Last night the sous chef and I had a delicious creamy, rich pasta… but with no cream and minimal oil involved! It was phenomenal and so simple; you really must try it. (We fought over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch today… somehow the sous chef won. Must be because he was a trooper and did all the dishes by candlelight during our power outage).

This recipe comes from another blog, Oh She Glows, and can be found at: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/31/15-minute-creamy-avocado-pasta/

I made a few adaptions and additions, as described below.

Step 1: Put some pasta on to boil. I used brown rice spaghetti, but really any type would do.

Step 2: Gather up your ingredients for the sauce, including an avocado, fresh basil, a lemon, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I used a food processor to blend it all together, but a blender or even an immersion blender would probably work.

Step 3: Blend together 1 avocado, 1/2 cup fresh basil or more (the recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I don’t think you can add too much fresh basil), juice of whole lemon (I increased this from 1/2 lemon), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 clove garlic (I reduced this from 2 the recipe called for), 1/8 teaspoon salt (I found 1/2 teaspoon way too much), and pepper. Blend this until smooth, and your sauce is ready. It does not get heated up, but will become hot once tossed with the cooked pasta and veggies.

Step 4: Saute mushrooms and spinach in a frying pan until browned.

Step 5: Once the pasta is done, add the sauce and veggies and toss until combined. It’s best to do this in the hot pot to add heat to the sauce. I also threw in some cooked chicken breast to add some protein. (Helpful tip: every week or two we cook up a bunch of chicken breast, slice it, and freeze it to add to meals. It’s so easy to do all at once and makes weekday cooking a lot easier.)

Step 6: Enjoy!