Spicy and Creamy Vegan Pasta with Walnut Pesto

Last updated on November 16th, 2020 at 03:34 pm

My favorite day of the week is the day when I get to eat this creamy vegan penne pasta.

And last week that day was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Birthday, Someday, Yesterday, Today. And that’s it…I can’t come up with more _day words right now.

I assume you’re thinking – “Poor girl, she made a whole lot of that pasta and had to eat the leftovers every single day”.

Aeerr! You’re wrong. I am not a girl. Not yet a woman. I am Britney Spears.

And also I didn’t have any leftovers. I just prepared this pasta over and over again every single day, because it was that good. And that quick.

Plus I only had one pot to clean – that’s a BIG BIG BINGO!

And also it made me feel satisfied, but still light – I didn’t need to take a nap, I could walk and talk at the same time and I could even work afterward. How’s that for a change?

It’s a big one.

Normally I can only walk or talk. Imagine if I wanted to chew a gum. That would require some serious focus and quiet sitting time.

I must admit sometimes I did want to take a nap and just crawl inside this creamy vegan pasta – sleep in the smell of garlic and basil while creamy walnut pesto was hugging me tight and telling me that everything will be just fine.

Now I understand why they call it comfort food.

HEALTH AND BEAUTY BENEFITS

This heavenly creamy vegan pasta is good for you, can you believe?

You might be wondering in what universe would pasta ever be good for your skin or anybody’s skin?

Well in this universe.

With this pasta.

And here are a few reasons why:

• it’s whole grain pasta – so colon cleaning fiber is again on duty
• we’ve got tomatoes in 3 different forms – fresh, dried and paste – with powerful antioxidant Lycopene guarding you from wrinkles and taking care of healthy complexion
• walnuts with essential Omega-3 fatty acids reducing inflammation and bringing moisture to your skin
• broccoli with detoxifying and anti-cancer glucosinolates
• last but so not least – garlic with Allicin just waiting there to kick some evil butt – it fights bacteria, inflammation, high blood pressure, cancer, hair loss, snobby people with sensitive noses, vampires and a lot more.

So yeah. It doesn’t get better than that.

And of course as always – together these ingredients make an even more powerful guardian of your skin potentiating each others health effects.

I know now you’re convinced, BUT DON’T RUB THAT PASTA ON YOUR FACE! You can simply devour it as I did.

Brought to you by: your circulation.

Hehe, you know how they say brought to you by? No?

But it’s the same with the nutrients for the skin – they’re brought to the skin by the circulation…

Yeah, I’m the weirdo.

NOTE: I didn’t blend the walnuts when I prepared the recipe when I took the pictures, so the pesto was kinda chunky and funky. But I have a good excuse for that – I was in a huge hurry, since I had only 1 hour of sunshine to shoot. At least it feels like it – I bet it was about 2.

Yield: 3-4 servings

CREAMY VEGAN PASTA WITH WALNUT PESTO

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An easy vegan dinner - creamy and delicious healthy pasta recipe with homemade red pesto

Inactive Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

PESTO

• ½ cup walnuts
• 1/3-1/2 cup (handful) basil leaves
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp chilli
• 3 dried tomatoes

PASTA

• 200 g whole grain penne
• ½ cup hazelnut milk
• 5-10 olives – chopped
• artichoke hearts from a glass (optional)
• 2-3 florets broccoli (2-3 florets chopped)
• 2-3 cherry tomatoes

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to label instructions.
2. In the meantime prepare pesto – first blend the walnuts in your (or someone else’s) food processor, then add the other pesto ingredients and blend until smooth.
3. Chop broccoli, olives, halve cherry tomatoes and if you want artichokes – if you don’t have any, just leave them out.
4. Remove the water from the pasta and in the pot add hazelnut milk and pesto. Mix well until pasta is well covered in that heavenly sauce, stir the whole time. Add olives, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, artichokes and turn off heat. Stir well, serve and enjoy.

I really hope you enjoy this delicious vegan pasta! If you did, make sure to share the recipe with a friend and subscribe below for more healthy recipes + health and fitness stuff!