Last Updated on February 14, 2021
Are you in a mood for curry and noodles? Try this Linguine with Red Curry Cream Sauce! You can make this with your pantry staples such as linguine, cashews, nutritional yeast, and red curry paste with a few fresh produce: lime, cilantro, and red onion. It’s creamy, spicy, and a bit different! It’s vegan and potentially gluten-free if you use gluten-free pasta.
The Red Curry Paste
There are lots of different varieties of red curry paste available. Although, they are all labeled as “red curry paste” each one of them tastes different from one another. It’s fun to try different flavors and incorporate them into making new dishes. For this recipe, we’d like to feature Organic Red Curry Paste from Mekhala. They kindly sent us a package with a couple of their products!
Prior to that, we’d actually spotted some of their products, including green curry paste and yellow curry paste (we made this Rice Noodles in Yellow Coconut Curry Broth), at a local Whole Foods Market. They caught our attention right away because they are;
- Asian ingredients
- Organic
- Vegan
We love anything Asian that are organic and vegan! The company is based in Singapore and the products are manufactured in Chiang Mai, Thailand using the ingredients sourced from their local farmers. You can read their whole story here and also find out their commitment to support the empowerment.
The Taste
Actually, we also made Thai curry using their red curry paste. It tastes great! That cute small jar is packed with flavor with no gunk. In case you’re wondering, it’s made of;
*Shallots, *Garlic, *Lime Juice, *Dried Red Chilli, *Galangal, *Lemongrass, Himalayan Pink Salt, **Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (*Brown Rice, *Soybeans, Salt, Water), *Coriander Seeds, *Cumin Seeds, *Coriander Root, *White Peppercorns
*Organic Ingredients
In our opinion, it’s slightly spicier than other brands we’ve tried in the past but still mild enough so that it’s not overpowering. Now, for a shareable recipe, we didn’t want to make another curry. If you know us well by now, we like originality…and pasta. Yes, we made creamy red curry sauce for linguine!
Instead of coconut milk, the usual creamy agency for Thai curry theme food, we used cashew cream as a base for the cream sauce. In this way, the sauce also sticks better to the traditional linguine! Our cashew cream is typically made with lemon juice. But to make cashew cream to go with the “Thai flavor” we use lime juice instead.
Now, all we add to the cashew sauce was the Red Curry Paste. To really highlight the flavor of the curry paste, we purposely didn’t put much in the sauce itself. Feel free to add some cooked veggies or protein of your choice, if you like!
For Serving
Adding some fresh taste bite is always a plus! For this dish, we garnish with fresh cilantro, red onion, and a squeeze of lime juice to cut through the richness of the sauce. A little tip for the red onion! If you find the flavor of raw onion to be strong but still like to have a little kick, soak it in water with a pinch of salt (after slicing.) It takes the edge off of the dominant “onion-ness.”
Alternatives for Gluten-Free and Nut-Free
Their Red Curry Paste is Gluten-Free so if you want to make this dish completely gluten-free, use rice noodles instead! Also, if your diet is nut-free, this product is also Nut-Free as well! Then you can substitute cashew cream with other creamy agency like coconut milk instead. The consistency would be different which we’d assume to be more soupy but it should be delicious! Just make sure to adjust the amount of seasoning accordingly 😉
Feeling Inspired?
Check out this similar flavor dish!
Rice Noodles in Yellow Coconut Curry Broth
Linguine with Red Curry Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Soaking Cashews
- 1/2 cup raw unsalted cashews
- 1 cup water
Cashew Cream Sauce
- Soaked cashews (see the above)
- 1 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
The Rest
- 1 pound linguine
- 2 tbsp red curry paste (we use Organic Thai Red Curry Paste from Mekhala)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp - 1/4 cup pasta cooking water
- Salt (optional)
- Cayenne pepper (optional)
For Serving (Garnish)
- 1/2 cup lightly packed chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion soak in water with a pinch of salt then drain and pat dry
- Lime wedges/slices (optional)
Instructions
- In a bowl, soak cashews in water for at least 4 hours (up to 8 hours.) Drain well and set side.
- In a large pot, start boiling water for cooking linguine.
- Meanwhile, make cashew cream sauce. In a high-speed blender, combine the soaked cashews, cold water, lime juice, nutritional yeast, and salt. Start blending at the low speed then increase the speed little by little. Blend until creamy and smooth (about 1 to 2 minutes.) Set aside.
- When the water is boiling, start cooking linguine in salted water for 7 minutes (or follow the instruction on the package.)
- Meanwhile, start making the sauce. In a large frying pan, pour the cashew cream sauce. Heat it up at medium heat. When it starts warming up and thicken, add red curry paste and sugar. Stir well until the red curry paste is dissolved. When it starts to thicken again, add pasta cooking water. Keep checking on the heat to avoid burning the sauce. Adjust the seasoning with salt (optional.) If you like more heat, add a pinch of cayenne pepper (optional.)
- Transfer the linguine to the sauce. Turn off the heat and give a quick toss.
- Serve with cilantro, red onion, and squeeze some fresh lime juice on top (optional.)
Notes
- Feel free to add any cooked veggies or protein of your choice to the sauce.
- For Gluten-Free option, use rice pasta or any other gluten-free noodles of your choice.
can’t wait to try this
Awesome! We hope you enjoy it:)
Stay safe!
Akiko and Peter
I just made this today and it was delicious. I’ll be making this again.
Hi Shara,
So glad you enjoyed it! We hope you’ll come back to try some of our other pasta recipes 🙂
Kind regards,
Akiko & Peter