High Protein Creamy Pasta
High Protein Pasta with “Cream” Sauce I love pasta – always have. Of course it didn’t love me, considering I was gluten sensitive, but who knew? I grew up with an Italian father and Italian was my “go to” food choice. One of my most favorite pasta dishes was fettucine alfredo – my Dad’s name was “Alfred” so we used to joke about that. One day I discovered a pink sauce – it was basically alfredo sauce with a dollop of marinara sauce to make it pink. It was pretty to look at, and pretty darn delicious to eat. Of course I felt terrible most of the time since I basically “lived” on gluten and dairy – two foods I completely don’t tolerate. Sound familiar? Perhaps you too have discovered gluten and dairy to not be your friends. If so you’re in very good company and this site can now be your new friend – not a single recipe contains either ingredient! :-)) I’m always trying to improve the health quotient of my recipes. While I’m a huge pasta fan, as previously stated, I’m not a big fan of refined grains. So while rice pasta is “okay”, it’s not ideal and I’m always going for ideal! Enter lentil pasta! I was suspicious when my daughter brought it home. I’ll admit to being a pasta snob and while I have tried less refined products made with quinoa, black beans and other ingredients, I hadn’t found one I liked. My skepticism made this pasta an even better surprise – I loved it. Some hints about the pasta – don’t undercook it. If you’re Italian like me, or just like to cook, you’ll know that pasta should be cooked al dente – which means it has a little “tooth” or firmness to it. This pasta is different. You want to cook it fully which takes about 10 minutes. It’s dense which makes it filling. Of course it’s loaded with protein, unlike typical pasta, so you’ll find you can’t eat as much as you typically might. But that’s one of the things I love about it – around 20 grams of protein, filling and NO refined grains. Now the fun part is the sauce. If you’re in a rush there’s nothing wrong with opening a jar of your favorite organic pasta sauce, as long as the ingredients are healthy. But don’t you want to try a luscious creamy “pink” sauce? Yum! The recipe below is a small variation on my classic cashew cream sauce with the pink coming from roasted red peppers. If you dislike red peppers you could always make the basic sauce and add some pasta sauce to turn it pink – there are endless varieties. And, of course, I encourage you to add some sauteed (or lightly steamed) vegetables to your pasta or serve it with a large salad. I hope you enjoy this pasta as much as I do. A patient recently told me about a black bean pasta she enjoys. If you have a specific brand you’ve tried and liked, let me know.Buon Appetito!
Ingredients
- 1 box Tolerant Red Lentil Pasta - rotini is what I used
- 1 1/2 cups of organic cashews soaked for at least 15 minutes, longer is fine
- 1 cup of filtered water
- 1/4 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp of onion powder
- 1 Tbsp of nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp of organic lemon juice
- 1 organic whole roasted red pepper - jarred is fine
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak cashews.
- Bring salted water to a boil.
- Once boiling add the pasta to the water and stir well to ensure none sticks. In about 5 minutes stir it again.
- While the pasta is cooking drain the cashews and put them into a high speed blender.
- Add the water, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, red pepper.
- Blend until very smooth.
- Taste the sauce and decide what it needs. More lemon? If you like the red pepper flavor consider adding another one. If you like it "cheesier" consider an extra Tablespoon of nutritional yeast. Salt can be added now as well.
- Make sure the pasta is fully cooked and then drain it.
- Pour over pasta and enjoy.
Notes
Is Your Health At Its Optimum?If you are suffering from any of the problems listed above—contact us for a consultation. Call (727) 335-0400 to schedule. Our medical clinic is located in Clearwater, FL. If you are not local to us, our medical team treats patients from across the country and internationally via telemedicine consultations. We help you find the underlying root cause of your health issues. To your health,
Dr. Vikki Petersen
DC, CCN
IFM Certified Practitioner
Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Author of the books:
“The Gluten Effect”
"Hiatal Hernia Syndrome",
and of the e-book “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”
Notes
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