Pesto Pasta with Black Olives
Creamy pesto pasta is accented with salty black olives and a hint of vegan cheesiness from nutritional yeast.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 12 ounces pasta (any variety will work)
- pesto sauce
- 1 can black olives, pitted
- 4 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- optional add-ins: cooked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, skillet chickpeas
Creamy Pesto Sauce:
- 1 bunch fresh basil, stems removed (about 2 cups leaves, packed)
- ¼ cup pistachios (or another nut like walnuts)
- tsp white miso paste (if you omit this ingredient you will have to add more salt to the recipe)
- 1 cup spinach (optional)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or sub with the other half of the avocado)
- ½ avocado
- 2 cloves raw garlic
- ¾ - 1 cup water from cooking the pasta
- 1 lemon, juiced + a pinch of zest
- 2-3 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Fill a large soup pot with salted water and add the pasta. Cook until very tender. I overcooked mine by about 5 minutes for extra soft and plumped up pasta. Drain pasta - reserving about 1 ½ cups for the pesto sauce.
- Using a blender, blend up your pesto sauce. You can either use a high speed blender and blend on high for 2-3 minutes to warm up the sauce, or after blending it, simmer it in a soup pot over low heat for 5-10 minutes to warm up before adding to pasta.
- Toss the pasta with the pesto and add to serving bowls. Garnish each bowl with 4-5 olives and 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast on top.