Sweet Potato Noodles with Cashew Cream Sauce (Vegan)

I can’t explain the vegan kick lately, but let’s roll with it, it’s good for us.  (Unless “paleo” is the real good for us, but no one can answer this question for me… )

I digress.

Let’s talk about these sweet potatoes noodles and my first foray into SPIRALIZING!!  Yeah, I’m pretty much late to all trends, so this isn’t shocking.  I’ve been watching people spiralize their veggies on Pinterest for months now, drooling over the late summer zucchini noodles and squash pappardelle.  I hadn’t bothered to put any spiralized veggies on my short list to cook though because 1) I don’t own a spiralizer, 2) I didn’t feel like buying one (where would I keep it? how much to they cost? yada yada yada), and 3) it just looks like a hassle, right?

Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is a more adventurous chef than I am!  She’s always on the ball with a plan to try a new recipe and get outside her comfort zone.  Her specialty is cocktails (about which I have no complaints), but she also makes a point of getting a real dinner on the table every weeknight which is a completely foreign concept to me.  And she decided to bust out the spiralizer a few weeks ago and try this recipe for Sweet Potato Noodles with Cashew Cream Sauce!  After sharing the pics and a positive review with me, I got a little bit of spiralizer envy and decided I wanted to try it, so she agreed to let me borrow her spiralizer and try it for myself!

This recipe comes from A Pinch of Yum, and wow, her photos are so beautiful, you really must go there immediately to see them.  I’m a photographer in progress (which really means, not a photographer at all, but rather someone blindly pressing buttons on a fancy camera),  so it’s worth a click to see what this recipe could look like.  (And it gives me something to aspire to… )

As my sister-in-law pointed out when she recommended this recipe, she likes to cook simple and fast meals, so when a recipe starts with the phrase, “soak for two hours,” she recoils.  For some reason, however, she kept reading, and this turned out to be really quite a simple meal.  With a little bit of prep in advance, this could easily become a weeknight dinner.

We begin by soaking some raw cashews for the sauce.  The idea of letting something soak for two hours makes it sound as if we’re about to get into a lengthy project, but let’s be serious, throwing the cashews in a bowl and covering with water, then forgetting about them for a couple hours is really easy and it is not indicative of how the other steps play out.  Once soaked and rinsed, they’re blended with some water, garlic, and salt.  I’m thinking that this entire step could be done in advance, blender washed and dried, cashew sauce stored in the fridge over the weekend, and you’re ready for tomorrow night’s dinner.

The same goes for the spiralizing.  This was truly the most time-consuming part of the process, and my husband, eager to be helpful, especially since this involved a new toy, dove in to assist.  Truth be told, the spiralizing was kind of fun – watching the tiny spiralized veggies come out the end was sort of impressive, but it did lose its luster after 1) Dan cut his finger because he was too aggressive, and 2) we got past the second sweet potato and got kind of tired.  Nonetheless, it was worth the effort.  This recipe calls for FOUR sweet potatoes which creates a massive heap of spiralized noodles.  I used the angel-hair attachment so my noodles are very skinny, but the original recipe clearly used a slightly thicker cut – something I’d like to try next time.  So, get your sweet potatoes spiralized in advance too.  That’s good weekend work when the kitchen is already messy and you  have a sink full of dishes to wash.  Because if you thought the spiralizing was a hassle, then you’re just not cut out for the washing you’ll have to do around those many little intricate blades.

Before I go on, this brings me to a few thoughts about my first experience with the spiralizer.  I used a manual one, and it had a few positive attributes. They are very affordable, they’re relatively easy to use, and they have lots of different size and shape blade options to swap in and out.  On the downside, it was really difficult to clean, and it takes a decent bit of storage space that I don’t have.  It also seemed to have trouble standing up to the sturdiness of the sweet potato, and to be effective, we found ourselves hand-twisting the potatoes while applying pressure instead of using the handle.  I’m not sure whether I’m ready to invest in a spiralizer or not yet, but if I do, I’m considering the KitchenAid Spiralizer Attachment which is more automatic and thus appears to be more powerful and would take less space.  Unfortunately, they’re also pricier, so I have to weigh that decision carefully!

Anyways, now we have all the components of our meal ready to go!  Sauce and spiralized noodles in the fridge, weeknight rolls around, let’s cook!

A little oil in a large skillet (I mean, like LARGE), toss in noodles, and saute until they’re starting to soften and even brown in places.  Season with salt and pepper, throw in the spinach until it’s wilted, then remove it from the heat and toss with the cream sauce and some fresh basil for a little more flavor.  A little more salt and pepper at the end if you need it should round it out.

This is a great meal for a runner with lots of healthy carbs, fiber and antioxidants in the sweet potatoes and spinach, plus some plant fats (yum, plant fats!) and a little protein in the cashews.  And as with any of my vegan meals, if you want to amp it up with some meat, don’t let me hold you back.   You want more protein?  You like animals?  Have a meatball!  Please, be my guest!  But you won’t miss it.  One of the reasons I was sold on trying this meal was the enthusiastic review that I got from both my brother and sister-in-law.  They were admittedly skeptical that a cashew sauce with no actual cream could be rich and satisfying, but they were very pleasantly surprised!

You can find the link to the original recipe above, and I’m including it as I prepared it below.  I only made some minor changes.  For example, the original recipe suggests using only half of the sauce for the four sweet potatoes, but I found that the full amount felt appropriate for the quantity of noodles I had, so I didn’t end up with leftover sauce.  She suggests adding herbs of your choosing, and I went with some basil that I had stored from the summer in my freezer, so it wasn’t exactly fresh, but it still had the same great flavor and worked perfectly in this meal.

Good luck with the spiralizing!

[lt_recipe name=”Sweet Potato Noodles with Cashew Cream Sauce” servings=”4″ difficulty=”Easy” summary=”A healthy vegan meal that everyone will love!” print=”yes” image=”http://www.eighteenalmonds.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IMG_9627-002-150×150.jpg” ingredients=”1 c. raw cashews;3/4 c. water, plus extra for soaking;1/2 tsp. kosher salt;1 large clove of garlic;Extra virgin olive oil;4 large sweet potatoes, spiralized;2 c. raw fresh baby spinach;1 handful of fresh or frozen basil leaves;Salt & pepper;” ]Cover the cashews with water and soak for two hours. ;Drain the cashews and add them to a blender with the 3/4 c water, the garlic, and the 1/2 tsp salt. Puree until very smooth. ;Heat some oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, then add the sweet potatoes and saute until beginning to soften and some pieces are starting to brown, 6-7 minutes. Once they’re approximately cooked through, add the spinach leaves and toss together until they’ve wilted, another minute or so.;Remove from heat and toss with the sauce, most of the basil, and extra salt, pepper, and olive oil if needed. ;Top individual servings with the remaining basil as a garnish.[/lt_recipe]