Who needs pasta to make salt and pepper pasta? Not you, my friend. Not you. You only need four ingredients and about 30 minutes to make this recipe!
Not only is this vegan salt and pepper pasta sauce healthier than the conventional variety, but you dish it up over zoodles instead of regular noodles! This recipe is uncharacteristically healthy for me, and I'm into it!
I feel like salt and pepper get kind of short shrift when it comes to seasoning. When you're counting how many ingredients are in a recipe, for example, it's totally acceptable to not count salt and pepper, because everyone has this in their kitchens. That's right: you treat them like something as obvious as water.
They're so universal that we tend to overlook them entirely. And they're universal for a reason: they make food taste better. So! When my sister mentioned that she's obsessed lately with salt and pepper pasta, I couldn't resist trying to create a vegan version for her.
Making Salt and Pepper Pasta
This cooking adventure felt like a great chance to bust out my Spiralizer. Because what would be more fun than trying to make salt and pepper pasta without any actual pasta?
More spiralizer goodness: Raw Pad Thai
The one trick with this modification is that traditional recipes for this dish use the starchy pasta cooking water as the sauce base. Without it, you end up with a runny, bland sauce.
It was time to improvise.
I started by making an oil and nooch salt and pepper sauce. This worked pretty well, but I feel like it didn't stick to the noodles as well as I liked, and it relied too much on nooch to replace the starch for thickening.
Then, I realized that the answer was staring me in the face the whole time: cashews! Because you can't think "creamy vegan sauce" without thinking "cashews!" A salt and pepper cashew cream was the answer. The rich, decadent answer.
This recipe is super, super simple, y'all. I think you're going to love it.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Salt and Pepper Pasta
Ingredients
- ¼ cup raw cashews
- 3 medium zucchini
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Pour enough boiling water over the cashews to cover, and let them sit for 20 minutes. Drain.
- While the cashews soak, use a Spiralizer over a large bowl to turn those zucchini into noodles.
- Throw the cashews, water, lemon, nooch, pepper, and salt into your blender, and puree until very smooth. This actually works better in a small blender, rather than a high speed, since it's not a ton of sauce. This little amount kind of gets lost in the bottom of a serious, high speed blender. Just keep blending, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed, until you get a smooth salt and pepper cashew cream.
- Toss the sauce with the zucchini noodles, coating evenly. Taste, and add more salt and pepper, if you like. Serve immediately.
Vegan Heaven
I love zoodles and this sauce looks so good and easy, Becky!! Perfect for quick weeknight dinners. :-)
Becky Striepe
Thank you!
Ceara @ Ceara's Kitchen
This sauce sounds so simple and lovely. And I love the zoodles too!
Becky Striepe
Thank you, Ceara!
Linda @ Veganosity
Oh, I so agree with you about salt and pepper. Unless someone has health issues, I'll never understand why they don't use salt to season their food. This looks fantastic, Becky! I love that you used zoodles in place of pasta.
Becky Striepe
Thank you, Linda!
Sophia, Veggies Don't Bite
Looks so creamy and delicious!!! You can never have enough pasta sauce!!
Becky Striepe
Thank you, Sophia!
Alisa @ Go Dairy Free
I'd never actually heard of salt and pepper pasta -with noodles or zoodles! It looks and sounds delicious.
Becky Striepe
Thank you! My sister is obsessed right now. I'm glad she mentioned it!
Kristina
Jason has a pepper grinder collection, so always fresh here! :) I love the sound of this - pinning to try soon!
Becky Striepe
Ooh, I am so curious about his collection! We have a really creaky hand grinder, so I have made this recipes both ways, depending on how much punishment I feel like giving to my wrist!
Mel @ avirtualvegan.com
Time to dust off my spiralizer. I don't use it nearly enough. And i totally agree with you about salt & pepper. They are fantastic ingredients and don't get enough credit.
Becky Striepe
I feel the same way every time I use my spiralizer. I promised myself that this time I wouldn't let it gather dust in a drawer!
Jenn
And once again, I find myself needing a spiralizer. It's been on my wish list for, like, forever. This recipe sounds delicious! Simple, yet perfect. It would make a lovely light summer supper.
Becky Striepe
Ooh get yourself one! Mine was around $10 and gets the job done.
Becky Striepe
Oh! And thank you! :D
Andrea
Time to bust out my spiralizer! I haven't spiralized anything in ages. Your recipe sounds delicious, and I know just what you mean about making a small amount of sauce in a blender. Sometimes I'm lazy and I just use tahini or cashew butter.
Becky Striepe
Ooh I think a tahini or cashew butter sauce would work great in this!
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit
This is such a simple delicious raw meal! I like the simplicity of just salt and pepper to season, no fancy spices and seasonings needed to make me happy :)
Becky Striepe
Thank you! I'm glad salt and pepper are getting their minute in the spotlight.
Aimee / Wallflower Kitchen
I love any excuse to use my spiralizer at the moment :-) Sounds gorgeous!
Becky Striepe
Thank you, Aimee!