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.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta
Yield
3 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Creamy, thick, and rich with lots of garlic flavour and a hint of lemon, this is one of my favourite pasta dishes. The avocado works wonderfully in this recipe to create a sauce so creamy and thick you will think there is cream hiding in there.
Ingredients
- 9 ounces (255 g) uncooked pasta
- 1 medium garlic clove
- 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves, plus more for serving
- 1 to 2 tablespoons (5 to 10mL) fresh lemon juice, to taste
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
- 1 ripe medium avocado, pitted
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) water
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Lemon zest, for serving
Directions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. For a lighter option, serve the avocado sauce with zucchini noodles.
- While the pasta cooks, make the sauce: In a food processor, combine the garlic and basil and pulse to mince. Add the lemon juice, oil, avocado, and 1 tablespoon water and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit more oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Drain the pasta and place it back in the pot. Add all of the avocado sauce and stir until combined. You can gently rewarm the pasta if it has cooled slightly, or simply serve it at room temperature.
- Top with pepper, lemon zest, and fresh basil leaves, if desired.
Tip:
- Because avocados oxidize quickly after you slice them, this sauce is best served immediately.
- Make it grain-free: Serve this avocado sauce with spiralized or julienned zucchini or on a bed of spaghetti squash.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
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 use and love my Cuisinart 14 Cup Food Processor and Cuisinart Mini Prep 3 Cup Processor, which is great for smaller jobs. 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.
Looking for other pasta recipes that I enjoy? Try these recipes below:
* Lightened Up Sundried Tomato Pasta
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.
Hah, came up with almost the same thing myself! I just put all herbs/greens i have underhand – I’ve tried (mix of most): Basil, Mint, Parsley, Cilantro, Rosemary, Thyme… Whatever i get my hands on (dill next!) I’ll have to try the lemon zest! Sometimes magic just happens when you jam it all together! My favorite is with Barilla Fettuccini Rigate pasta!
Omg, yes, yum!!!!! =}}}}
wow….this recipe is amazing. I made it tonight with Rotini Kamut. It’s soooooo rich and flavourful….yet so simple to make….bravo!
Just made this pasta for the first time today…. needless to say it was absolutely phenomenal! I added 1 T of pine nuts and doubled the basil… almost like a creamy version of pesto, delicious! :) Thanks!
I’ve been making this quite a bit. I found that it works really well (if you are making this just for one person) to halve the avocado sauce before adding to warm pasta, immediately refrigerate one half and use the other half with your warm pasta to eat immediately. Then come back the next day, heat your plain pasta separately then add the refrigerated avocado sauce afterwards. This way you can technically make use of leftovers with this recipe without ever (re)heating the avocado sauce.
This is the way I have been doing it as well and it works wonderfully. The cold sauce comes to the perfect temperature when mixed with hot pasta.
I made this recipe last weekend, enitre family loved it! our picky 2 year old even gobbled it up. Thanks for the easy and delicious recipe!
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it out! I was just wondering though, I am a high school student and I’d actually like to bring this for my school lunch one day? About the note for the reheating, if I make extra, do you think it’d be alright to reheat the leftover pasta, then put the avocado sauce on top and put it in a thermo lunch box?
Hmm good question! Im not too sure, but it might be worth a try! Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for the recipe! I’m making this for lunch today!
Just made the avocado cream sauce…. amazing!!! Thanks!
8 ‘pages’ of comments! so refreshing to find a recipe for 2 !! this is avocado season and this IS what is for supper tomorrow!! thank you!
My mom came over for dinner tonight while my husband is out of town. I made this delicious Creamy Avocado Pasta and we LOVED it! I plan to make another batch for my husband for dinner tomorrow night. Lucky me, I get to have this yummy pasta dish two nights in a row! Thanks for sharing. This recipe is a definite keeper.
This was AMAZING. Thank you so much for the recipe. I love your blog!
This is easily my new favorite recipe. I’ve got it timed at 10 minutes from the time I fill the pot with tap water to the time I sit down to dig in. I think I’ve probably made it more than a dozen times in the past three weeks–that is literally how good this is. The only thing is that I find it is better to put the lemon zest and pepper in the sauce, instead of as a garnish on top, because the flavors incorporate a little better and more of that lovely avocado flavor shines through. Thank you so, SO much for this one!
This pasta was so quick and easy and delicious! I used this dish in my most recent meal plan on my blog rainbowdelicious.com so others can enjoy it as well. Thank you!
Oh my gosh this sauce is to die for!!! I didn’t have lemon so I used lime n it turned out delicious! Also my youngest son, Nikolas, does not like avocado but had NO IDEA that’s what it was made from n said it was the best pesto pasta I ever made! ;-) It really tasted like it with half the oil! :-) I also made ur end if the summer peach apple cobbler for dessert. It was incredible simple…..I used fresh picked apples from our apple tree n two jars of peaches…..my kitchen smells Devine! :-) ♥♥♥ ur recipes!
This was amazing. The double portion of the sauce I made disappeared overnight (my husband really loved it). Thx!
Angela, I love your blog and recommend it to so many people, especially all of my Adventist friends since many of us are vegan. Tried this recipe tonight with my husband and we both LOVED it plus I loved the “easy” factor. Thanks so much for all you do. I highly recommend the book, “Give them something better” which are common Adventist vegan recipes that are very tasty too! Here’s the link to the website and book: http://givethemsomethingbetter.com/. I don’t have any affiliation with the book…it is just one of my favs. :)
Oh, My!! This looks amazing. Simply Amazing. Can’t wait to try it out. I’ve been wanting to cook a meal with Avocado to make dinners healthier, and this is perfect.
Any tips on what summer vegetables go best with this? (I say summer veggies because I live in India, so a lot of autumn/winter vegetable options are out for us here).
Thanks a bunch! :)
This was fabulous~ I had already doubled the recipe when I saw it did not reheat well, so we rolled the dice and went ahead anyway. I am eating it for lunch a day later and it is still yummy~!!
I just ate my spaghetti squash last night. ARGH! Considering I eat an average of one avocado a day (seriously, right now every day is filled with avocado), this recipe is GOLD!