Pasta tossed in a Light Avocado Cream Sauce = the best pasta dinner ever! With only a few ingredients, it’s incredibly easy to prepare! It’s a great weeknight meal but fancy enough to serve for a nice dinner.
(Thanks to California Avocado Commission for sponsoring this post!)
I’m so excited to share this recipe with you today!! As you may know, I’ve been working with the California Avocado Commission for the last several months, coming up with yummy recipes that revolve around avocados. (I really do have the funnest job EVER. 🙂 )
This month’s theme is ‘dinner en green‘. Have you ever heard of dinner en blanc parties? In a nutshell, it’s a big party where everything is white on the dinner table and everyone comes wearing all white. It’s a very chic evening of good food.
This month we’re changing the rules and making a green dinner instead of white! Let’s celebrate the gorgeous green of avocados and throw a party serving food that’s green! Sounds fun right? Well, those of you that know me know that I’m a little shy when it comes to entertaining. I love to cook but I’m not one to invite people over for parties. So this month’s post was great to get me out of my comfort zone a little bit!
Luckily for me, my parents and my in-laws happened to be in town this past weekend to celebrate my son’s Birthday. So I hosted my very own dinner en green party featuring, you guessed it, California Avocados!
For the main dish, I served Pasta with Light Avocado Cream Sauce. Oh my goodness. I can’t even describe how amazing this cream sauce turned out. I have to admit that I was nervous that the combo of spinach and avocado would be a little boring. Oh, this avocado cream sauce is the exact opposite. It is so full of flavor, creamy, tangy, smooth, you name it. It’s so flavorful and incredible! I can’t wait to make it again!
I used linguine pasta because I love the thickness and texture of the flat noodles, but this will pair well with any pasta, really. I think I might try this with angel hair pasta next!
My parents and in-laws loved this dish. (A big shout out to my mother-in-law that rocked at not only helping me make this dish but setting up the gorgeous table!) The bright green of the cream sauce is stunning, thanks to the spinach and avocados. I felt so proud to serve bowls of this pasta to my guests. It looks so fancy! But the secret is that it’s really so very easy. There are only a handful of ingredients and it doesn’t take long at all to make.
You can keep it vegetarian or add shrimp or chicken to add a little more protein. Either way, this dish is fabulous. Easy enough to make for a weeknight quick dinner, but fancy enough to serve to guests. Maybe guests at your very own dinner en green party! 😉
Pasta with Light Avocado Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 large California Avocados
- 1 cup packed baby spinach
- 1 1/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk plus more if needed by tablespoon
- 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne or more to taste
- 1 pound linguine or other pasta,
- shaved parmesan for serving
- cracked black pepper for serving
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, puree avocados, spinach, evaporated milk and lemon juice. Pour mixture into saucepan and heat on medium-low. Add in salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne. Taste and add seasonings to taste.
- Meanwhile, heat salted water in a large pot and cook linguine or other pasta per package directions. Drain water from pasta.
- When avocado mixture is warm and heated through toss with drained pasta and serve with cracked black pepper and shaved parmesan. Enjoy!
Notes
(Nutrition facts include regular pasta, but you can save more calories by using whole wheat or other lower calorie/carb kinds)
Nutrition
If you liked this pasta recipe, you might like these too:
Creamy One-Pan Chicken Asparagus Pasta
We love pasta with avocado sauce..
This is a very nice variation of what I make.. Will try it your way next time I make it,,
Thank you…. :O)
Your photos are GORGEOUS! I had so much fun with this month’s Dinner En Green, and we were definitely thinking along similar lines 😉
I am a complete convert to using avocados with my pasta now!
I like to use sauce for pasta also made of green herbs and other plants. Its the first time I´m on an english food blog and it´s very interesting to see the difference to the german food style. (-; Nice to get some new ideas. Sorry my english ist not perfect…
Sounds delicious!