Spaghetti with avocado & cashew pesto

Gone are the days when all I had to think about was what to stuff my face with... and more often than not, as a student and/or single this either means how to secure the next treat or how to cheat your way to a four-course meal for the £2.50 that's left of your monthly allowance after a boozy night out with your friends.

Then you grow up, have a family and all of a sudden you become concerned about what they stuff their faces with... for me this began when I was pregnant with my daughter and gave up vegetarianism to be sure the growing baby would get all the nutrients she needed - eating well in pregnancy is difficult enough, overcomplicating it by sticking to a vegetarian diet didn't seem like a good idea.

When they grow up, you realise just how much of a role model you are. Since they learn mostly by observation, it's no good trying to drill them to "eat yer greens" if you yourself shudder at the sight of a tenderstem broccoli or sprint faster than a runner bean at the sight of a vegetable curry. You have to lead by example. Which is not too hard for me, given that I like all vegetables, some more some less, but there's only one I loathe with a passion: beetroot.
But I get side-tracked.

Where was I? Oh yes, the importance of eating your greens. You might have taken that on board already, when you realise that even the latest wisdom in nutritional science has a sell-by date - what used to be considered healthy in my teens is no longer so... my Mum, for example, used to insist that we should eat rye bread always, yet years later it emerged that it contains just as few nutrients as white. I felt like I had been cheated out of years of eating crunchy baguettes and buttery croissants... and my poor mother sought solace in the tasteless wholewheat cakes and no-fat spelt muffins that were so popular in the Eighties - and with popular I mean that everybody made them, but nobody actually ate them.

Another such wisdom that will haunt me forever is one that my gran almost beat into me: babies need to eat spinach at least once a day! That tender leaf might have been nutritionally valuable when my father grew up after the war, but it then emerged that spinach attracts heavy metal like nothing else... it can actually be quite toxic - so another theory went out of the window. And don't get me started on the whole cholesterol issue and that unbearable margarine!!!!

The current nutritional buzzwords in my part of the world are melatonin and fatty acids. Young mothers should be particularly familiar with the former, as it is the reason for babies having crying sessions in the evenings, which can be quite debilitating for the poor parents, but it serves a purpose. It encourages the shedding of melatonin in the mother, a hormone that plays an important role in the sleep cycle and makes babies (and adults alike) sleepy. So the baby might cry at first, but after being fed, it'll sleep better. And this is the reason why we now can buy milk in the UK that has been fortified with melatonin.
It seems to me that these days, you don't even need to be concerned about what you're feeding your kids anymore because manufacturers add nutrients to everything: added calcium and vitamin D in your yoghurt, vitamins in your cereal, melatonin in your milk, folic acid in bread and possibly now tap water (!), omega3 in your smoothie... if people ate regular diets, instead of gobbling down burgers, sandwiches, chips and soft drinks all the time, they wouldn't need all that! But it looks like we're on the best way to eating astronaut food in a few decades!

So here's how to add some oleic acid to your diet, said to help prevent breast cancer. Apparently it also helps with concentration (and as everything these days is said to help you to a higher IQ - looks like parents don't listen until you tell us that our children are going to be as dumb as a stump unless they eat it!), enough reason for me to bring it into my kids' diets more. These spaghetti are a sure hit, as apart from the health benefits, they're also incredibly easy to make - if you want, you can even use store-bought pesto rather than making your own, but I guess it's worth going the extra mile given that it doesn't take more than ten minutes!

So even if I should find out a few years down the line that those poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs for short) raising your IQ is all a big hoax and our bread producers start adding the next best thing to their food, I'll still be making this quick and healthy pasta sauce - after all, it's all about the taste with me, you know? And this one sure is a keeper!

Spaghetti with avocado & cashew pesto
(serves 4)

140 g cashew nuts
140 g parmesan
3 cloves garlic
75 g basil
¼ tsp dried crushed chilli
3 avocados
60 ml good quality extra virgin olive oil (or hemp seed or flax seed oil)
60 ml water
juice of 1 - 2 lemons

Toast the cashews in a dry, non-stick pan until browning and fragrant. Add to a food processor with the garlic cloves and grind until very fine. Grinding the garlic with the hot cashews will almost "cook" it - rendering the garlic less sharp and smoother in taste.
Chop the basil in the food processor - of you're having trouble with the blades pushing the leaves up too much without chopping them, add some of the nuts to weigh them down. You can also start adding some oil. When all the basil and nuts are combined, reserve in a bowl. Mash the avocados in the food processor (or with a fork) very finely, then combine with the nuts & basil. Add olive oil to achieve a smooth paste. Season with lemon juice and chilli flakes, salt & pepper to taste.
If preparing this in advance, leave one stone of the avocados in the pesto, smooth the top of the pesto and tightly cover with cling film.

Cook 400 g pasta to packages instructions. Drain, then stir in the pesto and serve immediately, with a salad on the side.

Comments

[James]

Mmmm.. this sounds good. I saw some of this year's first fresh garlic yesterday, and this and some tzatziki will be how I'll use it.

[Monika Korngut]

Very good blog entry and a delicious recipe to go with it. I love making and eating fresh pesto. I would never think of adding avocado into the mix but I love it, I'm sure it must have been wonderful.

[Monisha]

You're absolutely right..food trends and the corresponding nutrition facts seems to change ever so often, it is confusing and not to mention frustrating when the miracle foods of yesterday are now no longer considered healthy.

Your pasta looks healthy and delicious! Can't go wrong with that in my book!

[Trig]

At risk of being boring, I'd just like to say how good that looks, regardless of any possible health benefits. It just shouts out "eat me".

[sandi @ the whistlestop cafe]

Avocado & cashew pesto~ sounds wonderful! How can you go wrong with two of my favorite foods.

[Kalyn]

Sounds fantastic. Your photo makes it look delicious.

[Dorothee]

Mmmh... Sounds yummy! I happen to have 2 organic avocados leftover, and they should be nice and soft right now.

[Man Meets Kitchen]

Funny but so true! Great photo of your fine meal. Makes me want to try it myself.

[peabody]

Wow...avocado and cashews...two of the best things on Earth.

[Andrea]

Oh yum. I love pesto, and adding avocado to the mix sounds awesome! I need some really easy recipes these days since we're still getting settled in our new home. This will be perfect!

[DJones]

wow! how inspriring! whoever thought to toss hot pasta with avo? right away I can see how it would add a real buttery creaminess. and cashew nut pesto sounds truly rich & decadent. gotta try this asap!
I just recently came across this site; your photos are beautiful, recipes excellent and your blogging interesting, passionate and non-food snobby. v. inspirational. thanks!

[Dorothee]

I made my boyfriend cook me this recipe tonight, and it was absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing.

[foodiemama]

that sounds heavenly.

[James]

Many thanks for this recipe. I wrote the first comment and this pasta sauce (pestomole perhaps, from Itexico?) has become quite a family favourite here, and my family are (I am ashamed to say!) fussy eaters so something new that they all like is doubly welcome. With its creamy texture it is comfort food, and so quick to make. I tasted another successful variation of guacamole recently which had some chopped coriander leaves incorporated into it, so perhaps there is scope for thinking more creatively about this classic avocado dip.

[johanna]

james, i am happy your family enjoy this so much - we seem to be in the same boat re: fussy eaters! and you are right, in my family, too, it is the fussiest who keep making this recipe for us ;-)

[Tessa]

Sounds good I must give it a try. Why do you leave the stone in if you're prepping in advance?
and as for cholesterol and that margarine.....a topic for another post maybe?
Cheers

[johanna]

hi tessa,

when i lived in mexico, i was told that the stone in the guacamole will prevent it from oxydizing and lets it keep its nice green colour. old wife's tales, maybe, but it works - see my post on guacamole (i think there is one).

as for the cholesterol, i am not a qualified nutritionist, but i did take nutrition as part of my naturopathy studies... the newest wisdom is that margerine is very bad for you - vegetable fat is supposed to be liquid (as in olive oil), anything that isn't has been heated. the heating converts its chemical -cis to a -trans state, and trans fats have been shown to lower the good and raise the bad cholesterol. hardly a good alternative for butter, a saturated fat, which is needed (in small quantities) in the body.
so steer clear from margerine, don't heat your oils (use ghee or butter instead or don't fry). also avoid all baked goods that contain oil (most do).
maybe this is worth a post although i feel that i only understand half of it ;-)

[James]

Accidentally have 2 avo's left - might just get round to this one!

[peabody]

This sounds wonderful.

[Kit]

I hadn't heard that rye was now out!! I won't worry so much that my kids have now boycotted rye bread then!

I've always been a butter rahter than margerine fan - are you saying that it is now supposed to be better than olive oil for cooking? I can't keep up!

This looks great - I must try it soon.

[johanna]

hi kit,

for cooking, butter is definitely better than olive oil - high temperatures tranform the chemical state of oil into a -trans state, making them transfats... which both lower your good and elevate your bad cholesterol, so they're a double whammy!
the best thing to fry with (according to the latest wisdom) is ghee (clarified butter).
olive and other good quality oils are essential and really good for you, but use them in cold things, salads for example, or sprinkle over whatever you cook AFTER it's cooked.
i know - i wonder what we'll know in ten years' time ;-)

[Chef Keem]

So, if we get smarter in few years and find out that the info on 'PUFAs raising our IQ' is all a big hoax - wouldn't that be proof that it actually does work? :D

This reminded me of the joke when a clever salesman offered a tincture for lots of money which was supposed to make you instantly smarter. A guy bought it, applied it, and then went back to the dealer with the complaint that it doesn't work. The salesman's reply: "See, you got smarter already!"

Anyway, this recipe looks very good to me. I can imagine the flavorful richness of the cashews, enhanced with the creamy avocado.

I wonder if slightly roasting the garlic would bring more improvement.

[Gourmet Mama]

Avocado and pesto in spaghetti. That does sound intriguing. I think I might want to try this recipe out too.

[Alex]

I'm sorry to put this post up, but I was searching for vegetarian pasta sauce. This was our dinner - one of the best choices ever. Great pesto idea. Thanks for it!
Alex from Bulgaria

[Jo]

Honestly I never thought you could combine avocado with pasta, but I guess I'm wrong. Will try and make it this weekend as I'm really curious as to how delicious it would taste.

[Nutrition Data]

This thing is looking tasty and delicious . . .

[Food Recipes]

I am going to try this !