Recipe Highlights: Cashews, Turmeric, Nutritional Yeast
The highlights of this meal are Turmeric, Cashews, and Nutritional Yeast! These ingredients are fundamental to many plant based recipes. It turns out each have very special qualities. To maintain some of these qualities this meal is low heat and does not require high heat cooking.
Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional Yeast is a food product used in cooking to produce a nutty, savory, and/or cheesy flavor! As vegetarians and vegans search for cheesy flavors Nutritional Yeast has become the staple! As with most ingredients we use in plant based cooking this ingredient has some awesome benefits.
- It can be found fortified and unfortified. Therefore it is important to choose the brand that fits your needs. The fortified variety tends to contain B vitamins and trace minerals.
- It is a complete protein packing 2 grams of protein in each tbsp!
- It contains ANTIOXIDANTS! This seems to be the trend when consuming plant based meals.
- It is being studied for other potential benefits such as cholesterol maintenance and potentially boosting immunity.
Cashews
Like many other nuts, cashews contain antioxidants, protein, unsaturated fats, and have been associated with many health benefits. Some benefits include weight management, cholesterol control, and diabetes management. Although cashews contain more fat than many other nuts, they are great for you in low amounts. For recipes such as this, they provide a healthy way to thicken sauces and provide a sweet and savory taste. Although, it is not one of the nuts I recommend on a daily basis, because other nuts have more antioxidants, I highly recommend you incorporate it into recipes to add an extra boost of antioxidants and unsaturated fats to your meals.
Turmeric (Optional Ingredient)
The staple of curry! Turmeric has made headlines for decades! Curcumin, the compound causing all of the buzz, is to blame for the many benefits making Turmeric so popular. Time and time again Turmeric has shown multiple benefits for those with heart disease, brain disease, cancers, and inflammation. Just like many of our other ingredients, it contains antioxidants to prevent cell damage. If you can fit Turmeric into your diet, now is the time, try adding it to this recipe!
“Cheesy” Bow Tie Pasta
Equipment
- Pot
- Measuring cups (liquid/powder)
- Any blender
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp onion
- 1 cup almond milk (any plant based milk)
- 1/4 cup cashews
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 clove/tsp garlic or garlic powder
- 1 tbsp fresh tumeric root or powder (optional)
- 3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Pasta
- 12 oz whole wheat pasta
- 4 cup water
- 1 tbsp earth balance butter
- 2 cups broccoli
Instructions
- Boil water and add pasta. Place on medium heat and allow to cook while you make the sauce.
- Pour 1 cup of plant based milk in a bowl, add nutritional yeast, paprika, garlic, onion powder, and salt. Mix until all seasonings dissolve. Use 1/2 cup of this mixture for the next step.
- In a blender add fresh tumeric (optional), the cashews, and roughly 1/2 cup of the almond milk mixture (previous step). Blend until smooth.
- Combine the mixtures from the last 2 steps together and mix well.
- Strain pasta. Place back into the pot. Add butter to the pasta and mix.
- Add broccoli. Mix well.
- Add sauce to the pasta. Mix well, cook on low-medium heat for about 3 minutes. Allow the pasta to cool down. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
