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Delicious and quick and easy meal! I will sub spinach for kale next time for variety. Thank you for this recipe! You have a new subscriber.
India Puryear
Plant based magic coming hot to the table in three. two. one.
Guys, this is a delicious heaping pile of noodles and it wants to be your dinner. It’s creamy kale pasta and it has come to rescue you and your hungry self.
Here’s what we have happening ->
KALE. ♡ Chopped up super thinly (think slaw-like) and sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Bringing the powerhouse nutrition and rich color and feel-good vibes, like it always does. Also being very forgiving of a few neglected days in the crisper drawer. Haven’t thought about vegetables for a few days? Haven’t been stocking the fridge? Kale don’t care.
PASTA. ♡ Fettuccine if your name is Lindsay, but any other noodles will work. As much as we love kale, the noodles give our leafy green veg a promotion to comfort-food-that-we-actually-want-to-eat status. VERY IMPORTANT around here, kids. Very important.
SAUCE. ♡ We are talking about a plant-powered creamy sauce (read that again: plant powered creamy sauce) that is so full to the brim with good things such as cashews, almond milk, garlic, olive oil, salt, and lemon that it’s guaranteed that you are literally going to freak out about the velvety texture of this sauce. Just call me when you make it.
Hey guess what, regular busy people of the world?
In all those three sections, to make this entire luscious recipe, we are only ever using 5 ingredients. Just give me salt and olive oil for free, okay? This recipe can be made with pasta, kale, garlic, cashews, and almond milk. (And salt and olive oil. And lemon if you’re fancy today. Which we are. Obviously.)
Guess what else?
All these ingredients are pantry-friendly. Pasta, garlic, salt, olive oil, and almond milk? FAHREAL. These are things that can sit in your deserted house when you would choose to go out to eat a million times or maybe take a long weekend away because #summer and then come back into the kitchen a week later with hardly any forethought and say, THANKS GUYS FOR BEING HERE FOR ME. Not so much with the cream, the milk, all the dairy stuff you left in your fridge. But YES with the almond milk.
And even the kale. I mean, seriously, kale loves us. It just waits patiently for us in the fridge and forgives us so much more than any other leafy green vegetable.
Not that I ever find myself in situations like that. I mean, no. Me? Not at all.
(I lie. My whole life is that situation, especially when I come back from a long weekend in Florida like where I am this exact current weekend and like where you should come along for the virtual ride with me via Snapchat. To celebrate 7 years of marriage, Bjork and I driving from Miami to Key West in a totally chintzy – and by chintzy I mean awesome – tiny red convertible. I don’t know how or why this is happening, but it is and it shall be documented. Then we’ll make this together when I come home because everything will be ready and waiting and because it’s extremely creamy, buttery sans butter, and delicious.)
5 Ingredient Creamy Kale Pasta Bowls
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
5 Ingredient Creamy Kale Pasta! This recipe can be made with pasta, kale, garlic, cashews, and almond milk. So easy and delicious!
Ingredients
KALE:
- 3–4 cups shredded kale
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt to taste
SAUCE:
- 1 cup cashews (soaked – see directions)
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Almondmilk Unsweetened Original
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- squeeze of lemon juice if you have it
PASTA:
- 8 ounces of whatever kind of pasta you like!
Instructions
- Place cashews in a bowl. Cover with water and soak for about 2 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly.
- Heat the oil over medium low heat. Add the garlic and kale and saute for 5-10 minutes until very soft. Keep the heat low to avoid burning the garlic. Season with salt.
- Pulse all the sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender until very smooth.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve about 2 cups of the water from the pot when you drain the pasta.
- Toss the hot pasta with the sauce, kale, and just enough of the reserved pasta water to carry the sauce throughout all the noodles. Top with Parm, salt, and pepper. Voila!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: kale pasta, pasta bowl, vegan pasta
Thank you to Almond Breeze for making this creamy sauce a reality!
MORE DELICIOUS NOODLES:
Garlic Basil Chicken with Tomato Butter Sauce
Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Florentine Pasta
Spicy Sausage Rigatoni
Creamy Garlic Herb Mushroom Spaghetti
This sounds amazing. I’m adding sauteed mushrooms. Can’t wait to try!!
Can this sauce be made a day or two in advance?
This looks delicious! Do you think this would hold up well in crockpot for a potluck?
It might do okay! I think any hot pasta dish tends to get a little soft as it sits in the crock pot.
This recipe tastes like something they would sell at a restaurant! I added mushrooms and zucchini to pack in more vegetables and added rotisserie chicken but the base of the recipe is so simple. The fact that is has very little dairy was super enticing and my tummy is so glad I made this dish.
To clarify, I didn’t have almond milk so I used regular and hence what I meant by dairy
This is really good and super easy! I will make it again. I might cook the garlic in the sauce. The raw garlic had a bite and the sauce doesn’t really get cooked. A+
Do you use raw unsalted cashews in the cashew sauce? I’m making this in a few days so help!!!
Raw, unsalted cashews will work! Be sure to salt the sauce to taste!
We’ve made this a number of times, it is SO good. And the kids love it (says kale).
Thank you for this pasta sauce! It is so true about having tetra packs of almond milk (and any other non-dairy milks) in the pantry. We’ve greatly reduced our meat consumption and are working up the will power to cut out dairy from our diets (but CHEESE, though! We love cheese! How do you cut yourself off from that?!), so having this recipe and this versatile sauce at our finger tips will help when coming up with a creamy comforting weeknight meal that’s healthy! My husband said it’s almost like a vegan alfredo sauce and I agree. It tastes awesome with a bit of hot sauce, too!
Oooh yes, hot sauce would definitely give it a nice kick! So glad you and your husband liked the recipe!
Delicious and quick and easy meal! I will sub spinach for kale next time for variety. Thank you for this recipe! You have a new subscriber.
I just saw this 5 ingredient Creamy Kale Pasta after I printed out the other Creamy Kale Pasta. The 2nd one doesn’t have the milk, so I guess it isn’t really creamy. Am I missing something?
The latest Creamy Kale Pasta recipe calls for pine nuts and olive oil, which, when blended with the other ingredients in the food processor, give the sauce a creamy texture. But definitely a different type of creaminess than the sauce in this recipe!
Thank you for this! I cant believe my daughters actually loved this. My 12 year old even had leftovers for breakfast-which I loved all the protein she was getting. 🙂 Very easy as well.
So happy to hear this, Victoria!
Thank you so much for a vegan friendly recipe, it’s been so long since I had a creamy white pasta sauce. It came out really well and I also added some nutritional yeast for an additional cheesy flavor!
I had to comment regarding the writing about this recipe! I loved it!
I plan to make this soon, but I’m n the meantime, enjoying the read!
I just made this for my boyfriend and I’s Saturday night tea and it was absolutely delicious! I added chicken and just fried it in olive oil, salt and pepper and it was really easy, filling and tasty 😋 highly recommend!
Glad you two enjoyed this, Mireille!
I’ve never been a huge kale fan… until I met my wife. She has a Ukrainian background and is really great at making healthy food taste delicious!
She eats raw kale like a rabbit, which I prefer not to do yet, but baked kale on pasta or mixed in with whole grains is yummy!
Made this while on the road with cashew butter and no food processor. I added in mushrooms for an extra punch. It traveled perfectly and was super easy while still allowing me to get in protein and greens!
This was absolutely delicious. Added fresh ground pepper to top off the final dish.
I made it. It was YUMMY! I subed the almond milk with the pasta water and added some coconut aminos. It was creamy and great consistency. I had leftover sauce that I will be using tomorrow with another dish. Loved it. Thank you!
I tried this and loved it! Just wondering about leftovers and how to reheat it the next day?
I made this a couple of nights ago and it turned out great! I used my NutriBullet to puree the cashews and just threw all of the sauce ingredients in and it turned out thick and creamy, and ultra smooth. I poured boiling water over the cashews and soaked them for 2 hours. I made it with almonds the next day for a family member who cannot have cashews. The almonds did not get as smooth even though I used the same method. In either case, both were AMAZING! I added the zest of the lemon as well and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Everyone in my family, including my teenage son, gobbled it up and raved about it.
When my son saw me squeezing lemon into this pasta dish last night, he was aghast––he truly dislikes lemon (weirdo). He ate it anyway, though, and all the groans coming from the dining room were groans of pleasure. He later said it was the best vegan cream sauce he had ever had. I agree. Thanks for the recipe, Lindsay!
just made this tonight and it was super easy. Didn’t have time to soak the cashews so I ended up boiling them for 10 minutes which did the trick. I used almost 4 garlic cloves which gave it a really nice garlicky flavor. My husband and I devoured this dish. Way to go!! Thanks for this easy yummy recipe!
Glad to hear that!
Hi there,
I love this website and visit far too often. I have a question about the cashew sauce. Can it be frozen? My blender only likes to blend things in large quantities (stupid, no-good blender) and so I won’t get the creamy goodness if I only do a small batch. Thanks so much!
We’ve never frozen it before so can’t really say, but I don’t see why it would be an issue!
I’ve made this recipe many times and it is easy and absolutely delicious. In my opinion the lemon juice is not optional as it adds so much. I have a tip I wanted to add: if you are like me and know you won’t plan ahead and remember to soak the cashews, keep a jar of cashew butter in your pantry. Yes it is expensive but so good and it makes this recipe even easier. Use about 1/2 c cashew butter in place of the 1 c of cashews.
Thanks for the tip, Linda! Glad you’ve enjoyed it!
yumm!! Pasta with cashew sauce, what a great idea!