Avocado Alfredo Pasta

I have been so excited for this post all week.  Do you remember on Monday when I told you I had some good experiments over the weekend?  We already had the soup and now we can finally enjoy this amazing pasta!  Like the chipotle quinoa chicken salad on Tuesday this pasta takes some raw elements and mixes them with some cooked items.  These hybrid meals are fun and a great way to introduce a little raw food into your life:-)If you have been around for a while you know that I love making zucchini noodles!  We already have a couple recipes using them and now we can add another one to the queue.  I won’t go into the details again about the different tool options there are for making zucchini noodles, but if you need a refresher check out at this lemon garlic chicken pasta link.  There are a few other pasta options that would work as well: spaghetti squash, carrots (same as zucchini methods) or even using real noodles.Now we can talk about the cooked elements of this pasta: roasted vegetables and chicken.  If you have a preferred way of cooking chicken that is great.  I tried cooking my chicken (cut into strips) over medium heat with marsala cooking wine, broth, lemon juice, salt, pepper and lemon pepper.  Stir the chicken every few minutes until all the liquid is gone and the chicken looks thoroughly cooked.  Roasting the vegetables is pretty simple.  Chop and dice vegetables and then lightly toss them in olive oil salt and pepper.  Stick them in the oven at 350 F and roast for 30-45 minutes.  Stir ever so often and once the vegetables think about getting crispy… you can take them out:-)We are finally to the sauce, the ingredient that makes this entire meal so incredible.  This is our truly raw component.  It is even cashew based.  You blend, water, almond milk, cashews (previously soaked), avocado, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, salt and pepper until the sauce is smooth and creamy.  True to our title we have a completely raw sauce that uses some very traditional Mexican ingredients to create a creamy Alfredo sauce.  That description might sound a little bizarre, but it tastes amazing!  Pour sauce onto each individual pasta bowl and as always adjust the seasoning as needed. 

Pasta (serves 2)

1 large or 2 medium zucchinis

1-2 chicken breasts or thighs (depending on size)

4 oz sliced mushrooms

1 tomato, diced

1 medium-small onion, chopped

2 heads of broccoli, chopped

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Prepare all the vegetables and lightly toss them with olive oil salt and pepper.  Roast for 30-45 minutes.  Stir occasionally.
2. While the vegetables are roasting begin cooking the chicken.  I cooked mine in a little marsala cooking wine, broth, lemon juice, salt pepper and lemon pepper.  Next time I want try grilling the chicken. (YUM.)  Leave the stove on medium; stir every few minutes.
3. Using whatever zucchini-shredding tool you have, make zucchini noodles.  (Mine can’t make anything out of the soft center so I chopped it up and added it to the cooking chicken.)
4. Continue stirring chicken and zucchini centers until all the liquid is gone and the chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Optional: add cooked chicken and zucchini to the roasting vegetables for the last 5-10 minutes of roasting to allow the flavors to meld.

Avocado Alfredo Sauce (serves 5)

1 C raw cashews, soaked for 3-4 hours

½ C water

½ C almond milk

3/8 C lime juice

1 avocado

½ C chopped cilantro

1 garlic clove

1 t salt

1 t pepper

1. Place all ingredients into blender and mix until smooth and creamy.  Adjust seasoning as needed.

* I prefer to leave all the ingredients separate and allow us to assemble out own pasta.  That way we can chose the amount of sauce we want and the leftovers will stay fresh longer.