A nourishing and flavorful pasta dish that is sure to be a go-to dish! This Creamy Lemon and Paprika Pasta is simple to make and is a healthier take on a traditional cream sauce.
The inspiration for this dish came from a craving for a twist on my Pasta with Cashew Cream Sauce recipe, but with lemon and paprika to change things up. It may have something to do with the abundance of lemons we had lying around (a great situation to be in, ha!).
We also recently purchased Hungarian sweet paprika, and I had been really excited to get cooking with it (working on a vegan paprikash recipe!). However, other paprika can work, even the smoked kind – just start with a smaller amount.
This pasta dish is creamy and dreamy, and like a warm hug in a bowl! I used medium shells for this Creamy Lemon and Paprika Pasta, and they worked perfectly to catch the creamy sauce inside the shells. It would also be great with farfalle, penne, rigatoni, fusilli, or any others that you may love.
Other Reasons to Love this Dish
There are so many ways to make this Creamy Lemon and Paprika Pasta a super nourishing meal (apart from the protein-rich cashew sauce). For example, you can use chickpea or lentil pasta. There are several brands that taste really delicious like Banza chickpea and Tolerant Organic lentil pasta. Just make sure to follow the cooking instructions on the package really well, to ensure the best texture possible for these types of pasta.
Additionally, you can serve the pasta with a side of vegetables or go ahead and add them to the pasta! It’s a great dish for incorporating roasted or sauteed vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower, peas and carrots, or any other vegetable you may have on hand like butternut squash or brussel sprouts.
Another reason I love this dish is that you can make it in easily 30 minutes. The cashews boil on the stove during the same time you’re cooking pasta. Then after that, you simply blend the cashews along with some other sauce ingredients. It doesn’t get much easier!
How this Creamy Lemon and Paprika Pasta Comes Together
As I mentioned earlier, this dish is super easy! The simple steps are below:
Boil and cook the pasta. At the same time, boil the cashews (this gets them much softer to blend more smoothly). While those are cooking, gather your other sauce ingredients and toppings like chives, scallions, or red chili flakes.
And if you’re planning to add any vegetables, or serve with a salad, you can prepare those during this time as well.
Once the pasta is done and the cashews are boiled, drain them. Add the cashews to a blender along with the other sauce ingredients.
That’s it!
Other Delicious Pasta Recipes
Have you tried any my other pasta recipes? Let me know! And you can check out those recipes with the links below. Or, click the “Recipes” tab here on my website above or the search bar to enter keywords.
Romanesco and Butternut Squash Pasta
Creamy Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake
Creamy Lemon and Paprika Pasta
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. pasta
- 1 cup cashews boiled in water for 20 minutes
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/8 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese used garlic chive flavor
- 1 cup warm vegetable broth
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- pepper to taste
- juice of 1/2 lemon
For serving
- chives and paprika or cayenne
Instructions
- Boil pasta in salted water until al dente.
- In a separate saucepan at the same time, boil the cashews.
- While they are cooking, gather the other sauce ingredients.
- When the pasta is done, drain and reserve 1/4 cup pasta cooking water.
- Drain cashews, add them to a blender along with remaining sauce ingredients. Add sauce back to hot pasta.
- Stir well, add bit of pasta water a little at a time if desired, to thin the sauce.
- Serve, top with chives and paprika or cayenne.
Made this for my family of four tonight. I mixed in Daring Original veggie chick’n pieces and topped with roasted asparagus. Absolutely delicious meal and will definitely make again.
Amazing, thank you so much!