With the cold season arriving the thing that we must do is strengthen our immune system. Probably you’ll agree that the most popular vitamin, when it comes about strengthening immune system, is vitamin C. In winter it’s quite easy to increase the vitamin C level in our body in a natural way, since winter is the season of oranges, grapefruits, mandarins etc. But why not start to improve your health already before winter? And why not do that with a plate of delicious vegan lemon garlic pasta?
To prepare this dish you’ll only need several ordinary ingredients – lemons, garlic, onions, cashews, parsley and, of course, pasta. An optional ingredient is a small piece of nori sheet, which is the same thing that is used to prepare sushi. But in this case nori sheet should be used only if you wish to add a slight flavor of seafood to your pasta. Otherwise also without the nori sheet this dish is very flavorful. In case you’re aiming for milder flavor, I suggest you to try my crunchy vegan pasta with walnuts. It’s healthy, nutty, but without the zesty flavor given by the lemon in this recipe.
How to prepare vegan lemon garlic pasta
The preparation process itself consists of three simple steps: preparing the creamy sauce; boiling the pasta; mixing sauce and pasta together. To prepare the sauce you’ll need to put in your food processor soaked cashews, lemon juice, lemon zest, cooked onions, cooked garlic, salt and pepper and blend it all together. The thickness of the sauce is up to your choice. You can always adjust it with a small amount of water. At the end mix in chopped parsley and, if used, nori sheet pieces and your sauce is ready! After that you only miss boiling the pasta and mixing it together with the sauce. And then of course the most pleasant thing follows – enjoying this delicious vegan lemon garlic pasta!
Nutritional value of vegan lemon garlic pasta
As I mentioned already in the beginning, this dish can be used to improve your immune system. Mostly because it contains quite a lot of lemon, which is rich in vitamin C. But lemon in this recipe is not the only ingredient that can provide your body with valuable nutrients. Cashews, for example, are a great source of several minerals, like copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc. Besides that, they contain also decent amount of vitamin K. Much bigger amount of vitamin K can be found in parsley. Probably nobody eats big quantities of parsley, but you should definitely add it raw to your food whenever you can. Because, apart from vitamin K, parsley contains also big amount of vitamins C and A. Besides that, if you decide to use nori sheet, you’ll give your body some additional manganese and vitamins A, C and B6.
Even though garlic is definitely one of the healthiest food products in the world, since in this case it’s used cooked, at the end it loses some of the valuable nutrients. But still also cooked onions and garlic can provide you with vitamins and minerals. To make your dish even healthier, always choose whole grain pasta, which is better for your digestive system. And actually, it also tastes better than the regular one! But of course, the choice of pasta is up to you. Another thing that you can choose is the amount of parsley. If it was up to Specky, I’m sure that this recipe would be called “vegan parsley with parsley”, because he absolutely adores its flavor.
Don’t wait until the first viruses start to circulate around. Improve your health and strengthen your immune system already now with this simple pasta dish that is:
-
vegan
- healthy
- filling
- easy to make
- creamy
- refreshing
- pleasantly sour
- full of valuable nutrients
- and simply yummy!
Let me know, if you try this recipe! Leave a comment or even more – make Specky happy! Snap a picture of your masterpiece and post it on Instagram or Facebook by tagging @bunnymommycooks. And feel free to let your animal family members join in the picture!
| Prep Time | 20 min |
| Cook Time | 20 min |
| Servings |
|
- 180 g of whole-grain pasta (I used spaghetti)
- 150 g of cashews
- 1 onion (~165 g)
- 3 cloves of garlic (~18 g)
- 100 ml of lemon juice (from 2 medium size lemons for 2 portions of pasta)
- 1 teaspoon of lemon zest
- 7 g of fresh parsley
- 50 ml (or more, if necessary) of room temperature water for the sauce + around 250 ml of boiling hot water for soaking the cashews
- pinch of salt and pepper
- oil for cooking
- small piece of nori sheet (optional; I used 1/3 of a nori sheet for 2 portions of pasta)
Ingredients
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- put cashews in a heat resistant bowl and cover them with boiling hot water, then set aside for later;
- peel and cut in small pieces onions and garlic cloves. Heat up small amount of oil in a frying pan and put onions and garlic to cook until golden brown – do not forget to mix periodically;
- while onions and garlic are cooking, wash the lemons and grate off a bit of its zest to obtain the necessary amount of lemon zest. Then juice the lemons to obtain the necessary amount of lemon juice;
- chop the parsley in small pieces and, if using nori sheet, either cut it with scissors in tiny pieces or grind it in food processor;
- at this point onions and garlic should be ready, so take them off the flame/heat and put pasta to boil;
- drain the cashews and put them in food processor together with cooked onions and garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Blend everything until you get a thick creamy sauce. To make it more liquid, add water and continue to blend until the desired consistency is obtained;
- transfer the sauce to a bowl, add chopped parsley and, if using, nori sheet pieces and mix everything together. Do some tasting and, if necessary, add extra salt and pepper;
- when pasta is ready, drain it and mix it together with the lemon garlic sauce.
