Healthy Pasta Recipe: Cavatappi with Roasted Red Pepper “Cream” Sauce

If you’re as completely carb-crazy as we are, you were ecstatic when all of those better-for-you pastas started hitting the supermarket shelves. Edamame spaghetti and lentil penne… they all sounded right up our alley, and seemed like the perfect way to work a healthy pasta recipe into our lives.

Unfortunately, though, our excitement was short-lived. All those pastas did was confirm that nothing can come close to the carby stuff. Those that seemed to have the texture down didn’t quite master the taste. And those that got close to the taste were a bit off in the texture category. The healthy pasta recipe search continued…

That is, until we tried Banza’s chickpea pasta. It’s got the same taste and texture of conventional pasta, but with more protein and fiber, and fewer carbs. It’s easy to prepare, and comes in a variety of types. We couldn’t be more obsessed.

We pretty much use it to make a healthy pasta recipe two times a week. We love it paired with pasta sauce, steamed broccoli, vegetarian Italian sausage (shameless Upton plug), and Parmesan cheese. #drool.

But this carb-cutting concoction, our most recent healthy pasta recipe experiment, kind of blows that one out of the water – probably because of the insanely delicious sauce.

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All it is, is roasted peppers (you can buy your own but making them is so easy, we just made them ourselves), steamed or boiled sweet potatoes, unsweetened almond milk and a few spices.

And of course, we had to add some veggies. We added roasted asparagus, which we tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, as well as some sautéed white onion and baby bok choy. We love sneaking bok choy into as many of our recipes as possible, because it’s a serious superfood. It’s got fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, folate (crucial for all you pregnant or soon to be pregnant ladies out there!), calcium, zinc, and a multitude of other body-boosting nutrients. It’s great in stir fries or pasta dishes like this one.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Banza chickpea pasta
• 2 small sweet potatoes
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
• Sprinkle of salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 bunch skinny asparagus, trimmed
• 2 bunches baby bok choy
• 1 small white onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Sprinkle of nutritional yeast, if desired

Sauce directions:

1. Roast your peppers: Slice red bell peppers in fourths, remove the seeds and pith, then place, cut side down, on a sprayed baking sheet.
2. Place the peppers in the broiler and broil about 10 minutes, or until skin is blackened. Transfer peppers to an airtight glass container (with lid), set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
3. While peppers are roasting, boil the sweet potatoes in water on the stove top until soft.
4. Remove the skin from your roasted peppers.
5. In a food processor, combine sweet potatoes, roasted peppers, almond milk and spices then process until smooth.

Pasta directions:

Check out our Recipe Section for even more healthy pasta recipes >