Description
Creamy Spinach and Sweet Potato Noodles with Cashew Sauce – easy to make, adaptable, gluten free, vegan. Divine and delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews
- 3/4 cup water (more for soaking)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 4 large sweet potatoes, spiralized
- 2 cups baby spinach
- a handful of fresh basil leaves, chives, or other herbs
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil for drizzling
Instructions
- Cover the cashews with water in a bowl and soak for 2 hours or so.
- Drain and rinse thoroughly. Place in a food processor or blender (I got better texture with the blender) and add the 3/4 cup water, salt, and garlic. Puree until very smooth.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the sweet potatoes; toss in the pan for 6-7 minutes with tongs until tender-crisp. Remove from heat and toss in the spinach – it should wilt pretty quickly.
- Add half of the herbs and half of the sauce to the pan and toss to combine. Add water if the mixture is too sticky. Season generously with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and top with the remaining fresh herbs.
Notes
This recipe makes MORE than enough sauce – enough for at least 6 or 8 servings, if not more. I left the amounts that way because it seemed silly to make the sauce with only about 1/2 cup of cashews – it wouldn’t even really be enough to get going around in the blender, and I promise you’ll be able to find ways to use the remaining sauce. It’s extremely versatile.
The biggest thing that affects how many servings you’ll get in this recipe is the size of the sweet potatoes. Keep in mind that they will cook down a bit and one large sweet potato can be sometimes twice as big as a small sweet potato. Just use common sense in terms of serving size and sauce-to-noodles ratios! 🙂
Also, this recipe is sort of a comforting, neutral starting point for those of us who need tons of flavor in everything – so add whatever herbs or flavors you want to the sauce if you want to give it more of a punch. I love the idea of adding chipotles or sriracha, bacon, roasted garlic, caramelized onion… the list could go on…
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: sweet potato noodles, healthy recipe, spinach and sweet potatoes, vegan noodle recipe, vegan recipe