Vegan Walnut Basil Pasta
This Vegan Walnut Basil Pasta is so meaty, full of flavor and ready in less than 30 minutes. Can be made gluten-free with pasta of your choice and is the perfect plant-based weeknight dinner!
Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (I just used broth here, no oil)
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
- 2 teaspoons sun-dried tomato paste (see Note)
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- handful fresh basil leaves
- 2 pitted Medjool dates, chopped
- 6 ounces dried regular or gluten-free spaghetti or pasta of choice
- cherry tomatoes, halved, for garnish
Instructions
- In a large pan, saute the red onion, green onion, and garlic in the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes NOTE: I just used broth here instead of the oil.
- Add the tomatoes, walnuts, tomato pastes, Italian herbs, and salt to the pan and cook for 5 more minutes. The tomatoes should add enough liquid, but feel free to add a few tablespoons of water or vegetable broth if necessary. Add the fresh basil last.
- Transfer to a food processor and pulse the sauce with the dates (you can omit this step if you chop the dates very finely and simply add them to the pan). I wanted my sauce pretty smooth, so I blended it up to a thick, but still well textured sauce, as pictured.
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Serve topped with the sauce, and garnish with more fresh basil and a few halved cherry tomatoes.
Notes
Instead of using the sun-dried tomato paste, you can use 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes and increase the regular tomato paste to 1 tablespoon.