Emory's Easy Cashew Lemon Pasta

So, I just made up this super easy, cashew-lemon cream sauce and my kid friekin' adores it, ate bowl after bowl of it two days in a row.  Hubby also loves it.  It's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Emory's Cashew Lemon Pasta

For one pound of pasta:

1 ½  cups raw cashews

2 T Nutritional yeast

Zest of one organic lemon

About 1 c. of pasta water 

(Put aside at least 2 cups so you have enough to thin it out later)

A few grinds of fresh black pepper

Salt to taste--after you blend it up 

(Taste it first as the NT is salty, I find it doesn’t need more than a few grinds of sea salt or at most ¼ tsp salt)

Method:

While your pasta of choice is boiling (we used conchiglie rigate, my kiddo seems to love his shells! Farfalle, gemelli, penne, etc. would also be great) at about 5 or 6 minutes into the pasta boiling, go ahead and dip in your Pyrex measuring cup or even a coffee cup and grab about 2 cups of the pasta water and set it aside.

Put all the ingredients in a high speed blender (like a VitaMix, can you tell I love my new VitaMix?!?) or a food processor .  Blend or process on high speed about 30 seconds to 1 minute until the sauce is creamy and delish.  Taste for salt and add a bit if you feel it's necessary.  That's it! Your sauce will be ready before your pasta is even done boiling.

Drain your pasta and add sauce.  Add extra pasta water a little at a time to thin it out to desired consistency.  

That’s it! 

Enjoy!!!

Emory planting Scarlet Runner Beans.  He feels about this happy eating the Cashew Lemon Pasta, too :-)

P.S. You can add anything you want to this sauce, just throw it in the food processor or blender with the other ingredients.  For example: cooked asparagus, raw tomatoes or leftover tomato sauce, raw greens (spinach, arugula, etc.), some olive oil, hot sauce, spices, curry, etc. whatever you feel like.

Here it is served over a bed of fresh, organic CSA Swiss chard & Beet Greens.  Highly recommend!