15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

Oh…my….gosh.

Alert the grocery store because there is going to be an avocado shortage in my town. Well, more than usual that is.

[And yes, I said ‘store’. As in singular…We’re small town folk.]

You can whip up this pasta dish in under 15 minutes flat! I know I will be making it again and again, especially for those dinners when we are strapped for time…or just plain old tired after a long day.

 

15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

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Creamy, thick, and rich with lots of garlic flavour and a hint of lemon. This is my newest favourite pasta dish. The avocado works wonderfully in this recipe to create a sauce so creamy and thick, you will think there is cream hiding in there.

Inspired by My Recipe.org.

Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted
• 1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish
• 2-3 garlic cloves, to taste (I used 3 and it was quite garlicky, but if you are not a big fan of garlic use 1 clove)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
• ~1/4 cup Fresh Basil, (probably optional)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 servings/6 oz of your choice of pasta (I used 3oz of spelt and 3 oz of Kamut spaghetti)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 

Directions:

1. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in your pasta, reduce heat to medium, and cook until Al Dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Now add in the pitted avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined. Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper. Serve immediately. Makes 2 servings.

Please note: This dish does not reheat well due to the avocado in the sauce. Please serve immediately.

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I used some fun pasta to increase the nutrition factor- first, 1 serving (3oz) of spelt pasta.

Spelt pasta has a great nutritional profile with 12 grams of protein and 3 grams of fibre per serving.

I also used one 3oz serving of Kamut pasta.

Kamut pasta has 13 grams of protein and 8 grams of fibre per serving. Niiiiice.

They both taste AMAZING and are very easy on the digestive system. I purchased both of them in the natural food section of Loblaws/Superstore. Regular white spaghetti has only 1.7 grams of fibre and 4 grams of protein per serving.  Eric and I actually prefer the nutty flavour of the ancient grains over the white pasta so it is an easy switch.

If you don’t have a scale or pasta measuring device, one serving of pasta (3oz) is about the diameter of a quarter!

PS- That picture above took me 6 tries to get in focus! lol

A couple of the out of focus ones…

Whoops!

Oh the joys of amateur photography.

While the pasta is cooking away, prepare the ‘cream’ sauce in a food processor. I used 3 cloves of garlic and it was quite garlicky, so if you are not a big fan of garlic I would suggest using 1-2 cloves.

I love that avocado can be used as a substitute for cream in this recipe. The healthy fats in avocado make our skin glow and hair shine as an added bonus.

Strain and rinse the cooked pasta.

Add the sauce and mix well.

Garnish with lemon zest and freshly ground black pepper.

I fell in love.

So did Eric.

We are now married to this pasta.

And I’m actually going through withdrawal just looking at these pictures.

In other news, it’s Monday and I woke up in a haze today. That is, until I watched this video below! It made my entire day, so I thought I would spread the joy. Animals are just the most fascinating and intelligent creatures and I’m always blown away by stories like this.

 

I can’t decide what I like more about the video:

1) It has a date of ‘1999’, but it is clearly circa 1980’s, 2) the old married couple that I want to adopt, 3) The crow scaring the cat (minute 3:44),  4) The cat scaring the crow (minute 5:00), 5) The crow squawking at the cat to ‘get off the road’ (minute 4:40), or 6) Is that ALAN THICKE from Growing Pains?!

It kills me, it really does.