Creamy Hemp Pasta Sauce
A creamy and delicious, protein-packed sauce to serve with your favourite pasta and veggies.
Prep: 10 | Cook: 15 minutess | Ready: 20 minutes | Serve: 4
Comfort food that ticks all the boxes nutritionally, tastes amazing, and feels like a hug, plus it uses hemp seeds, which provide high-quality, highly absorbable protein and are more sustainable compared to many other protein sources (animal and plant). So, it's a good one to incorporate regularly.
Pasta is often thought of as “unhealthy” or at least not as healthy as some other meals; however, it can be a nutritious meal, depending on what you serve it with and even the type of pasta you choose.
My top tips to make your pasta dishes more nutrient-dense and healthy:
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Be sure to include healthy fats and good-quality protein, and cram in as many vegetables as possible in the sauce. Blending hemp seeds into the sauce and sprinkling a few tablespoons over the finished dish is a great way to do this
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Cram as many vegetables as possible into the sauce. This is a great way to get kids and fussy eaters to eat more vegetables too, without even realising it.
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Opt for whole-grain instead of white pasta, or better still, pulse pastas (made from chickpeas, lentils, peas, etc), which are higher in protein and fibre
Ingredients:
Sauce
⅓ cup hemp hearts
2 tablespoons of tahini
⅓ cup coconut milk, plus 2-3 tablespoons as needed
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and black pepper to taste
Optional pinch of nutmeg
Method:
1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste then adjust salt, pepper and lemon juice to your liking. Add more liquid if the sauce is too thick
2. Pour into a pan over a low heat with pasta once cooked and drained, stir to combine and warm through
3. If not using all of the sauce at once, transfer leftovers to a sealed container and store in the fridge for up to 5 days
4. Serve with your favourite veggies, your choice of plant or animal protein, lots of black pepper, lemon juice, a sprinkle of hemp seeds and a pinch of smoked paprika.
Nutritionist’s Note
Don’t skip protein or fats in pasta dishes.
Aim to get between 25-30g protein with every meal from a variety of sources (e.g. seeds, nuts, legumes and good quality animal products if you eat them), and a thumb-sized serving of fats (around 2-3 tablespoons). The protein and fat content of hemp seeds mean that this creamy hemp pasta sauce will get you well on your way to meeting those requirements. It will also help to balance blood sugar following carb-heavy pasta dishes, which is particularly important if you are having white/whole wheat pastas (less so with pulse pastas as they are generally lower carb and higher in fibre).
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