Pasta in Cashew Cream with Mushrooms

This umami-packed Pasta in Cashew Cream with Mushrooms is creamy, savory, easy to make, and absolutely vegan. But you don’t have to tell anyone that this pasta with cashew-based sauce is plant-based, all they need to know is that it’s super delicious.

Looking for other great vegan dishes with mushrooms? Be sure to check out my Baked Barley with Mushrooms and Miso Tahini Pasta.

This delicious recipe came to me from the beautiful book Vegan Cooking for Two from America’s Test Kitchen.

They start this book off by stating that “Sharing a good home cooked meal with a loved one is one of the best ways to connect and show you care.” Which is what I’m all about here at Life Currents.

We appreciate your support

Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.

Vegan Cooking for Two

I’m just in love with ATK’s cookbooks. They’re straightforward and easy to use.

This book, {affiliate link} Vegan Cooking for Two, helps meets some of my cooking needs. We are just two people at home, and though we don’t follow a strict vegan diet, I do like to include vegan meals, and like I say, anyone can enjoy a vegan dish.

This book is a guide to easy, quick, and delicious small-batch plant-based cooking.

There’s an emphasis on helping you reduce waste by not throwing out past-its-prime produce, or having to scale down recipes that are designed to serve a crowd, or guessing at substitutions for non-vegan ingredients.

They even have a “Use It Up” chart to help you find recipes that use up pesky leftovers.

There are more than 200 recipes for everything from breakfast to dessert, and everything in between, with most of the recipes taking 45 minutes or less.

And they include great ingredient swap suggestions that they call kitchen improvs on every recipe to help you make ingredient substitutions, bulk up the meal, and customize flavors.

Like this one, “you can substitute dried herbs for fresh in any recipe in which the herbs are cooked. … Just use one-third the amount called for.”

Be sure to check out this recipe for Vegan Carbonara for another great pasta recipe.

America’s Test Kitchen

We’ve watched ATK on TV and now on the internet for many years.

I love their recipes, and have made a few to share with you. You’ll want to check out all of these great recipes!

The best pumpkin pie, Vegan Nacho Dip, Shrimp with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Apple Crumb Cake, Dakota Bread, Black Bean Dip, and Homemade Spaghettios.

Recipe selection & development

As I flipped through the recipe section of the cookbook, this creamy Cashew e Pepe e Funghi immediately popped out at me, and I knew I had to try it.

Of course, I went on to mark several more pages to try including Skillet-roasted garlic & chickpea soup, Tofu Mole, and Fig Streusel Bars.

ATK says that they had hoped to develop a vegan version of either pasta carbonara or pasta cacio e pepe, but as it turned out, tasters loved this creamy Pasta with Mushrooms and Cashew Cream dish that had the best of both of these Italian favorites.

This easy vegan creamy mushroom pasta recipe was also featured in their book, {affiliate link} The Complete Plant Based Cookbook.

How to make this dish

This dish is creamy but not heavy, really easy and quick to make with just a little bit of blender work and stove top cooking.

With very few ingredients in this recipe, it’s important to get good quality ingredients. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Cashews

The cashews are the bulk of this creamy sauce.

They provide a richly thick and creamy (but not heavy) sauce base because of their low fiber and high starch content.

ATK discovered that by breaking the cashews up in a blender (to increase their surface area), the cashews could be soaked for just 15 minutes in the flavorful sauce ingredients.

In most of their recipes, they usually use raw cashews for their more neutral flavor, roasting the cashews for this dish added nuanced warmth without imparting a nutty taste.

Take a look at your store for roasted unsalted cashews. If you can’t find them, you can buy raw cashews and roast your own.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy cleanup. Add cashews in a single layer. Roast for 10-15 minutes. But don’t walk away! Stir occasionally to prevent scorching and keep an eye on your cashews since oven temperatures may vary.

Miso & nutritional yeast

These are two ingredients you may not be super familiar with, but I assure you, you should be.

They add great umami flavors.

White miso paste is a must for great miso soup, and it’s fantastic in Miso glazed cod and miso roasted broccoli.

In fact, this recipe reminds me of my Miso Tahini Pasta. Which is a little different because it doesn’t use cashews as the pasta sauce and makes more servings.

If you don’t have or can’t find white miso, you can use yellow or red miso instead.

Nutritional yeast is an inexpensive, shelf-stable ingredient that has a cheesy flavor that boosts anything you put it in. It’s also high in vitamin B12. I love to add a spoonful to soups like my Rosemary orzo soup and it adds to much flavor to my Awesome Sauce.

Mushrooms

ATK calls for oyster mushrooms here because they contain very little moisture (relative to other mushrooms), and they cook into chewy, golden, almost like bacon bits.

They also suggest that the oyster mushrooms can be swapped out for white mushrooms, cremini, or portobello mushrooms.

I did just that, swapped out the more expensive oysters for cremini for a little money savings. Also, I find that cremini last a bit longer in the fridge.

Let’s put it all together

Alright, so this quick vegan cashew cream pasta starts in the blender. Pop the cashews in a break them up a bit with the blender.

I suggest that you use a high powdered blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec to get a nice smooth sauce. If you find that your cashew cream is grainy, it could be because your blender isn’t strong enough, or that the blades are dull.

Then add the water, nutritional yeast, miso, and salt and process on low speed until combined, and let mixture sit for 15 minutes.

After it sits and the flavors get to know each other and the cashews soften, blend it until it’s nice and smooth.

Stove top

Cook up the mushrooms in the oil until they’re golden brown, then toss in the garlic and pepper off the heat, and stir until all warmed though.

Meanwhile, bring the salted water to boil in large pot and cook the pasta until it’s al dente. You can use your favorite pasta here, try spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, or Bucatini (like you see in my pictures).

Drain the pasta and reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water in case you want to thin the pasta sauce later.

Add the sauce, mushrooms, parsley, and lemon juice to pasta and toss until sauce is thickened slightly and pasta is well coated.

Don’t worry, the sauce looks very thin when you add it to the pasta. But the starch in the cashews expands when heated, and the pasta soaks up the sauce, so by the time you finish stirring, each strand of pasta is coated with the delicious sauce.

Adjust consistency with reserved cooking water and season with salt and pepper as needed.

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