Quick Green Spaghetti Sauce

 A quick blended, green sauce for spaghetti made with creamy avocado and spinach. Perfect for a quick midweek dinner. A healthy but super tasty pasta dish that children and adults will love.

QUICK GREEN SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Pasta is a wonderful thing. 

It's quick and easy to cook and you could easily serve it with a different sauce every night.

It's like a hug in a bowl and this pasta dish is no different.

A creamy green sauce that's quick to make and tastes fabulous tossed through freshly cooked pasta.

EASY BLENDER SAUCE

I make a lot of different pasta sauces that benefit from a long, slow cook, but this isn't one of those.

This is a quick and fresh sauce that's made in minutes.

The ingredients are whizzed up while the pasta cooks then stirred into the hot pasta.

It's super quick and it tastes lush.

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE QUICK GREEN SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Here are the simple ingredients you need to make this velvety green sauce.

• SPAGHETTI - plain or brown
• AVOCADO - use a ripe one
• PEAS - frozen peas work well in this sauce
• SPINACH - fresh spinach leaves
• FRESH CORIANDER - if you hate it you could use fresh basil or chives instead, both will work well.
• FRESH PARSLEY
• PARMESAN - vegan or vegetarian, depending on your diet (you can skip this and just use nooch).
• NOOCH - for that extra cheesy hit
• MILK - I use oat milk. but use whatever you have in the fridge
• SALT & PEPPER

also try - One-Pot Mushroom & Cherry Tomato Spaghetti

 

RIPE AVOCADO

Avocado is what gives this sauce the creamy texture.

Of course it has a fabulous flavour too and it's really good for you.

Avocado have more potassium than a banana; they are full of fatty acids, which is good for your heart; they are full of fibre and they are said to help lower cholesterol.

An all round good egg, abeit a nibbly green one.

HOW  TO TELL IF AVOCADO IS RIPE

 

There are easy ways to check if avocado is ripe.

1. A gentle squeeze will have some give but it shouldn't feel soft.
2. The skin should be dark green to black.
3. The skin will be bumpy in texture, under-ripe avocado are paler in coler and smoother.
4. Flip off the little stem. If it is green underneath it is ripe and ready to eat, if it's brown until the stem it's over-ripe and it the stem doesn't easily flip off, it's not ripe yet.

HOW TO REMOVE THE STONE FROM AN AVOCADO

Here are three ways to remove the stone from an avocado. 

First cut lengthways around the stone, then twist to open. Do not try to cut through the stone.

1. If you feel confident and have a sharp chefs knife, you can hit the stone with the knife, which will embed in the stone. You then twist the stone with the knife to loosen and remove.
• WARNING - Many accidents have occurred with this method, so please be careful and only do this if you re super confident and your knife is sharp. There are safer ways to remove the stone.
2. Use an avocado tool, these cut through the avocado in slices around the stone. Sometimes the tool has a curved knife section to cut the avocado in half and a section to twist the stone out.
3. You can also use a spoon to scoop the stone out. 

FRESH SPINACH

This recipe uses fresh spinach leaves, but you can use frozen if that's all you have.

You will have to defrost the frozen spinach before adding it to the sauce ingredients.

You can either microwave it for a couple of minutes in a bowl, then pour into a kitchen paper lined colander to drain off any liquid.

Or place in a bowl with boiling water and leave to defrost, then drain in the same way.

Fresh spinach can be rinsed, dried and added as it is.

FROZEN PEAS

Unlike frozen spinach, frozen peas can be used as they are when making a blender sauce, they don't need to be defrosted first.

They add extra texture, nutritients and sweetness to the sauce.

I don't know about you, but I always have a bag in my freezer.

 

They are so easy to add to so many dishes and they are so cheap.

    WHAT IS NOOCH?

This sauce contains nooch, but what is nooch?

I 'm sure many of you already know, but for those that don't, it's the nickname for nutritional yeast flakes.

Nutritional yeast is a common vegan ingredient that gives a cheesy flavour to dishes.

It's an ingredient vegetaians should also add to their diet as it's very nutritious.

It's an inactive yeast dried into flakes and is completely natural and gluten-free.

Look out for nooch that contains vitamin B12, which is hard to get in a vegetarian or vegan diet and is important to our health.

Most brands of nutritonal yeast are high in Vitamin B12, Zinc, Folic Acid, Fibre and Protein.

I buy Engivita Nutritional Yeast with B12, but there are other brands out there.

HOW TO USE NOOCH

Nooch can be added to soups, stews and sauces to add nutrients and a cheesy flavour. Just spoon it in and it will melt quite quickly.

You can also sprinkle it on pasta as a substitute for parmesan.

You can also add it to a white sauce to make it cheesy.

In this sauce we throw it into the blender with the other ingredients and whizz into a rich sauce.

BLENDER PASTA SAUCE

The joy of this very green pasta sauce is that it's super quick.

While the pasta is cooking, throw all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until you have a smooth, unctuous pasta sauce.

Have a wee taste before you add it to the pasta to check the seasoning.

ADDING PASTA WATER TO A PASTA SAUCE

Pasta water is one of those well-known Italian secrets.

Yes, I know that's an oxymoron, but it's true. 

If you're into cooking and watching cookery shows, you will have heard about this and if you don't it might be news to you.

When making a sauce, add some pasta water and it makes the sauce lovely and silky.

The pasta water is just the water the pasta cooks in. Lift out some with a ladel or glass, near the end of cooking and add a slosh of it to your sauce.

WHICH PASTA SHAPE WORKS WELL WITH THIS SAUCE?

This sauce is perfect tossed through spaghetti. 

It really coats the pasta well.

Spaghetti is definitely my first choice. I wouldn't serve this with rigatoni or penne, which are better with a tomato based sauce,

It would also be good with farfalle (bow-tie pasta) or fusilli (twisty pasta).

It's a great way to get kids to eat their greens.

MORE QUICK VEGAN PASTA DISHES TO TRY

Here are a few more quick pasta recipes for midweek dinners when you are in a rush.

• Creamy Spinach & Pesto Penne
• Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Spaghetti with Black Olives
• Kale & Cashew Pesto Spaghetti
• Microwave Mac & Cheese
• Quick Red Pepper & Olive Spaghetti
• Roasted Ratatouille & Cherry Tomato Pasta
• Simple Spaghetti with Olives

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avocado pasta, quick spaghetti sauce, green pasta sauce, quick pasta sauce, green spaghetti sauce, vegan avocado pasta sauce

dinner

Italian, vegan

Yield: 4-6

Author: Jacqueline Meldrum

Quick Green Spaghetti Sauce

A quick blended, green sauce for spaghetti made with creamy avocado and spinach. Perfect for a quick midweek dinner. A healthy but super tasty pasta dish that children and adults will love.

Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 11 MinTotal time: 16 Min

Ingredients

• 500g / 17.5 oz spaghetti
• 1 ripe avocado, skin and stone removed
• 100g / 0.75 cup frozen peas
• 1 handful spinach leaves
• 1 handful fresh coriander
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 4 tbsp vegan parmesan, grated
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 200ml / 0.85 cups oat milk (or your regular milk)
• a good grinding of salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions until al dente. 
2. Near the end of the cooking time scoop some of the pasta water from the pot using a ladle or glass and set it aside.
3. While the pasta is cooking make the sauce. Add all the sauce ingredients to a blender or food processor and whizz until smooth.
4. Add a splash of pasta water to loosen the sauce.
5. Drain the pasta and mix, return it to the pot, then stir in the sauce and serve topped with extra grated parmesan (or nutritional yeast).
6. Enjoy!

Notes:

Calories

4 portions = 362 calories

5 portions = 289 calories

6 portions = 241 calories

Cheese

You can skip the parmesan and add extra nutritional yeast.

You can skip the nutritional yeast and add extra vegan parmesan.

Spinach

If you are using frozen spinach, a small cube will do, either defrost in in a bowl in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or in a bowl of boiling water. Drain in kitchen paper in a colander, until as dry as possible.

Calories

362.03

Fat (grams)

10.32

Sat. Fat (grams)

2.09

Carbs (grams)

56.08

Fiber (grams)

8.68

Net carbs

47.40

Sugar (grams)

7.13

Protein (grams)

13.79

Sodium (milligrams)

220.66

Cholesterol (grams)

4.38

Created using The Recipes Generator