rather than hijacking the taste of this dish, the tomatoes cheer it up with every bite bursting with flavor!
Wow! Your description is so good it makes me want to jump back in the kitchen and make this all over again!! Thank you so much for the lovely comment, Rebecca!
My pleasure. You inspire me! Keep the recipes coming and I’ll keep reviewing. You deserve recognition for your hard work 🙂
Aww thank you 🙂
I am super allergic to cashews. What could I use as a substitute?
BLanched almonds or macadamias should make a similar result. Enjoy!
Does this stay good for leftovers? Or should I keep the sauce and pasta seperate?
It does, but it might dry out a little bit. Just splash a little water in the pasta when warming it up. Enjoy!
Hi there. I really want to try this, but I can only find semi-dried tomatoes! Do you think it’ll work? They’re dry and not packed in oil. But they’re not as dry as normal sundried tomatoes.
Disregard. I tried it with the semi-dried tomatoes and it was DELICIOUS! Will for sure be making this many times. Thank you! I added some chilli flakes too which was really nice.
Yay! So happy it worked out for you, and better yet, that you love it 😀
You hit one out of the ball park with this one. I loved it. My only complaint is that I had to share it with my kids. Next time I will triple the recipe so there will be enough leftovers for me to have two meals off of it.
Hahahaha!! Love it! Thanks so much Luanna. So happy you and your kids loved it… even if you did have to share 😉
I can’t wait to make this! I’m grabbing everything I need on my way home from work so I can have everything on standby for whenever we need a quick dinner over the long weekend we have in the U.S. I liked someone’s idea about adding peas so i’ll probably throw some in. Is it weird that I have the desire to add some nutritional yeast too? I’m obsessed with the stuff! It seems like the sauce along with some vegan bacon would make a great vegan Pasta Carbonara too! So many exclamation points! Will be sure to let you know how it turns out, can’t wait for your cookbook Sam 🙂
Haha! Nutritional yeast, peas, and vegan bacon would be awesome additions!! Go nuts with this one. It’s basically just a lovely cream sauce, so there is a lot of room to play around and add in any veggies you like. Enjoy! (And I can’t wait for my cookbook either)!
This dish is a staple in our house. We love it!
Yay! That’s awesome. It’s one of my favourites too. So simple and creamy.
All the creaminess and texture of an Alfredo style dish, all the wonderful flavors, but now I’m left with all the time I don’t need to spend working off all the calories of a typical dish!!! What will I do? Oh, how about spend my time cooking up yet another one of your great dishes! We just LOVED this recipe and it was so easy to prepare. No creme, no cheese, no problem! ….and so much better for you. Now comes the hard part – would love to cook it again tonight – but there are just too many wonderful dishes here to explore! Oh my, what’s happening to me….I’m really not vegan! 🙂
Muhahaha, my evil plan is working! Wooing you to the veg side one scrumptious dish at a time. Haha! So very happy you loved this recipe so much too Dan! 🙂
This is an excellent vegan rendition of a typical dairy based pasta sauce. The flavors were wonderful and I’m looking forward to the left overs… probably tomorrow! I commend you for your creative, yet simple menu layout. Thank you! I’m eager to make more recipes you have posted.
Thank you Kristin! So very happy you loved the pasta. I hope you continue to enjoy more recipes 🙂
Hi Sam
I made this for creamy pasta for tea tonight and my family ❤️❤️❤️ it, I also made your creamy celery soup which went down a storm too. I have only been eating a vegan diet for a week but already I am in love with the flavours and the wonderful choices available to me, and on the up side I have lost 4lbs this week. Your blog is amazing, you make it so easy to be vegan, thank you and I can’t wait for your book to be published
Thanks
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Aww shucks! Thanks so much. So very happy you are loving my recipes, and that you are feeling so great! Congrats on your new veganism! Let me know if you have any questions or need any support 🙂
I seriously had to stop myself from eating the entire pot of this! Absolutely delicious!!!
Hahaha!! So happy you loved the recipe Monique 🙂
Your blog is my favorite! Wow. I already ate this tree times since you’ve posted it! it’s SOOOO good!
Awww shucks, thanks Stephanie!! I’m so happy you are loving the recipes. Thanks for brightening my day 😀
I just found this on Pinterest. Your challenge is awesome, I love it! And even though I’m completely raw, this dish looks absolutely amazing. I’ll have to make it for my vegan partner. 😉
Thank you Tiasha!
I really have to get going to finish up this challenge!! I hope your vegan partner likes this dish. I will keep in mind to post more raw recipes 🙂
I just made this and is was FANTASTIC! I had some extra cooked pasta, threw together that sauce added some mushrooms and fell in love. thank you!!!
Oh yay!! Thank you for brightening my day Miranda! You are more than welcome 🙂
This sounds amazing! I made a sun-dried tomato pasta dish myself last weekend, but the creaminess of this one already has me drooling. Tomorrow night for sure. Thank you!
You’re welcome. I hope you love it! I love all things creamy pasta!
Hi Sam, Just t home from the grocery store. This delicious looking pasta will be tonite’s supper. Many thanks! Anne
Yay!! You’re welcome! Enjoy!
Oh, I LOVE pasta (and trying to cut back) and oh, I LOVE cashewy cream … saving for a special occasion! How about a good bean pasta recipe? It is a new ingredient? I’m striving for more bean.
Hmmm… I’ve already done lentils, edamame, and black beans… I wonder what other bean would be awesome….
I could eat five bowls of this right now, ha ha! This looks delicious!
I really don’t think you could if you tried, it is super filling!! haha 😉
All it needs are peas! I don’t know why, but I LOVE peas with cream sauces 🙂
Oh for sure add peas!! That sounds great!