Spicy Squash Pasta
An amazing creamy and flavourful pasta. This ingenious recipe is made by roasting squash and blending it into a smooth sauce. The end result is a deliciously thick pasta sauce which has just the right amount of heat.
Creating wonderfully luscious pasta sauce without cream normally entails using soaked cashews. I’ve got nothing against a cashew alfredo, in fact I adore it, but sometimes you crave something different.
This smooth squash pasta sauce delivers tons of flavour and has the benefit of being nut-free. Which means it’s also much healthier than its cashew counterpart.
You can use whatever squash takes your fancy in the base sauce. I’ve used a mixture of acorn squash and butternut squash. But any winter squash will do. Try experimenting with different varieties and see how it changes the flavour profile.
If you enjoyed this nut-free wonder sauce, you’re sure to love my Creamy Cauliflower Pasta recipe or my Swede Mac and Cheese
When To Eat
The winter squash season stretches from August to October, but because many varieties have a hard leathery skin they are extremely easy to store. Most squash will keep well into late March.
Spicy Squash Pasta
This meal is around 91% less polluting than the average UK meal.
Eating this recipe will save around 2.67 KG CO2e per person.
That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 22.09 KM in a modern car.
How do I calculate this?Ingredients
- 1.6 kg Squash (peeled, de-seeded and roughly chopped into 2cm chunks)
- 1 Head Garlic (peeled and finely diced)
- 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 Teaspoon Chilli Flakes
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika
- 1 Teaspoon Oregano
- 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 Medium Lemon (juiced)
- 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 80 ml Plant Milk (almond milk, oat milk, e.t.c.)
- 500 g Pasta
- 10 g Parsley (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 200˚c (fan oven).
- Arrange chopped squash and garlic in a large roasting tin. Combine with the olive oil and spices (1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon oregano and 1 teaspoon kosher salt). Pour the lemon juice over the squash.
- Place the roasting tin into the oven. Roast for 30 minutes until the squash is nicely soft.
- Whist the squash is roasting. Cook your pasta in heavily salted water according to packet instructions. Drain the pasta reserving a little of the cooking water.
- After the squash has cooked, remove from the oven and tip into a food processor or blender. Pour in the plant milk and nutritional yeast. Whiz the squash into a smooth paste.
- Spoon the blended squash back into roasting tin. Tip in the pasta and combine with the squash. Pour in enough of the reserved cooking liquid to loosen the sauce into a smooth sauce. Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the pasta and serve immediately.