Basil and Spinach Rigatoni

Looking for an easy date night meal? Pasta has to be the most classic one in the book, and I figured Valentines day coming up was as good of an excuse for me to make a recipe for this dish as any. The sauce is very similar to a pesto, but making it in the blender instead of a mortar and pestle makes for less physical labour and also more freedom to play around with ingredients and ratios. It's super easy to make and the sauce can even be prepared the day before to make things even easier for ya!

Ingredients

Sauce 17g fresh basil

60g cashews

2tsp olive oil

2tsp lemon juice

45g spinach

3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup (60ml) water

2 tbsp (8g) nutritional yeast

Other

180g dry pasta (I used rigatoni, you use whatever you wish)

120g canned chickpeas

100g cherry tomatoes

1tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Method:

Blend all ingredients for the sauce together until fairly smooth. You don't have to feel like it needs to be completely smooth, small bits of cashews for texture is totally fine! Just make sure the basil and spinach is nicely blended up and it's all a fairly homogenous sauce. Set aside. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add to a baking tray lined with parchment paper, cut side facing up. Drain the chickpeas and add to the tray as well. drizzle on 1 tbsp olive oil, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and toss to coat. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes. Cook your pasta according to package instructions in heavily salted water. Drain and add back to the pot. Add the sauce and combine, fold in the roasted chickpeas and tomato and serve! You can either divide it over two bowls/plates or serve it in a huge bowl to share, depending on how intimate you want your dinner experience to be hehe.