A Vegetarian Dish A Month – Feb 2024: Pink Pasta
Continuing my New Years’ Resolution to cook at least one new vegetarian or vegan dish every month for every month in 2024, this month I took to Instagram to find what I wanted to make for February, 2024.
February 2024: Pink Pasta (Vegan)
I am a pasta fanatic, and I’ve always been really curious about vegan “cream” sauce pastas, so I decided to find one and try to make it. I eventually settled on this one: a pink pasta, with a sauce made from soft tofu and beets!
The Recipe
The recipe I picked was from @bensvegankitchen on Instagram. The sauce was made from:
- 1 cup beets (I used the packaged kind. Not hot on the plastic wrapping, but I decided to stick with what Ben does in the video for my first try)
- 200g Tofu
- 1/4 cup of nutritional Yeast
- A handful of Basil
- 1/4 cup soaked cashews
- A few cloves of garlic
- A squeeze of lemon
- Salt to taste
The sauce was basically made by putting all of the above into a blender…And that’s it! Pour over pasta and mix it up. I had some vegan parmesean cheese that I then sprinkled over the top and chowed down.
Again, at this point I wasn’t planning for this to be a blog thing, so I didn’t take a very appitizing photo – not to mention the fact that my camera was trying to adjust to the weird color of the pasta and it made it look even worse. The actual pasta was a lot more light pink and like something you might actually want to eat!
The Verdict
Like some vegan foods I’ve tried, my brain didn’t know what to expect for the first bite. I took a bite and went “Um…well that’s interesting.” It definitely didn’t taste like any cream sauce I’ve ever tried, and the beets really gave it some earthy flavor tones that were off-putting. My first few bites definitely had me thinking “Well, I don’t think I’ll be making this again…”
But after a few more bites, I started to get over the “newness” of the dish and started to appreciate the things I did like about it: the cashews gave it it’s own kind of creamy nutiness. The sweetness of the beets with the tangy lemon gave it a freshness that you don’t usually get from real cream sauces, which tend to feel really heavy in your stomach. On the contrary, this was nice and creamy without feeling heavy. I also loved that it was pure healthful food that wasn’t heavy in fatty, rich cream that usually makes me feel guilty after eating it…I was really starting to like it! By the end of eating the whole dish, I was actually starting to crave more!
While I won’t say that everyone is going to fall in love with this dish…by the end, my opinion had done a 180-degree turn to “I’m definitely making this again.”
The Wrap Up
I’d say I’m two-for-two at this point: honestly when I took on this challenge I assumed I’d make some pretty awful tasting things at the start…I’m no chef. But so far both of my never-before-made dishes have come out more than edible!
I take that as a win!
This pink pasta is definitely one I’ll make again, and I’m looking forward to finding another recipe for next month! As always, let me know if you have any “so easy anyone could make it” vegetarian or vegan recipes!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
