Cashew & Tofu Cream Pasta Sauce

Spaghetti stirred through a creamy cashew and tofu based sauce, with garlic, mushrooms, tarragon and spinach. Cashews add a lovely richness to this sauce, and the tofu adds extra plant based protein

Since I got This Little High Speed Blender from Wilko, I’ve been experimenting with making creamy sauces. Previously as I only had a hand blender, I had to stick to using silken tofu to make creamy sauces, as it couldn’t really blend nuts or firm tofu until they were completely smooth. But now I’ve been using firm tofu and soaked nuts to make creamy sauces with

This is really easy to make, tasty and filling. I served this sauce with spaghetti, but it would also go well poured over boiled or mashed potatoes, meat free steak or fish free fish, or served with gnocchi

Yield; 375g sauce Cook time; 50 minutes, including the time taken to press the tofu and soak the cashews

You’ll need;

50g raw cashews
150g (this is the weight before pressing) firm tofu
200ml plant milk
Two teaspoons of nutritional yeast
One tablespoon of oil/margarine/dairy free butter
Two cloves of garlic, minced
200g white mushrooms, sliced
Two handfuls of spinach leaves, roughly chopped
Half a teaspoon of tarragon, you can leave this out if you dislike tarragon
Salt and black pepper to taste
300g (this is dry, uncooked weight) spaghetti

Method;

Start by pressing the tofu and soaking the cashews Pop the cashews into a small bowl and cover them with boiled water. Leave them to stand for 30 minutes to soak. While the cashews are soaking, press the tofu to remove excess water (Check out this post for more information on how I press tofu). After 30 minutes, drain away the water from the cashews, now they should look like this
Into a blender, add the pressed tofu, cashews, plant milk and nutritional yeast. Blend until the sauce is completely smooth
Next, heat the oil/margarine/dairy free butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it’s melted, add in the minced garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, or until fragrant. To cut down on the cook time, cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the pack while you’re making the sauce
Add in the mushrooms and cook them for around 10 minutes, stirring often. Next add the sauce, tarragon, and season to taste with salt and plenty black pepper
Give the sauce around five minutes to heat through, then add in the spinach. After a couple of minutes the spinach should have wilted
Once the spaghetti is cooked and the sauce is done, drain the spaghetti thoroughly and stir it through the sauce. Once the spaghetti is evenly coated in the sauce, serve immediately