Creamy Gluten-Free & Vegan Avocado Pesto Pasta

Laura of Laura Live Well brings a tasty take on traditional pesto with the use of avocados! This recipe is perfect for those who follow and are gluten-free and vegan.

As Laura wrote, "This easy avocado pesto pasta is easy to make at home and is naturally vegan and gluten-free. Traditional pesto is made with lots of nuts, oil, and cheese making it relatively high in calories. Creamy avocado vegan pesto is a lightened-up pesto using no added oils or cheese." 

This recipe brings both healthy and yummy with ingredients such as basil, avocado, lemon, cashews, and nutritional yeast. Putting good ingredients into your body is obviously good for you, but here's a few points as to why this dish is packed with it:

- Basil is good for digestion, is anti-flammatory, promotes a healthy gut, contains many antioxidants, and much more! (source: https://bit.ly/3CyzQvU) 

- Avocados help fight Metabolic Syndrome, helps with digestion, supports bone health, reduces blood pressure, and contains heart-healthy fats (source: https://bit.ly/3xunp0r)

- Our Shell Pasta that is cassava-based helps with digestion, is naturally gluten-free, contains healthy carbohydrates, high in fiber, and is low in fat and sugar. Check out our Cassava Facts page to learn more!

Ingredients:

1 box of CK Shell Pasta 

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

1 large ripe avocado

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons raw cashews (about 16)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 lemon juiced

2 tablespoons water, plus more if necessary

1/2 teaspoon sea salt


Notes: You can use 1 tsp minced garlic if you don't have fresh garlic and for the 2 tbsp of water, start with 2 tbsp and add more if you need to

Directions:

1. Add fresh basil leaves, ripe avocado, cashews, nutritional yeast, juice of 1 lemon, garlic, salt, and water to a food processor or high-speed blender
2. Next, blend on high until the pesto becomes smooth and creamy
3. Then cook your Cassava Kitchen shells on the stove as directed on the box
4. Last, drain pasta and stir in pesto while still warm
5. Enjoy creamy vegan and gluten-free pesto pasta
6. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for 5-7 days

Thanks to Laura for making this healthy, easy, and delicious recipe! Check her out on her site Laura Live Well and her Instagram for tasty pictures. 

Be sure to tag us #cassavakitchen + @cassavakitchen