15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

Yet another recipe from Oh She Glows.  And there's also another recipe I've recently made from this site that I'm in the midst of blogging...  It's all Ashley's fault, as she's obsessed with this website on her new diet and is making me equally obsessed with it.  I'm gonna have to stop making things from this site (or at least stop blogging them), otherwise my blog is going to end up being a complete replica of the OSG site...  But everything is so delicious!

I've been trying to make this for dinner for weeks now.  Since even before we went on vacation. And my avocados always end up going bad before I get a chance to make it.  Even though it only takes seconds to make.  But whipping up anything from scratch at dinner time, even something that only takes 15 minutes, is a big challenge these days, as we attempt to get Logan into bed while Chloé screams, all the while needing to eat pretty quickly once the kids go down, due to Jérôme's diabetes.  It's much easier for me to reheat something that I've made earlier in the day, and this can't be reheated.  And it finally dawned on me the other day that I should just make it for lunch instead.

Super quick and easy to make, nice and yummy, healthy, vegan and gluten-free if made with gluten-free noodles.  

Logan was not a huge fan.  This is the face of "there is no way you are going to convince me to put this in my mouth, no matter how much you and daddy say "mmmmmm" while you're eating it".  He didn't even bring the fork near his mouth.  Grrr....

1 medium sized ripe avocado, pitted
1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish
2-3 garlic cloves, to taste
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, or to taste
about 1/4 C fresh basil (probably optional)
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 servings (6 oz.) or your choice of pasta (I used whole-wheat spaghetti)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1.  Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot.  Add in your pasta, reduce heat to medium and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor.  Process until smooth.  Now add in the pitted avocado, basil and salt.  Process until smooth and creamy.

looks like I let my avocado sit a little too long!

3.  When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl.  Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined.  Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper.  Serve immediately.

Variation:  We needed to increase the protein content of this dish due to Jérôme's diabetes.  I chose to toss about a tablespoon of chia seed into the sauce, on Ashley's suggestion, which worked out quite well.

I ground this with the other ingredients in the food processor

I also threw in some chopped bacon, as I had some delicious bacon in the fridge that was about to go bad.  Which made this delicious vegan pasta oh so not vegan!

Makes 2 servings.

Note:  this dish does not reheat well due to the avocado in the sauce, so serve immediately.

Difficulty level: easy