Creamy Avocado Pasta

We have the best adorable little grocery store on our campus. They sell more varieties of hummus than a big box store and the bread comes from a local bakery and is hea-ven-ly. I often walk through it just for fun when I have time to kill and felt compelled to buy an avocado last week.

I didn't have any specific plan in mind for it, but I like to let the food itself lead me to meal ideas. I actually purposely picked the one that was the least ripe so that I would have plenty of time to think up an avocado recipe. But eventually it was getting soft and I was running out of time. But low and behold I found this interesting recipe that saved my precious green fruit from the garbage. It's from a blog that I've been reading religiously called ohsheglows and I couldn't wait to try it.

I'm planning on running the Scotiabank half-marathon in Vancouver this June so I've been working hard on increasing the distance on my long run so I can eventually make it 13.1 miles. It's been really challenging so far but I really like having a goal to work towards. Today I ran 6 miles, almost halfway to 13.1, yay! Obviously I was in need of an amazing dinner to refuel (especially since the smoothie shop at the gym that claims to close at 7:30 decided to close early :( ) and this definitely did not disappoint.

The avocado is so creamy that it makes you think you're eating some junky pasta filled with cream, but instead you're getting loads of heart-healthy fats and over 10 grams of protein (yay). In other words, Angela at ohsheglows is a total genius and made my night. I will definitely be adding this to my 'rotation' of easy and healthy dinners. I made a few changes and  increased the yield to 3 servings, there was a lot (aka lunch tomorrow!).

Bon Appetit,

CollegeBakerGirl

Creamy Avocado Pasta

Yield: 3 servings

• 1/2 box pasta (I used catelli whole wheat spaghettini)
• 3/4 avocado
• 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice (or juice of half a lemon)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 tomato (diced)
• 1/2 cup cauliflower (chopped)
• pepper (to taste)

1. Set water to boil. Meanwhile, drizzle your peeled and smashed garlic with a little oil and roast in oven until fragrant.
2. Cook pasta until al dente, add cauliflower in the few last minutes of cooking to blanch.
3. In a food processor (I used my magic bullet), blend garlic, oil and lemon juice until smooth. Add avocado and salt and puree.
4. Drain pasta and toss in avocado mixture
5. Serve with plenty of pepper and topped with diced raw tomatoes.

*Note: Apparently this doesn't reheat well because of the avocado, but it does seem like it would be delicious cold. I'll keep you posted

1 serving:

375 calories | 10.6g protein | 16.6g fat (mostly healthy fats!)