TOMATO BASIL PESTO SPAGHETTI WITH CHOPPED ALMONDS

The secret to making every pasta taste amazing?

Well it's easy. I was looking up pastas with olive oil and basil and tomato. They all looked so bland. Just noodles coated in olive oil, with a couple chopped tomatoes on top and some basil leaves thrown on. BORING...

On our popcorn nights sometimes we use a mixture of cold pressed olive oil, nutritional yeast and celtic sea salt and pour it over our popcorn and toss it. It's perfect. So I thought HEY DO THAT TO YOUR PASTA NOODLES! So after I cooked the brown rice pasta noodles, which are my favourite gluten-free option, I rinsed them with cold water and then coated them in this olive oil, salt, and yeast mixture, put the lid back on and let it sit until my sauce was ready.

And let me tell you....this was the BEST PASTA I HAVE EVER HAD. Seth immediately said "Mom go get your camera."

I said "but I don't have a picture worthy set up ready!"

He said "Just take a picture how it is. It doesn't need to be fancy. It's too good to not take a picture!"

So I did. Kyri, our 1 year old, just LOVED the noodles.

I loved both the noodles and the sauce. The sauce was a lot of work mind you. I used left over spaghetti sauce which was just veggies, tomatoes and spices. Then I blended up some soaked cashews, basil, yeast, spices and veggie broth and mixed it all together and BAM. PURE HEAVEN! and the crunchiness of the almonds.. MMMMMM

I bet God would serve this every day for dinner in heaven. Sorry raw people but your going to have to eat cooked food from now on. Just kidding.....

TOMATO BASIL PESTO SPAGHETTI WITH CHOPPED ALMONDS
Serves 4

Prepare ahead
- Soak 1/2 cup raw cashews, covered in filtered water, for 4 hours

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups home made veggie spaghetti sauce (or from a jar)
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked and rinsed
• 1/2 cup veggie broth
• 1 cup basil, lightly packed
• 2 tsp. Mrs. Dash Seasoning
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp. celtic sea salt

Pasta

• 1 pk brown rice noodles
• 1/4 cup cold pressed olive oil
• 5 tsp. nutritional yeast + more
• 1/4 tsp. celtic sea salt

Garnish

• 1/4 cup raw almonds, chopped
• chia seeds

What to do

1. Add spaghetti sauce to a large sauce pan and heat on low heat. Chop almonds.

2. Cook brown rice noodles according to package. My instructions: Fill a medium pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add noodles and make sure they are all submerged. Set timer for 9 minutes and turn heat down to medium low and add a dollop of coconut oil to prevent noodles from sticking, if you want. Stir every 2 minutes. Mix together olive oil, yeast and salt. Check to see if noodles are cooked after 9 minutes. Noodles should be soft on the outside and a bit starchy in the inside. They will continue to cook, even when rinsed. Rinse noodles with cold water and add olive oil mixture to the pasta and set aside with a lid on but off any burners.

3. In a high speed blender or nutribullet, mix cashews, veggie broth, basil, Mrs. Dash, yeast and sea salt until smooth. Pour into spaghetti sauce and stir until hot. Pour over pasta. Add chopped almonds and sprinkle on celtic sea salt and serve hot!

I highly recommend garnishing every meal with nutritional yeast, chia seeds and celtic sea salt to receive amazing health benefits.