Hey there,
Since being back at university after this very hot yet amazing summer I am also finally getting back into the grove of food prepping. I’m not preparing full meals, however, I’ve been trying to have at least a few components ready to go for my daily dinner bowls. As a result, I will only have to prepare a few bits and bobs before dinner is ready after a long day at university. I might fry up some tofu, mix up a sauce or massage some kale but that’s it really. Furthermore, I like to add some crunch by topping everything with nuts or seeds.
My weekly base: pasta in a creamy pumpkin sauce.
For this week’s base I decided to make something not so typical, at least for me. I made an autumn inspired pasta bake. It’s basically just spelt pasta in a creamy pumpkin sauce with loads of sage, which is the crucial in this recipe as it adds an extra depth of flavour to this otherwise rather simple dish. You could actually go ahead and serve this as is, however, I topped mine with a mixture of hazelnuts and nutritional yeast and baked it for 20 minutes to give it a crunchy topping as I love a variety of textures in dishes. Nevertheless, you could totally serve this immediately and enjoy it with your friends or family. I must admit this tasted best on the first day, however, I obviously just couldn’t eat it all in one sitting.
The perfect base for your autumn buddha bowl.
I actually had this with braised red cabbage, baked veggies and massaged kale most days. One night I added tofu, one night I added some steamed parsnips. The options are endless.
I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe as much as I did. Please leave me a comment if you try this and let me know what you thought!
Also I made this in my cast iron skillet, which I personally find the most conventient as you won’t need an extra dish for baking the pasta. I personally think anyone who loves cooking should have a cast iron skillet as they can be used for so many dishes. Here are two more examples: Vegan Shakshuka and Berry Baked N’Oatmeal .
- Sauce:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 4 sage leafs, finely chopped
- 200ml water
- 100ml unsweetened plant milk (e.g. coconutmilk, soymilk)
- pepper
- salt
- chili flakes
- Pasta:
- 200g spelt pasta
- Topping:
- 3 tbs ground hazelnut
- 2 tbs nutritional yeast
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- Garnish:
- A few sage leafs
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix ground hazelnuts and nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder as well as salt. Set aside for later.
- Cook pasta according to package directions, make sure to not overcook you’re pasta as you are going to bake it for about 15 minutes.
- While your pasta is cooking heat up some olive oil in a pan and sauté onion, garlic and sage until the onion has gone translucent. Add pumpkin puree and chili water, plant milk and mix until well combined. Season with salt and chili flakes to taste. Cook on low until the pasta is aldente.
- Drain the pasta, add to sauce and combined. Sprinkle with the hazelnut topping.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile fry up some sage leaves and toast some chopped hazelnut.
- Heat up some olive oil in a pan and pan-fry a few sage leafs for decorating.
- Serve immediately, top with fried sage leafs and sprinkle with chili flakes and enjoy!
Bisous,
Cassie Autumn Tran says
I’ve never tried a pumpkin pasta recipe, but I would absolutely love to! I figured that pumpkin would actually make a great sauce base, especially for a vegan mac n’ cheese dish! Anyways, this looks like such a beautifully flavorsome yet light dinner that’s great for any day. I love how the color isn’t too orangey since it looks more natural, but it still pops nicely in the photos.
fannythefoodie says
Thanks so much for your lovely comment! I hope you’ll try this one, I am sure you’ll love the creamy pumpkin sauce 🙂
Jessica says
This recipe looks amazing. I look forward to trying it! What would you typically add to it for your Buddha bowl?
fannythefoodie says
I paired it with braised red cabbage, roasted root veggies and massaged kale one night. Another night I baked some tofu, added more massaged kale and then I sprinkled it with a bunch of nuts and seeds. In the end buddha bowls are basically just bowls with loads of different components and you can really add anything you like.