Healthy Avocado & Veggie Pasta

This healthy avocado and veggie pasta uses mashed avocado for the sauce, making it the perfect warm weather dish! It's creamy, flavorful, and cooling... you won't have to heat up your house to enjoy a nice dinner on a warm summer's night.

This healthy avocado and veggie pasta is a quick, filling, creamy, flavorful pasta. The idea came to me because I came upon a ton of ripe avocados for free one day. As you know, you gotta use those bad boys quick! So I made avocado fudge - it was so-so. I made avocado toast, guacamole, tostadas... All the avocado things, yet I still had more avocados to get through.

Guacamole tostadas really inspired this dish. I wondered what would happen if I swapped the tortilla for pasta, and added the guacamole to the pasta with veggies. Lo and behold, it was pretty good! I tweaked the spices a bit, and found myself with a nice, refreshing pasta. It's quick, tasty, healthy, and doesn't heat your whole house up! Perfect, for those warm summer nights 🙂

Home Cook Substitutions:

Healthy Avocado & Veggie Pasta Variations

Ok, there are a bunch of ways to do make this beauty. You can add whatever veggies you want/love/have on hand - though I do recommend sauteing them first. It adds some texture and depth to the pasta. But, you do you.

Beyond that - when it comes to protein - the world is your oyster. Here, I made the dish vegan and used garbanzo bean pasta for added protein. You could however use regular pasta, (whatever you like/have on hand), or veggie noodles if you wish.

For protein, you could add add tofu, hard boiled eggs, beans, tempeh, chicken, turkey, tuna, or even salmon (smoked would be delicious).

Whatever you do, be sure to top it with my vegan cashew parmesan cheese (or regular parmesan cheese)!

Please Note!

This pasta is best served fresh and does not keep well overnight, as the avocado will brown and it's flavor will change. If you wanted, you could add lemon to the avocado to try and combat this. I personally hate the taste of browned avocado though.

If you want to make this one ahead, cook the pasta and veggies ahead of time. Right before serving, mash up the avocado real quick and add the spices. Toss everything together and voila - a picnic ready meal!

Alternatively, you could also prepare the avocado sauce ahead of time with extra lemon, store it in a container, and place some saran wrap directly on the avocado mash, pushing all the air out, before sealing up the container. This should keep the avo mash fresh until the next day, where you can mix everything together right before serving.

Avocado Pasta

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• Author: Emily Marrs
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 0 servings 1x
• Category: Main Course

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2.5 cups uncooked pasta (I used chickpea rotini pasta for added protein)
• 1 medium avocado
• 1 small yellow onion (diced)
• 3 cloves garlic (diced)
• 2 cups white, crimini, or portabella mushrooms (sliced)
• 1 medium tomato (diced)
• 14 stalks asparagus (sliced)
• ½ tsp tamari or soy sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (¼ sliced medium lemon typically equals 1 tbsp lemon juice)
• 2-3 tbsp water
• ½ tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ⅛ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ - ½ tsp kosher salt (to taste)

To Serve

• cilantro &/or parsley
• lemon juice
• nutritional yeast
• cashew cheese

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package.Drain and set aside.
2. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil (or use water) in pan over medium heat. Add onion, saute 3 minutes. Add garlic, saute 2 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and tamari, cook 3-5 minutes until mushrooms start to soften and turn brown. Add asparagus and cook 3-4 minutes.
4. In a bowl, mash avocado until smooth. Add 2-3 tbsp water, spices, tomato, and lemon juice. Mix well.
5. Turn veggies off of heat. Add pasta, veggies, and avocado mash to bowl and stir well to combine.
6. Serve with parsley, cilantro, squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. 

Notes

This pasta is best served fresh and does not keep well overnight as the avocado will brown and it's flavor will change.

^add tofu/beans/chicken for additional protein