A super simple, yet surprisingly delicious recipe for creamy carrot pasta sauce. It makes a tasty alternative to tomato sauce and you only need three ingredients. Another easy vegan weeknight meal.
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It doesn’t matter how many carrots I use, I always seem to have a load of them sitting in my veg rack. I get carrots in my fortnightly veg box without fail. Luckily, I think they’re a really useful vegetable to have to hand. But I do need to get creative with them if I don’t want to get bored. This creamy carrot pasta sauce is one of the recipes I created to use a few of them in one go.
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce
Not only is this recipe a good one to use up any carrots you have lying around, but it’s a quick and easy meal, so perfect for weeknight dinners. It takes less than twenty five minutes from start to finish.
The only difficulty with making this sauce is remembering to soak the cashew nuts. It’s best to soak them in water for a few hours if you can. If you’re heading off to work, put them onto soak before you leave in the morning, then they’ll be ready to go when you get back home.
Soaking minimises or gets rid of the natural inhibitors in nuts that stops us digesting the all important proteins and minerals. It also softens the cashews which then creates a creamier consistency in the finished sauce.
If, however, you forget to soak the cashew nuts in advance, you can get away with pouring boiling water on them and leaving them for five minutes.
As regular readers will know, Tin and Thyme is a whole food blog. Normally, I cook and eat wholemeal pasta. And that is what I usually pair with this carrot sauce. However, I also hate waste of any kind and particularly food waste. So when I was given some white tagliatelle pasta recently, use it I surely did. This means the pictures you can see in the images here are not wholemeal pasta.
Reasons To Make This Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce
There are heaps of reasons to make this creamy carrot pasta sauce. If you like carrots, it’s bound to become a regular on your table. It’s:
- simple – only three ingredients.
- easy – a blender does most of the work.
- delicious – it’s hard to believe just how tasty this sauce is until you try it.
- frugal – carrots are cheap.
- quick – can be on the table from start to finish in under twenty five minutes. A perfect weeknight meal.
- 5-a-day – counts for at least two portions of your five-a-day.
- sneaky – fussy kids might eat their carrots without knowing what they do.
- nutritious – pair this with wholemeal pasta and you have a meal full of protein, healthy carbs, vitamins and minerals.
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce: You Will Need
As already stated, the ingredients for this creamy carrot pasta are very few. Like Jamie Oliver in his 5 Ingredients, I don’t count salt. It’s something most of us take for granted and generally have by the cooker.
I’ve gone two up on Jamie and have created this sauce with only three ingredients. One of them is a bit of a cheat though as it’s something I made earlier: wild garlic oil. I hope to make a blog post for this as it’s such a fabulous ingredient and I’m using it in virtually everything at the moment.
Don’t worry if you can’t get hold of wild garlic or make the oil though. You can substitute it with garlic cloves and sea salt. You don’t really need the oil part.
However, you will, of course, need pasta too. Unless you’re using the sauce for some other purpose. Use whatever pasta you like, though I highly recommend whole grain ones. I even have a recipe to make your own whole wheat pasta if you fancy giving that a go.
Three Ingredients
- Carrots
- Cashew nuts
- Wild garlic oil – can substitute with garlic and salt
Equipment
Apart from saucepans, a sharp knife and a chopping board, you will need a blender. If you want a really smooth and creamy sauce, a power blender is the best tool for the job. I use a glass jug power blender which I absolutely love, but it is expensive.
Optional Extras
I really like this recipe topped with fried leeks, onions or shallots. At this time of year we have leeks ready for eating at the allotment, so that’s what I’ve gone for this time. Leeks and carrots pair very nicely.
A sprinkling of vegan parmesan adds umami and chopped parsley adds fresh peppery notes. Parsley is one of my favourite herbs. Did you know it’s particularly high in vitamin C?
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce: Step-by-Step
The amount’s I’ve given are for two people, but you can easily double, triple or quadruple the recipe as needed.
Step 1. Soak Cashews
Before you head off to work in the morning or start your day, get the cashew nuts on to soak. The longer they soak the better, but try for at least two hours.
All you need to do is place them in a bowl and cover in cold or room temperature water. Leave them on the side as they don’t need to go into the fridge.
If you forget, soak them in boiling water for five minutes, but it’s really best to soak them in cold water for longer if you can.
Step 2. Prepare Carrots
Scrub the carrots then top and tail them. There’s no need to peel them unless they’ve started to go black.
Chop them roughly then place in a lidded pan with a large pinch of salt. The smaller you cut them, the quicker they will cook.
Cover the carrots with water and put the lid on the pan. Bring to the boil, then simmer for ten to fifteen minutes until they’re cooked. If you’re not sure, just poke them with a knife. If the knife slides in easily, they’re done. They don’t need to be mushy.
Drain the carrots, but keep the water.
Step 3. Cook Pasta
Whilst the carrots are cooking, get the your chosen pasta on to boil. Cook as per the instructions on the pack.
Step 4. Prepare Leeks (optional)
If you’re topping the carrot sauce pasta with leeks, onions or shallots, you need to get them frying whilst the carrots and pasta are cooking. Slice, then, fry them gently in olive oil and a pinch of sea salt to your liking.
I fry the leeks in extra virgin olive oil for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 5. Blend Sauce
Drain the cashew nuts, then place them in a blender with drained carrots, the wild garlic oil and some of the carrot cooking water.
If you don’t have wild garlic oil, use two garlic cloves and a large pinch of salt instead. Either cook the garlic along with the carrots or add it raw just before blending.
Blend the sauce on high speed until it’s smooth and creamy. If it needs more water, just keep adding the cooking water from the carrots until you get a thick, but saucy consistency.
Step 7. Serve Pasta
Drain your pasta, reserving some of the water. Return the pasta to the pan, then mix in the sauce whilst both are still nice and hot. A fork or tongs are good implements for this.
Divide the pasta between two bowls, then top with the fried alliums, if liked and some chopped parsley and a sprinkling of vegan parmesan.
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce: Ramp It Up
This three ingredient carrot pasta sauce is delicious just as it is. But it’s always good to have options. If you want to ramp up the flavour, here are a few ideas.
- Add half a fresh red chilli. Use a whole one if you like things hot. I leave it up to you whether you take the seeds out or not. It’s the seeds and membranes of chilli peppers that hold most of the heat.
- Half to a teaspoon of miso paste will add umami and additional overall flavour. Miso is quite salty, so you might want to reduce the salt somewhere else in the recipe.
- Add some citrus juice. Freshly squeezed oranges, limes or lemons all work but will give a slightly different quality, depending on which one you use.
Other Carrot Recipes You Might Like
- Carrot & swede mash
- Cheese & carrot sandwich filling
- Healthy carrot cake (vegan)
- Moroccan carrot dip
- Pickled carrots
- Simple carrot salad with orange & ginger (vegan)
And for a whole collection of them from Tin and Thyme as well as other fabulous food blogs take a look at all the carrot recipes you will ever need.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this creamy carrot pasta sauce, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more pasta recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce. PIN IT.
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce – The Recipe
Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
Pasta Sauce
- 4-6 carrots depending on size
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 50 cashew nuts soaked in water for at least two hours
- 1 ½ tsp wild garlic oil or 2 cloves garlic and a large pinch of sea salt
To Serve
- 200 g pasta your choice
- fried leeks or onions or shallots (optional)
- vegan parmesan
- fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
Pasta Sauce
- Scrub the carrots and top and tail them. There’s no need to peel them unless they’re particularly manky.4-6 carrots
- Roughly chop then place them in a lidded pan with a good pinch of salt. Cover with water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes or until just cooked. Use a knife to test for doneness. If it slides in easily, the carrots are cooked.1 pinch sea salt
- Drain the carrots, but reserve the water. Transfer them to a blender with 200 ml of the carrot water.
- Drain the cashew nuts and add to the blender.50 cashew nuts
- Finally add the wild garlic oil (or garlic, olive oil and salt).1 ½ tsp wild garlic oil
- Blend on high speed until you have a smooth sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add some more of the hot carrot water.
To Serve
- Whilst the carrots are simmering, cook the pasta in salted water according to pack instructions.200 g pasta
- If using, fry the leeks, onions or shallots in some extra virgin olive oil over a gentle heat.fried leeks
- As soon as the carrot sauce is ready, drain the pasta. Return it to the pan and mix in the sauce. A fork or tongs are good for this. If the sauce needs loosening, add a little pasta or carrot water until you get your desired consistency.
- Transfer the pasta into individual bowls and top with the fried leeks, onions or shallots.
- Scatter some vegan parmesan over the top along with some parsley.vegan parmesan, fresh parsley
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing this recipe for a vegan sticky sausage traybake with #CookBlogShare, which is hosted by Sew White this week.
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Sisley White says
I love creamy pasta sauces and this one lived up to my expectations!
Choclette says
Yay, so pleased you liked it Sisley. It’s one of our favourites.
sherry says
this sounds so simple and healthy. such a good idea.
Choclette says
It really is. Thank you Sherry.
Chloe says
Oh this is smart, I’ve never thought to use carrot as a main sauce ingredients – now I just need to find some wild garlic to go with it!
Choclette says
The wild garlic is fabulous, but regular garlic works too.
Carrie says
Such a lovely quick and healthy pasta sauce. I always seem to have extra carrots hiding in the bottom of my fridge and I love the addition of cashew nuts for a nice creamy sauce.
Choclette says
Yes, there’s something about carrots. You never seem to run out. Glad you like it.
Janice says
I also always seem to have carrots in my fridge, so this recipe is a perfect way to use them.
Choclette says
Yes it’s funny how carrots seem to lurk. Hope you like the recipe.
Helen says
This looks SO GOOD! What a great way to use carrots. Love the leek topping too.
Choclette says
Thanks Helen, hope you like it. We’re just harvesting our leeks, so it’s leeks all the way at the moment. And they do go really well with the carrot pasta.
angiesrecipes says
Sounds and looks very good prepared with cashews!
Choclette says
The cashews give it a really creamy quality and a nice flavour too.
Lesley says
I like the flavours and simplicity of ingredients in this pasta salad. A lovely fresh tasting bowl of food.
Choclette says
Thank you Lesley. In terms of ingredients, it’s right up there with the simplest.