Simply Pasta is a monthly recipe column in which Best of Vegan contributor Teri-Ann Carty delves into her 20-year experience in fine dining and shares her best practices and recipes for making amazing pasta. In the new installment of Simply Pasta, she talks about plant-based ways to enjoy the things you used to love before switching to a vegan lifestyle and shares her recipe for an indulgent vegan smoked “salmon” farfalle.
Are there things you miss as a vegan? If the answer is yes, that’s ok. I feel that people judge themselves quite harshly, especially after they have made the choice to live a vegan lifestyle. As if just because we have decided to go vegan, we are supposed to automatically forget all the things we used to enjoy before giving them up. My goal as a vegan creator and chef is to find ways to enjoy the things I used to love but make them plant-based. I don’t judge myself when I create things like vegan smoked salmon, vegan scallops, or vegan meat. Those are just the names I associate with the food as it is. I have no tolerance for judgment.
I loved fish before giving it up. It was the last thing to go before I went fully plant-based. I particularly loved salmon. In all its forms. I have been seeing a ton of the real deal on non-vegans accounts I follow and decided it was high time I created a plant-based version. The recipe for that will be up on my website very soon, so please stay tuned. If you can find vegan salmon in your local vegan grocery store, nab it for this recipe.
This pasta is creamy, smokey, and so nostalgic. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw cashews - soaked overnight
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp chili flakes
- ½ onion - diced
- 1 clove garlic - minced
- ½ lemon juiced
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1½ cup hot pasta water
- 1 cup vegan salmon - chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 7 asparagus spears - trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½ cup frozen peas
- Handful of sprouts
- ¼ cup toasted pinenuts
- Vegan parmesan
- Sea salt & cracked pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and salt liberally. Cook farfalle or pasta of choice until it reaches al dente. Reserve 1½ cups of pasta water before draining. While pasta is cooking, make the sauce.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan or dutch oven. Add onion and chili flakes. Cook until onion is translucent, and then add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds more. Scrape into a blender. Drain and rinse the cashews. Add them to the blender. Add lemon juice, dijon, nutritional yeast, a pinch of sea salt, and cracked pepper. With the machine running, add in ½ cup of hot pasta water. The sauce should be smooth and creamy. If you find the sauce is too thick, add more hot pasta water.
- Heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil in the same pan and add asparagus and peas. Cook until the asparagus starts to soften. Approximately 3 minutes. Add in chopped vegan salmon and pasta. Toss to combine. Pour sauce over the pasta. As the sauce starts to cool, it will thicken, so add in more pasta water to create a creamy, rich sauce. Finish the pasta with sprouts, vegan parmesan, and pinenuts. Taste for seasoning.
Notes
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Recipe, text, and photography by Teri-Ann Carty.
