Creamy Vegan Chipotle Pasta

This delicious pasta is creamy, smoky, hearty, and full of veggies. It’s inspired by two restaurant dishes, one from Cheesecake Factory and another from a local restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. Both my husband and grandma used to order these dishes regularly and my husband was craving it so I came up with this vegan version so he could have it again. And I know my grandma would love this version, too. 

Ingredients:

For the pasta, you will need:

• olive oil
• red bell pepper
• yellow bell pepper
• asparagus
• yellow onion
• garlic
• frozen peas
• frozen corn
• pasta, such as penne or bow tie
• juice of 1 lime

For the chipotle cream sauce:

• raw cashews
• chipotle peppers in adobo
• vegan chick’n bouillon cube
• salt

For topping:

• cilantro
• lime
• crushed red pepper

Making the Creamy Vegan Chipotle Pasta:

1. Boil pasta water. Heat a large pot of water until boiling. Once boiling, salt water and add pasta according to package directions.
2. Chop the veggies. Chop or julienne the bell peppers, dice the yellow onion, mince the garlic and cut the asparagus into thirds (removing the woody ends first). If you ended up chopping the bell peppers instead of julienne, chop the asparagus so it’s a similar size to keep things uniform.
3. Sauté the veggies. Heat a large saucepan, add olive oil to pan to heat. To pan add chopped onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until it starts to soften. Then add bell peppers to the pan.
4. Meanwhile, prepare sauce. Add cashews, water, chipotle peppers, and salt to a high speed blender and blend well. Set aside.
5. Add the rest if the veggies. Back to the veggies, once the bell peppers have started to soften, add the garlic and asparagus. You want to add the asparagus last as you don’t want to overcook it, you still want some bite to it. Once the veggies are cooked, add the sauce from the blender and lower heat to a low simmer.
6. Finish the sauce. Put the blender back on the base and add the bouillon cube and 1 ½ cups of water, blend well. Add broth mixture to sauce pan. Check seasoning, add more salt if needed.
7. Once pasta is cooked, reserve some pasta water then drain pasta well.
8. Add cooked pasta to the sauce pan and stir to incorporate. If the sauce if thick, add some reserved pasta water to thin. Finish off with the juice of 1 lime.
9. Finally, plate pasta to serve and garnish with toppings of choice, such as chopped cilantro, more lime, and/or crushed red pepper.
10. Enjoy!

Tips:

-I’ve kept this veg-only but I think some tempeh would be a really hearty addition if you wanted to add a protein

-Save some pasta water when boiling the pasta for the sauce at the end to help thin if needed

-For more spice add more chipotle peppers and/or adobo sauce

Recipe:

Recipe