This Gluten Free Chicken Pumpkin Pesto Pasta is a dairy-free ground chicken and pasta dish with an awesome pumpkin pesto sauce. Ready in about 30 minutes, this is the ultimate fall comfort meal.
There’s always something so incredibly comforting about curling up with a large plate of pasta on a cold night. Salad just isn’t going to cut it. When it’s cold outside, you want to warm up on the inside with a full-on hearty meal.
Any old pasta won’t be enough though. It’s got to be a fall-themed pasta recipe. And it doesn’t get more fall themed then a super rich and velvety pumpkin and rosemary cream sauce which envelopes all the noodles and coats them in all those fragrant fall flavors.
This Gluten Free Chicken Pumpkin Pesto Pasta recipe comes together in 30 minutes, even less if you’re using puréed pumpkin. I have a thing about always starting my pumpkin recipes with whole pumpkin, skipping the canned purée in the store, and opting for the real thing.
It just feels even more fall focused to me to be cutting up a real pumpkin so I always choose the long route. No pumpkin short cuts for me. As much as it is a pain to get the seeds out of the pumpkin, and then cut it up into large pieces, removing the tough outer skin, it’s kind of a fun part of the cooking process for me.
Gluten Free Chicken Pumpkin Pesto Pasta
If you take the short cut though, and opt for canned pumpkin purée, this recipe literally becomes a breeze to throw together. You just need to cook the ground chicken with onions and garlic in one pan, while the pasta boils in a pot, and the food processor is simultaneously whirring away to make that creamy pumpkin sauce.
What makes the sauce super rich and creamy is the addition of both nutritional yeast and hemp seeds. These are my two favorite ingredients to add some more texture and cheesiness to a dairy-free sauce. You’ll never guess there’s no cream or cheese in the sauce.
Serve the pasta mixed in with the pumpkin pesto sauce and topped with the ground chicken, additional fresh rosemary, and crushed walnuts. The perfect weeknight fall dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 12 ounces gluten-free pasta
- 2 cups cubed pumpkin, boiled until soft
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup reserved pasta water
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- salt/pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
- 4 tablespoons toasted crushed walnuts
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Prepare pasta according to package instructions.
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a pan.
- Add red onion and cook for a few minutes.
- Add ground chicken and cook until cooked through and starting to brown. Add minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Mix.
- In a food processor, combine cubed pumpkin, coconut milk, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, hemp seeds, fresh rosemary, and reserved pasta water.
- Process until smooth.
- Mix pasta with pumpkin sauce.
- Serve pasta topped with chicken, walnuts, and additional fresh rosemary.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: To speed the prep of this meal along, use 2 cups of canned puréed pumpkin instead of using fresh.
We hope you love this Gluten Free Chicken Pumpkin Pesto Pasta recipe from SoFabFood Contributor, Victoria from Avocado Pesto, as much as we do. If you love this recipe, be sure to visit our Gluten Free section for more easy weeknight meal ideas. For daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook, follow us on Pinterest, and stop by our Google+ Community to see all of the amazing recipes our community members are sharing. Enjoy!
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