An Italian acquaintance of mine frequently mentioned that “lemon pasta” was his favourite dish, so I eventually decided to make what I thought it was on one of those “idk wut 2 cook” days. It’s not really much like what he described when I asked him afterwards, but it’s one of my son’s favourite foods, so here’s the recipe

This is enough for 500 gr (18 oz) pasta, I recommend spaghetti. If you are avoiding carbs/wheat, feel free to replace with your favourite alternative.

Ingredients

• Juice of two lemons
• 1 red chilli or 1/2 tsp dried chilli (adjust to taste)
• 1 medium onion or 2 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 60 ml / 1/4 cup good quality olive oil plus a little more for frying.
• 120 ml / 1/2 cup water
• 15 gr / 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 Tbspn dried parsley (or a handful fresh, chopped)
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs such as thyme, basil etc. I uses a bruschetta herb mix.
• 50 gr / 1/3 cup pine nuts OR hemp seeds
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground /cracked black pepper
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Roast the pine nuts in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat until they are slightly browned. Shake the pan regularly or stir.
2. Transfer to a different container and set aside.
3. Now you can start boiling your pasta water.
4. Heat a little olive oil in the same pan, chop your onions/s and sauté.
5. Slice the garlic (no need to chop it smaller) and add to the pan with the onions.
6. Chop your chilli and add to the onions when they are about ready (shiny and golden, ideally not going brown yet), and cook a little longer.
7. Remove the pot from the heat.
8. Squeeze your lemons and add the liquid to a blender or immersion blender friendly vessel. Add all the other ingredients, including the sautéed onions, garlic and chilli, EXCEPT the nuts.
9. Blend until you have a relatively smooth sauce. If using an immersion blender it will be lumpy from the onions, but it doesn’t matter.
10. Transfer back to the pot along with the pine nuts and leave on the lowest heat setting until your pasta is done.
11. After draining the pasta, mix with the sauce and serve.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Please note that the decision to publish recipes is in the name of promoting veganism and helping save our planet. If you change the recipe, I request that you also make your work available free to others.