Vegan Creamy Pumpkin Pasta
Vegan Creamy Pumpkin Pasta
I love this vegan creamy pumpkin pasta! This recipe creates a rich pasta sauce, which has the texture of a Mac and Cheese but is lighter on the stomach. This is so far our favourite pumpkin carving leftover recipe. The recipe is quite easy too.
Don’t like pumpkin taste?
The other ingredients in this recipe minimise the overpowering taste of pumpkin. I am impressed with how much different pumpkin tastes when combined with the other ingredients to create this puree. The taste has nothing to do with that of baked pumpkin, I promise!
Pasta is not Paleo
I admit that staying away from grains does have a positive effect on my overall wellbeing. However, after watching The Game Changers movie, I decided that if I want to try a plant-based diet, maybe I need to introduce some grains. In all fairness, I was also never fully Paleo because I really believe that moderation is key and that deprivation does not work in the long term. The plant-based diet is promoted for numerous health benefits for body functioning, general health and athletic performance.
The Game Changers Movie
We had already minimised meat consumption in our household due to its impact on the environment and also the health risks that could be associated with it, however, we were not taking into consideration the long term effects which were highlighted by this movie.
The movie has highlighted many points which favour a plant-based diet and also the probability that actually our paleolithic ancestors might have consumed a mostly vegan diet.
The most shocking experiment in the movie was that even after taking a meal with grass-fed beef or free-range chicken, the level of fat in the blood was so high that it made the blood plasma look foggy, while the plasma of a plant-eater was clear and without clouds of fat. This factor causes blood vessels to narrow leading to slow recovery, higher inflammation and the risk of heart strokes.
I cannot summarise all the movie in this post but I greatly recommend it to understand how top athletes have benefitted from such diet.
So am I vegan now?
Even though I was so attracted to the plant-based diet, I do not feel that I currently have enough knowledge to compose daily meals with all of the required nutrients. I strongly believe in gradual change and I will definitely start learning more and more about this diet and its nutrition. We will try vegan meals more often and read until we are confident that we know what we’re doing.
- 200g raw pasta of your choice
- about 1kg Pumpkin of your choice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons tapioca or tickner of your choice (omit if you don't have any)
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
- dash of sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Shredded vegan Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
- Start by baking the pumpkin in the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes. You can prepare this step the night before and store cooked pumpkin inside the fridge. To bake any pumpkin, cut into smaller pieces and place on top of a tray with baking paper, skin facing up. The pumpkin will be cooked when a fork can easily be inserted through the middle. If still raw increase the cooking time by 10 minutes at a time. After the pumpkin is cooked, cut away the skin and discard the area around the pumpkin seeds.
- Boil the pasta.
- In the meantime to prepare the sauce, blend all the sauce ingredients inside a food processor, starting with the garlic and omitting the cheese.
- Add the sauce to a pan and start warming up, stirring continuously to thicken and become fragrant. Then add the cooked drained pasta and warm on the stove. Add the cheese and stir until cheese is melted.
- Enjoy!
