For garlic lovers only ♥ Pasta with chermoula and garlic beans is a delicious experiment I whipped up in the kitchen with herbs from the garden.
This relaxed weekday pasta dish is elevated to a gourmet level with a clever combination of herbs and spices. Chermoula sauce is the secret.
What is chermoula?
Chermoula is a flavorful Moroccan oil-based herb sauce. It’s traditionally paired with seafood and it goes amazingly together with all kinds of vegan food. Chermoula would be super delicious with roasted vegetables, cooked potatoes or quinoa. My favorite way to use it is with pasta, because it’s kind of like pesto but spicier and with a little zing from lemon.
The key to chermoula is to warm cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a dry pan, then grind them to get the most flavor. After this you can blend all herbs, garlic and spices, and finally add good quality Extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil brings all the delicious flavors together. You don’t need a lot of sauce to coat your meal with amazing flavor.
Chermoula reminds me of one other delicious herb sauce: chimichurri. These are some of my favorite chimichurri recipes: Tomato baked white beans with vegan feta and chimichurri and Roasted radish and fennel salad with chimichurri.
Homemade vegetable broth cubes
One great use for chermoula is to freeze about a tablespoon of the sauce in an ice cube tray. When the cubes are frozen, take them out and place them in a container and freeze again. You now have an amazing home-made herb broth for any kind of cooking: soups, stews, pasta, vegetable stir fries, quinoa or any warm meal.
Alternative to oil
If you want a no-oil version of chermoula or any oil-based sauce, I recommend using unsweetened plant-based yogurt or homemade cashew cream in place of oil. It’s not the same sauce without oil, but it still has a similar herb and garlic flavor.
Garlic beans
Whenever I want comfort food fast, I eat beans fried in garlic oil. These garlicky beans taste amazing with pasta, rice, in salads, on toast. Sometimes simple food is the best!
Happy cooking!
♥ Tiina
Pasta with chermoula and garlic beans
Ingredients
Chermoula sauce
- 1,5 tsp cumin seeds
- 1,5 tsp coriander seeds
- 1,5 cups chopped cilantro
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- lemon zest from 1 lemon (or half a lemon if a big one)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp sweet paprika spice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- black pepper
- heaped 1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic beans
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup cooked white beans
- salt and pepper to taste
For serving
- pasta and fresh herbs
Instructions
- Chermoula: warm seeds in a dry pan. Grind them and blend all ingredients except oil.
- Mix the oil in last (with a spoon) and set aside.
- Cook pasta. Use gluten-free pasta if you want the meal to be gluten-free.
- Garlic beans: chop garlic. Warm oil in pan and add garlic and cooked beans. Fry for a few minutes until beans become mushy. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve cooked pasta with garlic beans and chermoula sauce or no-oil basil pesto. Add fresh herbs for decoration and flavor.
ps You can follow me on Pinterest for yummy vegan food!
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