Dairy Free Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Welcome the fall season with this delicious dairy-free butternut squash pasta sauce! It’s so creamy and dreamy, you won’t miss the dairy one bit.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about fall food is the colour orange. There’s pumpkin, of course, but also all kinds of squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes that we love eating as soon as the weather starts to cool down and the leaves start to change colours. I think Mother Nature is very smart by making lots of orange vegetables ready for harvest in the fall. Orange vegetables contain vitamin A, which is great for supporting the immune system. It makes sense that vitamin A-containing foods are in large supply before the winter season, i.e. cold and flu season. So eat your orange veggies for a healthy immune system!

This vibrant and silky pasta sauce gets its creaminess from full fat coconut milk. The fall flavour of butternut squash is amped up with ground nutmeg and sage. It’s a fantastic change from the typical tomato or cheesy pasta sauces. You’ll feel like you ordered a delicious pasta dish at a fancy restaurant! The great part about it is that it is so simple to make.

You can use this pasta sauce on any kind of pasta you like. I tossed it with some fresh linguine, which was delicious, but you could use gluten-free noodles if you prefer. You could also serve it on veggie “noodles” if you want to double up on vegetables or if you are avoiding grains.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked butternut squash (see notes)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
⅛ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon of ground sage
160mls of canned coconut milk
1 cup of water
1-2 teaspoons of salt
⅛ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Place the butternut squash in a blender and set aside.
  2. In a large pan over medium heat, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the nutmeg, sage, coconut milk, water, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and pepper. Whisk together, then heat until it just starts to simmer. Pour it into the blender with the butternut squash.
  3. Blend until silky smooth. Taste and add more salt if needed.
  4. Pour over your favourite pasta and enjoy!

Notes: I scooped out the flesh of 1 small butternut squash that I had steamed which ended up being exactly 2 cups. This recipe makes about 3.5 cups of pasta sauce.


Contributed by Melanie Maxwell, R.H.N.