Spring is finally in the air and this pasta is best dish to celebrate the warmer months finally arriving! Asparagus are now in season and I am obsessed with this gorgeous seasonal veggie! They are fragrant, almost sweet and with a gorgeous fresh note. I love them in pretty much anything or simple by themselves but with this pasta they are even more delicious!
The creamy cashew sauce is super rich and decadent and it works perfectly with the fresh flavours of the peas and asparagus. Since I am currently in Italy I went out this morning and I managed to find some super cute edible flowers to sprinkle on top, but other greta additions are finely chopped mint or an handful of baby spinach.

The sauce will be enough for 2-3 people

Ingredients:

1 cup of cashews – soaked in water for at least 3 hours or overnight
1 small white onion or 1/2 a regular one – finely sliced
1 clove of garlic – crushed
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
The juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1/2 teaspoon of yellow mustard
Salt & pepper
About 5-8 asparagus spears -chopped into pieces
1 cup of frozen peas

Pasta of your choice – I have used spelt penne

Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to a pan and add the finely sliced onion. Sautee for few minutes until the onion soften and start to caramelise. Add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute. Remove the pan from the heat and set onto one side
To make the cream: Drain and rinse the cashew. Place them In a bender and add the cooked onion and garlic, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, almond milk, salt and pepper. Blend until you have a completely smooth and creamy consistency. Add more almond milk if your blender is struggling.
Place the cream in the fridge while you are cooking the asparagus.

To cook the asparagus and peas I simply place a bit of water at the bottom of a pan and added the asparagus and l lightly cook them for 5 minutes until soft. I like to keep my asparagus white al dente and still bright green.

Cook the pasta according to the cooking instructions. Once cooked place it back to pan, add a dash of olive oil (to prevent from sticking), pour the cashew cream and add the cooked asparagus and peas and mix well.

Serve straight away with some extra nutritional yeast and black pepper on top.