I love going to the Farmer's Market and allowing the beautiful fresh produce inspire me for new recipe ideas. This past Saturday, one of the farm booths had these beautiful bundles of fresh chives with the gorgeous purple chive flowers attached. I knew immediately that I needed to capture the delicate flavor and colorful nature of these chives into a dish. I simply love making pretty food! The flavor of fresh chives is so lovely and delicate. I wanted to create a recipe that enhanced the flavor of the chives without overpowering it. This recipe was born. It just screams summer.
The fresh chives look like this:
Store them in a cup with water until ready for use. Now let's get our ingredients together and start this dish. It comes together quickly, so let's get to it!
- fresh chives with flowers attached (if you can not find chives with the flowers, just use regular fresh chives. The flavor will still be there. You just wont have the pretty factor.)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon of vegan butter (optional)
- 1 cup of raw cashews, pre-soaked and drained
- 4 cloves of garlic
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons of capers (optional)
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
- 4 servings of angel hair pasta
- fresh black pepper
This dish does not take long to cook. I start everything at once. Get the water for the pasta in a pot and get the heat on. Salt the pasta water liberally. While waiting for it to come to a boil, finely chop up several of the chive stalks. I used about 7 stalks. Mine were pretty long stalks. After being finely chopped, it should be enough for a big handful. Like this:
Pour 2 cups of the vegetable broth into a sauce pot and bring to a medium high heat. Add the chives and one tablespoon of vegan butter. The butter is optional. I just like that touch of buttery flavor. Let it simmer away while we work on other things. We really want to infuse the broth with that chive flavor! While that is simmering away, throw your 1 cup of cashews in a blender with one cup of vegetable stock, 2 teaspoons of salt, and the 4 cloves of garlic. Blend for a couple minutes of high until smooth and creamy in consistency.
At this point, your pasta water should be boiling. Add in your angel hair pasta. Angel hair cooks a lot faster than most other types of pasta. It only takes about 5 minutes, so keep an eye on it while finishing up the sauce. Let that pasta cook until it is nice and al dente. While the pasta is cooking, add the cashew cream from the blender into our sauce pot of chives and veggie broth. add the juice of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of capers (If you don't have capers or don't like them, don't add them! I like the briny bite in this creamy sauce). Add in the 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Let this bubble away while stirring frequently. Your sauce will thicken and be velvety smooth after a few minutes of cooking. When your pasta is finished, drain and put it back into your pot. Pour the sauce into pot with pasta and toss until nicely coated. I cook this dish for one, so I will always have leftover sauce. Don't fret. It freezes really well for future easy dinners! Put pasta onto a plate, and grind a little fresh black pepper onto the top, and then top with some more finely chopped chives and chive flowers. I like to eat mine with some cooked asparagus. I think the flavors go well together. But you decide what you would like to serve it with. Enjoy!
That's all there is to this dish! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! If you try this dish at home, let me know what you think!
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