enjoy it with sauerkraut and sprouted crispy chickpeas!
Vegan Green Pasta (East meets West) is a great combination of flavor from Asian cuisine & Western pasta. With lots of leafy greens, and a few simple ingredients, this dish is incredibly tasty and healthy!
As a multicultural family, the way we eat is unique. I’m Thai and of course, Thai foods are my first choice.
However, living outside of my own land makes it difficult to find the exact same ingredients for authentic Thai dishes. I have learned to adapt the way I eat according to what I can find locally for many years now.
The result? It’s worked out great. I have created many of my own dishes by combining the ingredients I can find locally with a few simple but essential Thai ingredients I can find easily enough here.
However, this Vegan Green Pasta is not related to Thai foods directly. There’s a crucial ingredient I became addicted to from living for a year in Taiwan–It’s fermented tofu or “chao.”
I like chao so much, and finally learned to make my own after we left Taiwan.
Living here, I have to admit that pasta has become one of our comfort foods. However, eating pasta usually has some kinds of cheeses involved.
When I tried to eat less dairy, it wasn’t easy to give up cheesy pasta dishes. I challenged myself to make them tasty without using any dairy cheese, and chao has come to play a major role. It offers a pungent cheesy flavor, and makes any dish taste uniquely good!
This Vegan Green Pasta is one of my favorite dishes for chao. To make this very healthy the way I like, I combine a few kinds of leafy greens together. You can use any kind of vegetable you like, but if you would like to add more leafy greens to your diet, I highly recommend using kale, spinach and broccoli florets, the same way I do in this recipe.
To make the pasta sauce creamy and give it a bright green color, green peas are the best for this. You can use either fresh peas if they are in season, or frozen peas that are available all year round.
Now, let’s talk about the other key ingredients that make this Vegan Green Pasta so special.
Besides the leafy greens I mentioned above, mint is another one we can’t leave out. It gives a nice spring and summer fragrance to the dish.
Combining everything together with a little bit of good salt, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon juice, you’ll realize how tasty and healthy this simple Vegan Green Pasta is.
Ready to bring Vegan Green Pasta (East meets West) to your dining table today? Let me show you how!
Ingredients for making Vegan Green Pasta:
Note: this makes about 3 generous servings
- About 1 packed-cup (240 ml) or more of each, green peas (fresh or frozen) kale, spinach and broccoli florets
- 2-3 stems of spearmint
- 2-3 thumb-size pieces of fermented tofu (chao) Note: You can substitute it with 2-3 tsp (10-15 ml) soy free miso, if you don’t eat soy
- 1 TBSP (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp (5 ml) salt
- A ½ lemon
- A ½ (about 225 g) pack of pasta of your choice. I like brown rice pasta
- 2 cups ( 480 ml) of drinking water for making the sauce.
- Some water for cooking the pasta
Instructions:
- Wash all the vegetables and let the water dry.
- Boil some water and cook the pasta according to the instructions. I use brown rice pasta and use the energy saving option. I cook it in boiling water for only 1-2 minutes, then turn the heat off and cover the lid. Let it continue to cook for about 16 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the vegetables: Thaw the peas. If you use whole spinach, just pinch off the leaves and compost the tough stems and roots. Remove the kale spines and cut the leaves into 2-3 pieces. Cut the broccoli florets and make sure they are not too big. Note: I usually put spinach on the bottom of the prepping bowl, then kale, and broccoli on the top. I find this method is very easy for the next step.
- Bring the water to a boil, put the broccoli in first as it takes longer time to cook, then kale, spinach and peas last. Push everything under the water, quickly turn the heat off, and cover it for a few seconds.
- Strain the cooking water and set it aside, we need it for making the sauce.
- Separate the peas–about ⅓ (80 ml) of a cup–and set aside, then stir the vegetables so they can cool off faster.
- When the vegetables are cool to the touch, put them in a blender. Add the cooking water and mint leaves. Blend to a puree.
- Add the salt, chao, olive oil and lemon juice. Blend it again until smooth.
- Now, the pasta should be cooked. Drain it and rinse it according to the instructions.
- When the pasta is ready, add the sauce and the peas that are saved. Gently mix and serve right away.
- This Vegan Green Pasta goes so well with sauerkraut and crispy sprouted chickpeas.
- Enjoy!
preparing the vegetables
cook the vegetables only for a few seconds
add fresh mint leaves to the cooked vegetables
vegetable cooking water
blend the sauce until smooth
add chao, salt, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice
creamy vegan green pasta
enjoy it with sauerkraut and sprouted crispy chickpeas!
