Creamy Avocado 'Carbonara'

Cashew cream? Boring. Soy cream? You’re kidding!

Avocado cream? Tell me more!

That’s right – avocado! This stuff does wonders when you want to add creaminess to anything from smoothies to sauces. While it gives the dish a bit of  green color, it’s just as creamy as any soy-based cream.

I remember first seeing this genius pasta sauce on Oh She Glows a while back but not being able to find good avocados. (Sadly) it became another bookmarked buried deep in a folder of hundreds of other amazing recipes, all of which I’ve promised I’ll try! I spotted some great-looking avocados on sale the other day, picked up a few and immediately remembered this recipe. The moment I got back home, I whipped up this delicious lunch…

Barely adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted
2. Juice and zest of half a lemon
3. 2-3 garlic cloves, depending on your taste (I used 2 only)
4. Pinch of salt (to taste)
5. ¼ cup of fresh herbs (I used half basil and half parsley, I’d probably opt for all parsley next time)
6. 2 T extra virgin olive oil
7. 1/3 cup of walnuts, chopped and toasted
8. Freshly ground pepper (to taste)
9. Fresh parsley, to garnish
10. Pasta, to serve (2-3 serves, around 80z?)

 

1. Begin by cooking your pasta.
2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by place lemon juice (not the zest), garlic and olive oil in a food processor. Process until fairly smooth.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients except for those used to garnish/decorate (ie everything except walnuts, pepper, parsley for garnish, pasta and zest). Process until very smooth and creamy.
4. Toss the pasta in the sauce.
5. To serve, garnish with fresh parsley, pepper, lemon zest and walnuts.

Don’t forget to get that pasta cookin’ – I know I did

To make the wonderful, wonderful sauce, begin by placing the lemon juice, garlic and oil in your processor:

 

In goes the avocado and the other ingredients:

Wheeee! Process until creamy.

Grab your pasta, cooked until it’s al dente.

 

Sauce goes on…

…and gets all mixed in, plus the decorations. On that note, the walnuts add great crunch and a somewhat smoky flavour. One of my victims willing taste-testers noted that it kind of represented bacon in this strangely carbonara-like sauce. ‘It’s like vegan carbonara’ were his exact words!

Pearl xo

P.S. I know I promised another variation of the rice pudding, I haven’t forgotten! Maybe in the next week or so

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