Kickin' Creamy Raw Carrot Pasta Sauce

• Fresh baby carrots

• Cashews (sunflower seeds work well too if allergies are an issue)

• Paprika

• Thyme

• Hemp seed powder (why not?)

• Garlic powder

• Black pepper

• Cayenne pepper (omit if you don't want your pasta kickin'!)

• Sea salt

• Water  

Made this dinner tonight with scraps of veggies that need to get used. If you have a Vitamix, or another decent blender or food processor, there a ridiculous amount of creative sauces just waiting to happen.

This particular one is made from:

Note: Some nutritional yeast will make this a cheesy cream sauce! I also should have omitted a bit of salt and also used my kelp powder, which I seem to neglect. Kelp is a great source of iodine.

Carrots can also be replaced with squash, or canned pumpkin. Try that with sage. Or try tomatoes with basil for a creamy tomato based sauce.

The process is simple. Throw the carrots into the blender with enough water to make a puree. Add the nuts or seeds to make it creamy.

You should probably give the nuts a soak. Several hours, to over-night. Soaked nuts blend smoother, and are better for digestion. Phytic acid is found in nuts, grains and legumes. Soaking nuts breaks down the phytic acid so it can be absorbed properly and not bind to minerals in the gastrointestinal tract. Too many bound minerals can lead to mineral deficiencies. Nuts also have high amounts of enzymes inhibitors, so soaking helps them be more digestible in that sense as well.

Put the Vitamix on high to "cook" the carrots a bit. The warming feature is my favorite thing about this blender. It's great for making warm to hot soups and sauces under 118 degrees F without heating away the nutrients and enzymes gained in many fresh ingredients.

 Once the carrots are warm, season to taste. Blend it a little bit more, and then pour it on pasta, or zoodles, or whatever makes you happy. Stir in whatever chopped veggies float your boat or goes with your particular sauce mix. I used fresh baby spinach and tomatoes for this one.

So get rid of those wilting carrots for dinner this week and other veggies you've been procrastinating on eating. If you made some crazy, but delicious concoction, I wanna know.