Meatless Monday: Spinach Pasta with Pumpkin Coconut Cream Sauce

When fall arrives, there are certain things I can’t stop thinking about. Cozy sweaters and scary movies rank pretty high, but mostly I think about food: Pumpkins, cinnamon, apples, hot chocolate – the list is endless. Then, I channel those thoughts into yummy fall recipes. This one is creamy and flavourful, and makes the whole house smell like pumpkin! I enjoyed it while watching 80s horror movie Fright Night, which I think made it even more delicious!

1/2 package of spinach rice noodles
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup yellow onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
Fresh thyme
1 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)
Pumpkin seeds
Salt and pepper

This recipe starts the night (or one hour) before you make it, with a can of coconut milk. Coconut milk has a secret quality when it’s cooled, so when you put a can in the fridge overnight (or in the freezer for an hour) it separates, and a thick, creamy part that resembles freshly whipped cream rises to the top. That’s the part you want to use for this recipe, to make it nice and creamy.

First, saute onion, garlic, red pepper and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat. Add a tsp each of black pepper and salt. Add fresh thyme to taste. In a pot, mix coconut cream, pumpkin puree, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast until coconut cream has melted and nutritional yeast has dissolved. Mix well and then add sauce to red pepper and mushroom mixture. Turn heat down to low. While simmering, cook the spinach noodles until al dente.

Add spinach noodles and sauce to plate and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

-Katharine Watts, Associate Web Editor

Katharine isn’t just a web editor here at Best Health, she also blogs about healthy baking at Pastry Addict.