Last Updated on October 11, 2021
Fettuccine with Curry Cream Sauce is definitely one of our favorites that we make over and over! It’s a fusion dish crossover Italian, Indian, and Japanese. Fettuccine picks up the curry flavor from the cashew cream sauce which is so creamy and comforting!
Italian? Indian? … or Japanese?
If allowed, we consider this dish as a Japanese pasta dish! We say this multiple times but the Japanese people really like curry! They also eat a lot of pasta dishes, probably more than the Italians 😆 That’s the reason we make a lot of fusion pasta dishes! If you think this flavor combination is weird, we promise it’s absolutely delicious! We’ve been eating this since pre-vegan days (back then we made it with heavy cream instead of cashew cream) and we just can’t get enough of it!
Ingredients
Since we soak the cashews it requires 2 hours for soaking, but other than that it’s pretty easy and quick to make!
Cashew Sauce (The cream sauce in the picture. It’s already made.)
- 1/2 cup soaked cashews (see above)
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
The Rest
- 1 pound fettuccine
- 1/2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup minced yellow onion
- 4 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 black pepper
- Handful of baby spinach
- Extra virgin olive oil (for the finishing touch)
- Pinch of curry powder (optional)
Often times, we make a big batch of multi-purpose cashew cream separately (freeze the rest) and add to whatever the dish we are making. We made a cashew sauce just for this dish. We call it “sauce” because it’s thinner than the other cream version. But whenever you make a sauce with cashew, it really gets thickened as it cooks on the heat. So no worries, it will become a creamy texture that is perfect for pasta!
Types of Pasta
We use fettuccine for this only because it captures a creamy texture sauce very well! In fact, we’ve made this with other types of pasta such as spaghetti, linguine, and short pastas like penne and fusilli. Guess what? It all works! So if fettuccine is not your thing, try with other types of pasta.
We’d love to know if you try this and how you like it!
Fettuccine with Curry Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Soaking Cashews
- 1/2 cup raw unsalted cashews
- 1 1/2 cup water
Cashew Sauce
- 1/2 cup soaked cashews (see above)
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
The Rest
- 1 pound fettuccine
- 1/2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 cup minced yellow onion
- 4 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 black pepper
- Handful of baby spinach
- Extra virgin olive oil (for the finishing touch)
- Pinch of curry powder (optional)
Instructions
- Soak cashews in water for 2 hours.
- Make the cashew sauce. In a high-speed blender, combine soaked cashews, water, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Blend for about 1 minute until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large pot, start boiling water for cooking fettuccine.
- Meanwhile, finish making the curry cream sauce. Heat up a large frying pan at medium high heat. Pour grapeseed oil (or extra virgin olive oil) and add garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Then add yellow onion and season with salt and black pepper. Stir occasionally and cook for 4-5 minutes. When it starts browning, reduce the heat to medium. Keep stirring and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
- Start cooking fettuccine in salted water for 8-10 minutes (or follow the instruction on the package.) Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.
- 3-5 minutes into cooking fettuccine, add 1/2 cup pasta cooking water to the pan and deglaze the it. Then add curry powder and cashew sauce. Mix well and reduce the heat to medium low. Let it simmer for 5 minutes or until fettuccine is done. When the sauce starts thickening, turn off the heat.
- Reserve more pasta cooking water (optional.) Drain water and transfer the fettuccine to the sauce. Add baby spinach and toss in the sauce until well coated. If the pasta is dry, add small amount of pasta cooking water as needed.
- Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil for the finishing touch. Sprinkle a pinch of curry powder (optional.)