Have you ever wished you had more beans in your diet? If you did, I’m going to teach you a quick and easy way to add beans to a vegan penne pasta dish with pink sauce! Pink sauce is basically an Italian chunky marinara sauce that can go over pasta. It’s made with some fresh tomatoes and cream so it’s usually pink. Let’s get started with this bean pasta recipe! If you like this recipe, check out this one too! and this one!
Beans Beans the Magical Fruit
We start by draining and rinsing a can of butter beans then set them aside for a bit. For my sauce, I use San Marzano tomatoes but you can use jarred sauce or whatever you prefer. I roughly chop half of an onion and divide the bits into two to save half for later. Same thing for five large cloves of garlic, chop them up and divide them in half. Then I toss a dutch oven, or you could use a saucepan, onto the stove over a medium low heat. I add some olive oil once it starts getting warm.
Then when it’s hot and ready I add in half of my onion, let them become translucent. I then add a big pinch of salt and half of that garlic. After everything has cooked for a little I add my whole can of tomatoes. I want my sauce to be a bit water-y so I gradually add water, starting with filling my entire tomato can full, and dumping that in with everything. I stir it up well then let it cook for at least an hour.
Blend Away
I now get my blender and add in those halves of the onion and garlic from earlier along with the butter beans. These beans are very high in protein and they are super smooth. I pulse everything then slowly add some cold water, about a half a cup. I pulse again then check the consistency, I want it to be very thick, like a cheese sauce. Then I also wanted to give it a bit of a dairy taste so I added about a quarter teaspoon of lactic acid. If you do not have lactic acid, a squeeze of lemon juice would work as well. I add around a quarter of a cup more water, and blend for a little longer.
Pasta O’clock
I now get a large pot of heavily salted water boiling, and toss in the penne. It’s time to mix our creamy bean sauce in with our red sauce. I pour it from the blender straight into red sauce. Once our pasta is done I strain that but leave in a pinch of the starchy water. I had a fairly even amount of pasta and sauce so I just added my noodles right into the sauce. Now we are ready to plate!
All Done!
I added a pinch of fresh basil and some grated lupini beans over top of my pasta and hooray we did it!! Lupini beans have a fantastic taste to them, they are kind of savory, salty, and a bit cheesy. You can add whatever you like to your pasta, this is just what I add to mine! This bean pasta recipe is savory, the sauce is light and creamy, and it has a lovely tomato base flavor. It also has a slight garlic and basil aftertaste. It’s smooth and delicious and feels very filling! This is a perfect new dinner to make, I hope you give it a try! Check out the full video here!
Use Butter Beans if You’re Lactose Intolerant and You’ll be Shocked!
Ingredients
- 1 can butter beans
- 1 can tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- pinch olive oil
- pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp lactic acid
- 1 bag penne pasta
- pinch fresh basil
- pinch lupini beans
Instructions
- Drain and rinse butter beans.
- Chop onion and garlic, save half of each for later.
- Get dutch oven or saucepan on stove at medium low heat.
- Once warm, add olive oil.
- Once hot, add onion, let it become translucent.
- Then add salt, garlic and tomatoes.
- Fill tomato can with water, add that as well. Let cook for at least an hour.
- Add other halves of onion and garlic to blender, as well as butter beans.
- Pulse, then slowly add cold water.
- Add lactic acid, more water, and keep pulsing.
- Boil penne.
- Add bean sauce to red sauce, mix together.
- Drain penne, add to sauce.
- Add some fresh basil and grated lupini beans overtop and enjoy!