Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta
Creamy, richly flavored butternut squash pasta recipe mixed with roasted garlic and sage. It’s easy to make with simple vegan ingredients.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups pumpkin, peeled and cut into small 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/2 medium red onion, roughly chopped
- 1 small head of garlic
- 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 10 fresh sage leaves, sliced
- I used 16oz pasta, orecchiette
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- Half a bouillon cube or 1 tablespoon of soy sauce or 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or shelf-stable soy milk
- salt and pepper
- Juice of half a lemon
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 425F, then line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut off the top of the head of garlic and add the diced pumpkin, onion, sage, and garlic bulb to the baking sheet. Drizzle and coat your vegetables with olive oil, along with sliced sage, a pinch of salt, and pepper. Drizzle a little olive oil over the diced garlic and then place the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the pumpkin is cooked through.
- Boil a pot of water, salt liberally and cook your pasta according to its package, and set aside 3/4 cup of pasta water for your sauce before draining the pasta and putting it back in the pot.
- Add your sunflower seeds, thyme, roasted garlic cloves, your bouillon cube milk, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 cup of pasta water you have reserved into the blender. Now blend until completely smooth and if too thick add the remaining 1/4 cup of pasta water and mix again.
- Add your sauce to the pot with the pasta, followed by the roasted vegetables and sage along with the lemon juice. Give it a big stir to combine everything and then adjust the salt and pepper to your liking before serving.
NOTES
- Be sure to reserve the pasta water for your sauce. The starch in pasta water does two things. It helps thicken the sauce and also helps the sauce stick to the pasta.
- If you are using soy milk for your plant milk, use shelf-stable unsweetened soy milk. I tried this recipe with the regular refrigerated cartons you see in the store and it has a slightly sweet taste, which I didn’t like at all. The cardboards you find on the shelf don’t have that sweet taste for some reason.
- Boil your pasta in salted water. If you don’t salt your water, your pasta will be bland. The salt will permeate the pasta as it cooks, increasing the overall flavor of the dish.
- I love topping this dish with extra vegan parmesan. It just gives this dish additional depth of flavor and pairs so well with roasted zucchini.
