Avocado Pasta Sauce: A Sauce My 2-Year-Old Will Actually Eat

Guys. I’m in shock right now. And it’s not just because I found out that avocado pasta sauce an actual thing (what?!).

You know those nights you so don’t feel like cooking, but you have a kid and so you have to peel yourself off of the cozy spot in front of the fire to get up and make some semblance of a dinner to feed them, knowing full well it will probably go uneaten? Yea. It’s totally motivating. That was me tonight.

After whining about my lack of dinner motivation on Facebook (hello, stalling), I finally pulled myself together and got out the ingredients to try my hand at a recipe I found on the Chickapea Pasta website. I was skeptical that either of us would enjoy it, but I was desperate to try something new, and it looked fairly simple. (You see, I don’t like avocados, and my 2-year-old doesn’t like anything with sauce, and is appalled when the ingredients are mixed together.)

So I pulled out the ingredients and put the pasta on to boil. (If you’ve missed my first and second post about Chickapea Pasta, I implore you to enlighten yourself – it’s a miracle of gluten-free, sugar-free, organic, all-natural, 2-ingredient awesomeness!).

Once the pasta was cooked I made up the avocado pasta sauce and putting it all together. Usually, making a meal takes a good hour when you’re a clumsy, distractable mess like myself. Surprise of all surprises, it actually did happen fast and easy. From start to finish it was certainly less than 10 minutes. What?!

That’s something I have to hand to Chickapea. Having given me the opportunity to work with this brand as an ambassador over the last few months, I’ve been challenged to try new recipes that all turned out amazing. This has definitely upped my self-confidence in the kitchen, and I’m beginning to feel like feeding my family delicious, nutritious meals is something that I can actually handle. #MiraclesDoHappen

Alright, so let’s get down to business and let me share with you what I did to this recipe, because (if you know me at all), you know I wouldn’t actually follow it to a tee. (Or is it to a “T”? What does that even mean, anyways…)

Chickapea, Tomatoes & Corn with Avocado Pasta Sauce

In my usual fashion, I’ll include the original ingredients, and cross out what I altered, sharing what I actually used instead. As always, I made things as simple as possible, saving as many dishes and steps as I possibly could. You can check the directions out on the original recipe, if you want to see how I differed there.

What you need:

• 1 227g package of Chickapea Pasta in Spiral or Penne
• Flesh of 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 cup fresh basil 1 ice cube square of potentially freezer-burned basil pesto made from our garden (See? We do things.)
• 2 cloves garlic A few arbitrary shakes of garlic salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice A good squirt of ReaLemon
• 1/3 cup olive oil A quick splash of olive oil
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen 1 can corn kernels
• Salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:

1. Boil pasta for 5ish minutes. Drain.
2. Save the food processor – no need to dirty that contraption up! Cut open, remove pits, and squeeze avocado flesh into a bowl where the pesto’s been thawing. Mash with a fork, adding garlic salt, lemon juice, and olive oil.
3. Cut up cherry tomatoes.
4. Open the can of corn and drain.
5. Mix avocado pasta sauce, tomatoes and corn altogether with the pasta in the pot you boiled it. No need to dirty a big fancy serving bowl! (We did splurge and use our own personal bowls to eat it, however. We’re not animals. Most of the time. Some of the time. On occasion.)

The Verdict On The Avocado Pasta Sauce Dish

So, this picky eater of mine. Want to know how much she ate? All of it. Her entire bowl. Granted, it was a small bowl, but she’s a small human, and her dinners tend to consist of two bites of raw vegetables (the ones that haven’t touched whatever we made for dinner). Not only that, but she actually commented – entirely unprompted – on how much she liked the meal. The saucy, mixed-together, healthy meal.

Z: “I want to have some more of this the other day-”

Me: “You mean, tomorrow? You want to have this again for dinner tomorrow?”

Z: “Yes, I want to have it again for dinner tomorrow, because it’s really delicious!”

So awesome. Especially since we still have a lot left over. Hooray for leftovers doing double dinner duty!

Where To Buy Chickapea Pasta

After all our experimenting, Chickapea Pasta has definitely earned it’s place as a staple in our home. There are so many reasons to love it – health, taste, convenience – and I want to make sure you all know where you can buy this super-food pasta so you can benefit from it, too.

To see which stores near you carry Chickapea, you can pop your postal code into the Where To Buy page on the Chickapea website. If none of your local grocers or health food stores carry it yet, you can print off the Store Request Form and bring it in to request they stock it where you shop.

Chickapea Pasta also recently became available to order on Amazon, if that works better for you. You can find the Chickapea Penne here
, and the Chickapea Spirals here
. (FYI: Those are affiliate links.)

Also, if you’re reading this before October 31st, 2016 (PST), I’m giving away a big prize basket of healthy goodies, including Chickapea Pasta to one of you lucky readers. You can read the post about how Chickapea baked pasta saved my butt (literally) and enter the giveaway here.

I hope you enjoy trying this pasta as much as we have. I’d love to hear about any recipes you try, or feedback you have. Please comment in the section below. You can also sign up here for my short and sweet e-notification for what’s new on The Big To-Do List each week.

Happy, healthy eating, everybody!

Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Chickapea Pasta. While I have been acting as an enthusiastic ambassador for this awesome brand over the past few months, all of my opinions and experiences are 100% honest and mine. As always, I only share with you what I truly stand behind and believe is beneficial to my readers. You can view my full disclosure policy here.