A healthy & light creamy pasta made with almond milk, cremini mushrooms, greens, lemon, basil and sun dried tomatoes. Vegan option.
Meals like this are the reason I love cooking at home. These are the kinds of dishes that my lactose intolerant self can’t order at restaurants. The amount of butter and cream that go into pastas and risottos… I don’t even want to know.
I worked on this a few different ways. I was going to make an almond version of cashew cream (similar to this one), but I decided I didn’t want to ask you to break out the blender. At least not this time.
The winner was this version where I simmered leeks & mushrooms in almond milk. Such a rich & creamy flavor develops, sans the butter. I did a little bit of pecorino cheese at the end, but it’s so very little that you could easily sub vegan cheese or nutritional yeast (or possibly omit it), without compromise.
creamy leek & almond pasta
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped leeks (white and light green parts)
- 1 cup chopped cremini mushrooms
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 cup original unsweetened Almond Breeze Almond Milk
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- ¼ cup grated pecorino cheese (vegan: sub nutritional yeast)
- pinches of red pepper flakes (optional)
- salt & pepper
- 8 oz. linguine pasta (reserve some of the pasta water)
- 2 cups chopped dandelion greens (or spinach)
- juice of 1 small lemon + some zest
- ¼ cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 2 scallions, chopped
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- handful of chopped fresh basil
- salt & pepper
- In a very small bowl, whisk together the corn starch with a few tablespoons of the almond milk until there are no lumps. Set aside.
- Make your sauce. In a small saucepan, heat olive oil, leeks, mushrooms, garlic, salt & pepper. Cook until soft, 5-8 minutes.
- Add the white wine to deglaze the pan. Stir once or twice and let the wine cook down for about 1 minute.
- Add the almond milk, and some more salt. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Slowly pour in the corn starch mixture, stirring as you pour. Add the pecorino cheese. Let simmer, stirring often, until the milk reduces a bit. About 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile start cooking your pasta.
- When your pasta has about 1 minute left, heat a large skillet, add a bit of olive oil. Add your greens, scallions, sun dried tomatoes, and a pinch of salt. Cook until just barely wilted. Add a big squeeze of lemon. Add the pasta and the sauce to the pan and toss to mix it all together. Add some pasta water as needed to create desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings. Remove from heat and add another squeeze of lemon, pine nuts, lemon zest and fresh basil.
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Very yummy!! (must reserve at least 1 to 1 and a half cup of pasta water, but amazing.)
So glad you enjoyed it, Rachel!
I just made the recipe with oyster mushrooms from my CSA box and loved it! I would double the sauce recipe next time, it was so dang delicious!!
This was really good!
I used what I had, so didn’t have sun-dried tomato, pine nuts, nor scallions. I subbed a bit of parsley for the basil and we added some parm. I also subbed soy milk since my almond milk was vanilla flavored.
Still great! Only complaint is that it took a lot of dishes and was a bit time-consuming, but worth the effort.
Made this over the weekend. It is super yummy. I will make again, especially the next time I host book club!
this looks amazing! Can I make the sauce ahead of time and store in the fridge?
hmm… I haven’t tried storing this one so I can’t say for sure. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!
Can’t wait to try it! I love almonds and pasta so this sounds like a perfect dish for me.
I made this for a quick dinner last night exactly as printed. So quick, easy and delicious. The sauce rock! Thank you for your recipes.
so glad you liked it!