It was a rollercoaster of a week.
On Friday, I shipped my huge bundle of book edits back to New York. A definite high point this year. Strangely, I enjoyed the meticulous process of sifting through each chapter line by line. By the time I finished almost every page was scribbled with red ink and I squeezed in a few photo re-shoots too. I lived and breathed that document day and night, as you might have guessed from my blog absence. After a few curse words at the Staples print & copy centre (never underestimate how many times a multi-thousand dollar printer will jam…), I even printed my own copy should anything happen to the one in the mail. You will not get me this time, postal service!
Naturally, I went straight to the grocery store and bought some cheesy kale chips and a dark chocolate bar to celebrate. Living. it. up.
If that wasn’t exciting enough, we found the house of our dreams last week. We’ve been looking for almost a year now. It almost felt too good to be true and I barely slept all week. This house has everything on our list with several renovation projects for us to tackle in the future. Everything felt like it was falling into place after a challenging year. We’ve been dealing with some rental issues lately and we’re just ready to move on and settle down. Plant roots. Build another vegetable garden. Storage space! This house was the one, we were certain. I’m a bit superstitious, so I didn’t even tell my family about it because I didn’t want to jinx it.
Well.
We lost the house. It was scooped up by a higher bidder. Nothing new in this hot housing market, but it’s still tough to swallow when you get your heart set on something. We had already spent a few days planning and preparing ourselves for a quick move, taking measurements, dreaming, the whole shebang, and then it was all over just like that. I went from cloud nine to feeling rejected and defeated all within a few hours. Back to square one.
I tried to cheer us up by playing the “let’s list all the things we don’t like about the house” game. A solid effort, but we weren’t fooling anybody. Love is blind.
This dish, on the other hand, was just what we needed – a hug in a bowl, and a reminder that time heals all wounds. So what if I burned the broccoli to a crisp and overcooked the pasta. It was still major comfort food when nothing else seemed to help. Plus, I discovered that over-cooked crispy broccoli tastes a lot like kale chips. Yes, I ate every one straight off the pan. Weird, but good.
In the end, I realized that nothing good ever comes out of a full moon eclipse, especially if you happen to be pms-ing. Unless of course this meal is the end result. Then it’s not a total loss.
Onward and upward, keep the faith, may better things come to those who wait, and all that cliché jazz… :)
Smoky Butternut Squash Sauce with Pasta and Greens
Yield
4-6
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This recipe is adapted from my Butternut Squash Mac and Cheeze recipe from 2011. While the former version is a huge hit on the blog, some of you didn't like how sweet the sauce is. I've been playing around with this recipe every time I make it. This version I'm sharing today is still quite sweet thanks to the butternut squash and cashews, but I've tried to balance it out better with some smoky seasonings like liquid smoke, chili powder, smoked paprika, and some hot sauce for a kick and more depth of flavour. It's a big hit in this house. Feel free to adjust the various seasonings to taste. This sauce is also great heated up and poured over roasted vegetables and brown rice. Use it any way you see fit! I think you'll be surprised by how creamy and satisfying it is all without a lick of butter or oil.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1 (3.5-4 pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced (or two (450g) packages chopped squash)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional, but recommended)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
- hot sauce, to taste
- 1 (450g) package mini shell or macaroni pasta (use gluten-free, if desired)
- roasted broccoli or sauteed kale leaves, to stir into pasta
Directions
- Add cashews in a small bowl and cover with water. Soak overnight or for at least 3-4 hours, until soft and plump. Drain and rinse before use.
- Preheat oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. See note about prepping squash below. Spread out chopped squash on sheet and drizzle with oil. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Roast for 30-40 minutes, flipping once half way through baking, until squash is fork tender. Let cool for at least 5 minutes.
- Add the soaked and drained cashews, water, garlic, nutritional yeast (if using), lemon juice, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, and 2 cups of cooked squash into a high speed blender. Blend on high until smooth. Now add the salt, liquid smoke, and hot sauce to taste and blend again.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. If using broccoli, kale, or other vegetables, roast or saute those too.
- Add the drained pasta back into the pot. Pour on your desired amount of sauce and stir to combine. Stir in the cooked vegetables, if using. Cook over medium until heated throughout and serve immediately.
- Leftover sauce can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 1 week or so in the fridge. It's great poured on roasted vegetables too!
Tip:
Time saver: You can also simply slice the squash in half, remove seeds, and roast the two halves rather than chopping the squash up. The butternut squash sauce makes 2.75 cups.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Some of you mentioned that the Recipage feature has not been working lately. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. Apparently, Recipage did a big server migration last week and some kinks are still being worked out. I encourage you to use the recipe drop-down category menu at the top of the blog or the search bar on the right hand side. I do realize that this doesn’t help for the few recipes that were only uploaded into Recipage though. Hopefully, all will be well soon. :) Sometime in the future we will be creating our own in-house recipe search page, most likely after Eric has completed the new app. Thanks for your patience!
I made this last night and my boyfriend flipped out. And then he took the leftovers to work. Sooooo actually it serves 3. ;) Thanks Angela!
haha love that!!
For those of you who are weary of cleaning a blender, I have just purchased an immersion blender and it is the best! No more trying to scrape the remains out of a blender or taking it apart to clean it. I recommend if your purchase one, go for the Cuisinart model. Their appliances always have powerful motors. I just made a butternut squash soup, liqufied whole tomatoes and even made smoothies. Just pop off the end of the blender when finished, rinse it off and that is it! Why did I wait so long to buy one!
This is DELICIOUS! Thanks so much for updating your recipe. It is all the creamy deliciousness that a cashew-only sauce has, but with a variety of nutrition and quite a bit lighter (not on the palate but on the belly). Perfection!
Hi, I’ve just made this sauce and it’s absolutely delicious, thank you for the recipe. Just wanted to ask do you think it would freeze ok? I won’t be able to use it all up straight away so I thought I might freeze some instead you see.
Hi Kim, I haven’t tried freezing it before, so I’m not sure. Let me know if you try it! Maybe just freeze a bit and do a test?
OhMyGLOW! I finally got around to making this and it turned out amazing. I had a Lita squash on hand, and it turned out just fabulous. I was so skeptical about using cashews and squash, neither which I wasn’t a fan of, but they paired so perfectly that I am now a believer in vegan mac. Thank you Angela! The kick from the spice made it even better! By the way, I am so excited for your book! I am so flipping proud of you.
<3 Sara
So I tried this recipe with using almonds instead of cashews (my daughter has a cashew allergy). My husband and I loved it! Thank you Angela for another great recipe! :o)
Made this tonight and it was a hit with my omnivore boyfriend! I’m so glad you taught us how to make a healthier version of Mac N Cheeze!
I made this tonight and love it. I also pan fried tofu. Added broccoli… so tasty!
This looks so delicious, but my son has a cashew allergy – along with peanut, pistachio, egg and dairy :( I’ve seen a lot of recipes calling for soaked cashews… will other soaked nuts work as an alternative? Thanks for all of the wonderful recipes! While avoiding the foods he is allergic to is difficult at times, it’s been so great to incorporate more vegan foods into our family diet as a result!
Hi, is there any thing else I can use to make this without cashews? And still turn out creamy. thanks
Does this recipe reheat well? Would like to make it to take to a Thanksgiving dinner, but would need to make it the night before.
You can make the sauce beforehand, but I wouldn’t cook the pasta and mix it together until just before serving. Hope this helps!
I tried to scan over the comments to see if this has been asked, but didn’t see it…is there something (pumpkin or sunflower seeds) I can substitute for the cashews? My son is allergic to cashews.
Hi Rebekah, I havent tried it but you might be able to sub soaked sunflower seeds. Or try just leaving the nuts out all together! Let me know how it goes.
Oh. . .my. . . God. . .
This is so delicious! Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m bringing it to a vegan Thanksgiving shindig.
I made this today and it is absolutely incredible. I just want to eat the whole pot at once!! I used chilli flakes and cayenne pepper (as I didn’t have chilli powder or hot sauce) and of course the smoked paprika (yum!) Also instead of onion powder I used two brown onions (chopped and sautéed with garlic and olive oil.) I also used garlic sautéed broccolini for the greens.
I’m so glad I followed your direction for the quantity of liquid smoke. I’ve never used it before, and I thought 1/8 of a teaspoon seemed extremely small, but I followed the recipe anyway, and that amount was perfect – I certainly wouldn’t want anymore!!
Anyway, wow – this is such an extraordinary recipe. I’ve never used soaked cashews before – they made the sauce so beautiful and creamy!!
I absolutely love your blog. Thank you so much for making such creative but also user-friendly vegan food. You’re an absolute inspiration and have given me a newfound interest in food and cooking!!
Thanks again. Lots of love from Australia! :)
I had trouble blending this and ended up using quite a bit more water but it was very good!
I am making this tonight! I only have sweet potatoes so I will have to use those instead of the squash. It is nasty and snowing/ice here in Colorado right now, so no store run. Good luck with your house hunting from here on out!
This was absolutely amazing! Kudos to you!
This was delish! Made it for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! With the leftovers, I actually put some vegan chili over top and heated it up and it was amazing. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe was fantastic, Ms. Lady. I used a half a shallot instead of onion powder, used absolutely no nutritional yeast, and my kale was “roasted,” so it was basically kale chips. I was afraid that this last fact would make the texture strange, but nope. This was a great recipe, and really pretty simple, too, if you’re one of those lucky people who has figured out that a kitchen without smoked paprika and liquid smoke is incomplete. It blew away the folks at my friend’s Ugly Sweater Party. Thank you!
Hi I have been a huge fun of butternut squash, and I found the best way to do it is just poke holes on the squash with a fork, and throw the whole thing into the 375 oven for 1 hour. It softens it and make it less of a pain to chop it up! :) Love your life and your posts! Keep going!
Hi I have been a huge fun of butternut squash, and I found the best way to do it is to just poke holes on the squash with a fork, and throw the whole thing into the 375 oven for 1 hour. It softens it and make it less of a pain to chop it up! :) Love your life and your posts! Keep going!
This was absolutely amazing! We served it over homemade pasta made with farro flour. The sweet/smokey sauce was perfect with the slightly nutty flavored pasta. Yummy! This will become a family favorite, I’m sure. Thank you.
Hi Angela,
Are there any other nuts I can sub for the cashews? Would pine nuts work? Trying to limit my cashew intake.
Thank you!!
Where can I buy the liquid smoke? Whole foods maybe? Thanks :)
Hi Tanya, I think I got it from Whole Foods in the US…not sure where to buy in Canada yet. Your best bet might be online :)
Thanks Ang, I managed to find some at Whole Foods in Oakville :)
Where can I find liquid smoke? Does whole foods have it? Thanks :)
I made this for my boyfriend (a meat eater who decided to go vegan for the month a la Jay-Z) and he loved it (I loved it too!). The flavors are delicious – I’d definitely make this again and don’t usually leave comments on blogs/boards, but this one deserved it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Angela
Thank you for this recipe and sorry to hear about the house situation too.
I’m a little confused about the quantity of butternut squash I need. In the ingredients, it says 3.5-4 pounds (1800 grams). Then you mention 2 x 450g packages (900 grams). Later in the directions, you say to add 2 cups of squash, which is less than the two quantities mentioned above.
Can you please clarify the amount of squash I should be using. Sorry if this sounds fussy, I’m just still at the stage of measuring all my ingredients to the nearest gram!
Thanks for your help!
Dawn
Hi Dawn,
The directions are correct as written – sorry you are confused though! The reason the whole squash weighs more than the 2 packages of chopped squash is because you throw out the skin, seeds, and guts when preparing the squash from whole.
And yes in the sauce, you need 2 cups of the COOKED squash – remember that it compacts a lot when cooked.
Hope this helps and thanks for reading! :)
Angela
Thanks so much for your quick response Angela. I’m really enjoying your recipes. :)
I just made this for dinner and WOW! It was great! I subbed a 1/4 cup of almond milk for the cashews and it was still a great consistency (probably a tad thinner than yours but I thought it was perfect). On top of the macaroni it really made me feel like I was eating real mac and cheese- one of my favorite comfort foods!
This is weird but the only thing I didn’t like was the color. It reminds me of those liquid cheese sauces that you squeeze out from boxed mac and cheese (velveeta I think?). Anyway, I just felt like I was eating something so artificial and unhealthy that I shouldn’t like it! Doesn’t make any sense and I still loved it anyway, just a random note! I feel like some crafty parents could trick their velveeta addicted kids with this recipe :)
Angela,
First of all, love this site, I literally have planned all my meals off of it this week. Tried the tofu pineapple coconut rice yesterday and fell in love! I was wondering if it would change the consistency or taste at all to steam the squash instead of roast it? Have you or any of the listeners tried it?
Thanks! Hannah
Can I just tell you that I made this tonight and it was fabulous.
My meat eating hubby loved it.
I am looking forward to your cookbook as well.
Would this work with another type of winter squash such as kabocha?
Thank you, I was looking for a tomato free sauce I could make with my pasta, I have not yet tried it but I am going to try it on a friend when he comes over, as he can’t eat tomato based sauces, and he loves pasta, I think he is Italian, though he says he isn’t :-)
Made this today and my family enjoyed it!
Made this last week and it was DELICIOUS! I was even able to impress my foodie boyfriend ha!
I made it without the smoke or yeast and it still turned out amazing. The garlic is very strong, but the hit wasn’t as present when I ate the leftovers. Overall a very yummy dish that will be added to my recipes :)
This was the first recipe I ever tried from your site (and there have been many more since) and it has become a staple in my home. I made it earlier this week and then had the leftover sauce on a rice bowl with spinach, tofu, sprouts, etc and now I have two favourite dishes from this one.
Keep up the lovely work!
Sorry if this question has been asked before but can the sauce be made the night before to be mixed into cooked pasta the next day? Thanks!
What could I use instead of nutritional yeast? I want to make this tonight but know I won’t be able to find nutritional yeast quickly!
I made this last night as my first vegan recipe ever and I have to tell you-this was amazing. The creaminess and smokiness of it was off the charts. On top of that, I posted it on FB and ~5 people asked me for the recipe and I was more than happy to direct them right here! Thank you!
Made this tonight and it is definitely getting added to my list of favorite recipes! Followed the recipe exactly, other than adding a few cracks of pepper and a little more lemon juice to taste. This was the first savory recipe that I made in my 7500 model Vitamix (purchased last weekend). So creamy and luscious! Such a fun color, too.
To anyone reading this, make this sauce! Even if you don’t make it into pasta, it would be incredible poured on veggies.
I love this, and so does my kiddo. I added chopped onions to the roasting pan and skipped the onion powder – turned out great!
oh good! It seems recipe italian! I’m italian vegan! ;)
Angela you rock! I made a variation of this sauce tonight and we are enjoying it to much! I added a dash of nutmeg and served it over brown rice pasta. Your blog is a big hit in our semi vegan household!
I just made this for dinner with roasted broccoli and it was amazing! Yum!
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times and it is SOOOO GOOOD! YUM! I actually added some gound bison meat to the recipe and it is just amazing. So creative! Thank you!
Angela, This recipe was absolutely delightful!! Thank you so much!! The only change I made was too sauté one shallot and one garlic clove and puree it along with the other ingredients as raw garlic is too spicy for our family. I highly recommend others to use nutritional yeast, I think it really brings the dish to another level. Also, for those that want to make the dish immediately but don’t have soaked cashews on hand – you can boil 1/4c of cashews for 15 min and you will be ready to go :)
This was SO GOOD. I have enough squash left to make another batch of sauce. Could you freeze the sauce? Glass mason jar maybe?
Are you kidding me right now with this recipe??!! I just had this for dinner and it is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. This sauce….oh, this sauce. I would eat this sauce in a bowl with a spoon and call it roasted butternut squash soup. Yummy! I’m thinking my lunch tomorrow will be a baked potato with this sauce drizzled over it. Sounds good to me.
This was delicious! Spicy and smooth at the same time, and super easy to make. I made it with sautéed spinach and it turned out great!
What a great, decadent tasting, comforting dish! I’m so happy we’re having pumpkins here again! This pasta will be on the menu maaaaaaany times this autumn! Thanks Angela!
I can not use cashews due to an allergy. Is there another nut that will work in this recipe and the sour cream recipe?
Thank you