Caramelized Cipollini Onions and Mushrooms with Pasta and Thyme Cashew Parmesan

What do you do with cipollini onions? Make this special, vegan pasta dish in 30 minutes!

If you’re lucky enough to spy cipollini onions in your market or farmers market, it’s time to celebrate! You’ve just discovered something really special! These Italian onions are flattened, and come in different sizes. Sometimes they are small (about the size of a golf ball), or large, like the ones I found in my farmers market in Ojai. What’s so great about cipollini onions? They are thin-skinned, with a pretty creamy flesh, and super sweet, yet full-flavored taste. This makes them ideal for caramelizing!

If you find cipollini onions, take full advantage of them by making these onions the star of the meal! One of my favorite ways to showcase these onions is in a simple pasta dish, such as the one I’m sharing today.

This pasta recipe is really easy—you can get the whole meal on the table in about 30 minutes! There are three steps—cook the pasta, make the caramelized onions and mushrooms, and blend up the vegan thyme cashew parmesan. You can multi-task all of these steps so that when everything is done, dinner is served! It’s completely vegan, too. I made home-made vegan pasta in my recipe, but you can easily feature dried pasta, too. Try your favorite shape! You can even use pulse pasta to up the protein and nutrition profile, plus make this recipe gluten-free.

Caramelized Cipollini Onions and Mushrooms with Pasta and Thyme Cashew Parmesan

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(9 votes, average: 4.56 out of 5)
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4.6 from 9 reviews

• Author: The Plant-Powered Dietitian
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

If you discover cipollini onions turn them into the star of your meal with this simple vegan recipe, which you can get on the table in 30 minutes.

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Ingredients

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Pasta:

• 6 cups water
• 1 pound pasta (i.e., linguini, penne, or fusilli)

Caramelized Cippolini Onions and Mushrooms:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound cippolini onions, peeled, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 ounces mushrooms (i.e., oyster, brown, shitake)
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or 1 ½ teaspoon dried)
• ¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup white wine

Thyme Cashew Parmesan:

• ½ cup cashews
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (may use dried)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• ¼ teaspoon salt

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Instructions

1. Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Add pasta, and cook, according to package directions, until al dente (about 6 minutes). Drain and return to pot to stay warm while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
2. Meanwhile, make the caramelized onions and mushrooms. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan or skillet. Add sliced onions and garlic to pan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently for about 20 minutes, cooking until onions are very soft. Add sliced mushrooms and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring frequently. Add fresh thyme, salt, pepper and white wine and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, until mixture is very soft and onions are turning golden brown.
3. Add cooked onion mixture to pot with pasta, and toss together over low-medium heat until heated through (1-2 minutes)
4. While onions are cooking, make the Thyme Cashew Parmesan by adding cashews, fresh thyme, garlic, nutritional yeast, and salt to the container of a small blender. Process for a few seconds, until the mixture is the texture of coarse send. Transfer into a serving container.
5. Serve pasta with Thyme Cashew Parmesan.
6. Makes 6 servings

Notes

To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta.

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Category: Entree
• Cuisine: Italian, American

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 serving
• Calories: 232
• Sugar: 4 g
• Sodium: 213 mg
• Fat: 10 g
• Saturated Fat: 2 g
• Carbohydrates: 32 g
• Fiber: 4 g
• Protein: 8 g

For other plant-based pasta recipes, check out:

Baked Mediterranean Lasagna
Pasta with Marinara and Roasted Vegetables
Fresh Fettuccini with Roasted Rosemary Vegetables