This Spicy Cajun Pasta is delightfully creamy with a spicy kick, loaded with flavorful veggies and the option for chipotle veggie sausage! Easy to make, this pasta dish is healthy and incredibly flavorful! Vegan and easily made gluten-free.
What is cajun seasoning?
Cajun seasoning is a blend of spices and herbs that’s used quite a bit in Louisiana cuisine. It’s usually a mixture of paprika, cayenne, garlic, onion, thyme, and oregano. Cajun seasoning has a slightly sweet and spicy aroma and gives dishes depth and warm flavors! Some cajun seasoning is more spicy than others, so adjust added peppers and additional cayenne powder to fit your spice preference.
Tips for success
- Don’t overcook the pasta. No one likes soggy noodles, so keep an eye on the pasta. Timers help a lot! Pasta will be warmed up with every thing else at the end so it will cook a little longer after being boiled.
- The longer cashews soak, the better. If they don’t soak long enough, there will be tiny pieces that don’t blend completely. If you plan ahead, soak cashews overnight. If cooking on a whim, pour boiling water over them and soak for at least 15 minutes, longer is even better. The softer the cashews are, the creamier your cashew sauce will be.
- Reserve a little pasta water. After straining the noodles, toss with 1 tsp pasta water at a time to help prevent them from sticking.
- Spices don’t last forever. It’s surprising how often I find spices from 2012 or prior when at someone else’s house. Did you know ground spices only last about 3 months? They won’t mold or make you sick, but they drastically lose their flavor potency and color, making a dish much more bland than it should be. Buying whole spices and grinding them yourself makes a world of difference in flavor and it’s not a lot of extra work. When you do buy ground spices, make sure you go through it quickly and let those old spices go!
- Use your favorite spicy veggie sausage. My personal favorite is Field Roast’s Spicy Mexican Chipotle, my second favorite is their Italian, and I kinda like their smoked sausage for certain things (but not this pasta!). Other than those, I dislike every other veggie sausage that I’ve tried thus far. If you don’t find any you like, don’t use them! Veggie sausage enhances a dish if you enjoy them but if they’re cardboard-esque to you, they will drag down a yummy meal.
Super broccoli
If you have the time, chop the broccoli 40 minutes before you cook it because it essentially becomes a cruciferious super-hero. No joke! Sulforaphane is the main active ingredient in broccoli and it is a powerful phytochemical. Sulforaphane acts like an antioxidant, protecting our brain and eye health, it’s anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and even helps to prevent and treat cancer!1
But there’s a catch: there isn’t any sulforaphane IN the broccoli UNTIL you bite (or chop) it, which then creates a chemical flare reaction. When the sulforaphane precursor (glucoraphanin) mixes with the enzyme myrosinase when chewed or chopped, voila! The sulforaphane is formed. If you chop broccoli and cook it immediately, the enzyme myrosinase is destroyed once exposured to heat (while glucoraphanin and sulforaphane are resistant). So there must be 40+ minutes between the time you chop broccoli and expose it to heat for sulforaphane, to form.2
Eat all the raw broccoli you want! The sulforaphane will form while in your stomach, waiting to be digested. But if you’re cooking it, try to plan ahead and always let it rest before exposing it to heat.
For an extra antioxidant boost…
I intentionally don’t cook the bell peppers with the rest of the veggies to preserve the nutritional value! Bell peppers are packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, and potassium and also contain iron, folate and fiber. But bell peppers are vulnerable to heat so cooking reduces the amount of antioxidants greatly. Red bell peppers contain the most nutrients, with 11x more beta-carotene and 1.5x more vitamin C than green bell peppers!3 Plus, it’s nice having a little fresh crunch to balance out the other softer ingredients!
Green Peas
Although thought of as a veggie, green peas are actually a legume! Green peas aren’t as high in protein as other legumes, but high compared to other veggies and are packed full of nutrients, fiber, and vitamins! A ½ cup of cooked green peas contains:
- Calories: 67
- Carbs: 12.5 grams
- Fiber: 4.4 grams
- Protein: 4.3 grams
(% of the daily value)
- Vitamin A: 3.6%
- Vitamin K: 17%
- Vitamin C: 12.6%
- Thiamine: 17%
- Folate: 12.6%
- Manganese: 18%
- Iron: 6.8%
- Phosphorus: 7.5%4
Although green peas are considered a starchy food similar to potatoes and squash, they actually have a low glycemic index and can be helpful with regulating blood sugar levels and help prevent insulin resistance.5
Green peas are more than just tasty; with the high antioxidant content, saponins, as well as high vitamin K content, green peas have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties!6 Green peas also help prevent heart disease (the #1 killer in the U.S.) with the rich mineral and fiber content.
Pasta’s bad rap
Pasta is often thought of as guilty comfort food, chock full of carbs that will lead to weight gain and spike blood sugar. I have good news for you: this isn’t true! Whole wheat pasta is actually a low-medium7 glycemic food and legume pasta (chickpea, lentil, black bean pasta) are all low glycemic!8 Not all pasta is created equal: just as you’d avoid Wonderbread but reach for whole wheat or rye, steer clear of white pasta, as the germ and bran are removed during processing and is digested more quickly. Speaking of bread, we don’t digest pasta at the same rate as bread. Pasta is denser, and with the smaller airspaces we digest it much slower.
Why isn’t anyone talking about how pasta is a great protein source?! One 2 oz serving of whole wheat spaghetti has 7g of protein while legume pasta has around 13g! Pasta is a fabulous source of protein and it’s a complete protein (did you know all plant food are complete proteins?) and although it’s low in the essential amino acid lysine, cashews happen to be high in lysine! Moral of the story: you don’t have to worry about not getting enough protein or complete proteins eating plant foods, just keep your plate colorful and diversified and your body will take care of the rest!9
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Spicy Cajun Vegan Pasta
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 large bowls 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Spicy Cajun Pasta is delightfully creamy with a spicy kick and loaded with flavorful veggies! Easy to make, this pasta dish is healthy and incredibly flavorful!
Ingredients
- 14 oz pasta, medium shells or rigatoni are my favs
Creamy Cajun Sauce
- 1 cup cashews, soaked
- 2 cups plant milk, unsweetened and unflavored (soy is my fav)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 Tbsp cajun seasoning
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt (to-taste)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 3 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Veggies
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 1 chili fresno or serrano, minced. Omit 1/2 or all seeds depending on preferred spice
- 2 spicy veggie sausages, broken in chunks (Field Roast’s Chipotle are my favorite!) *optional
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups broccoli, chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced
Instructions
- Place cashews in a bowl and pour boiling water over them and soak for 15+ minutes.
- Chop all the veggies so they’re ready to go.
- In a large skillet on medium heat, sauté red onion, spicy veggie sausage, and chili fresco in a drizzle of water or oil. Once onion is softened, add in broccoli and garlic, stirring occasionally. When broccoli is desired softness, stir in peas and bell pepper and cook for another minute, then turn off heat.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook 14 oz of shells (or other type of pasta) according to package directions until al dente. Don’t overcook! Once al dente, strain water (reserving a few tsp of pasta water) and add pasta back to pot. Toss with 1 tsp pasta water at a time to prevent pasta from getting clumpy.
- While everything cooks, strain water from cashews using a strainer. Place cashews, 2 cups plant milk, and everything else under “Creamy Cajun Sauce” in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour Creamy Cajun Sauce over pasta and stir to coat evenly. Mix in cooked veggies. Taste, adding any more salt, pepper, or spices it may need. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Did you enjoy this Spicy Cajun Pasta? I’d love to hear! Leave me a comment below! 🙂
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5225737/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/2016/02/09/how-to-cook-broccoli/
- https://www.webmd.com/diet/peppers-health-benefits#1
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/green-peas-are-healthy#TOC_TITLE_HDR_5
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32419476/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414455/
- https://sharethepasta.org/in-the-news/note-dietitian-glycemic-index-pasta/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8623826/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/do-you-have-to-combine-plant-proteins-at-a-meal/
Loved this creamy pasta with nice heat and awesome veggies, I went back for seconds! Five stars for sure!