Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

How about those Grammy’s, eh? Truth be told, after a very filling seafood feast at...

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

How about those Grammy’s, eh?

Truth be told, after a very filling seafood feast at one of our favorite restaurants here in Florida, I passed out on the couch right at the beginning of the show.

We also tried to watch The Walking Dead, but, again, I slept as the zombies attacked Rick Grimes.

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

I’ve been totally relaxed down here, if you didn’t notice in yesterday’s post.

Today is another cloudy day, meaning more Rummy 500 and board games.

What’s not cloudy is this delicious, colorful, flavorful bowl of okinawa sweet potato noodles. I actually can’t believe it’s taken me this long to bring you an okinawa sweet potato noodle recipe – these noodles are incredibly flavorful!

The noodles are sweeter than your typical orange-fleshed sweet potato noodle and they also have a tougher flesh, making them a bit more difficult to spiralize. They also more easily break apart as they cook, but that’s okay – they still generally hold their noodle shape.

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

While the noodles are a bit sweeter, they’re also nuttier. They also take a little longer to cook than typical sweet potatoes.

The pancetta and leek flavors offer the perfect balance of savory and sweet to complement the tastes of the okinawa sweet potato (also known as a Japanese purple potato.)

And this cauliflower sauce is a classic – you can pour this over any spiralized vegetable for a healthy pasta – swap in vegetable broth to make it vegan! Seriously, bookmark this one.

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

Okinawa sweet potato noodles aren’t just tasty and beautiful – they’re richly nutritious: high in fiber and Vitamin A and C. However, they’re most known for their high levels of antioxidants – apparently, they have 150% more antioxidants than blueberries.

So, eat the rainbow and get your daily dose of vitamins and nutrients with this filling bowl of okinawa sweet potato noodles.

Have you ever tried okinawa sweet potatoes?

Nutritional Information & Recipe

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

Inspiralized

Creamy Okinawa Sweet Potato Pasta with Leeks and Pancetta

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • For the cauliflower sauce:
  • Florets from 1 small head of cauliflower about 4-5 cups
  • 1 small shallot minced
  • 1 large clove of garlic minced
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup chicken broth low-sodium
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
  • salt to taste
  • For the rest:
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 oz cubed pancetta
  • 2-3 cups chopped leeks
  • 2 large or 3 medium Japanese Sweet Potatoes, peeled, Blade C, noodles trimmed
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley to garnish

Instructions

  • Bring a medium pot filled halfway with water and a pinch of salt to a boil. Once boiling, add in the cauliflower. Cook the cauliflower until tender and easily pierced with a fork, about 7 minutes. Drain into a colander.
  • While cauliflower cooks, place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and in the pancetta. Cook the pancetta for 5-7 minutes or until browned. Reserve 1 tablespoon with a slotted spoon and set the rest aside.
  • Place the large skillet back over medium heat and add in the shallots, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes or until shallots are softened. If needed, add in a drizzle of olive oil to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan.
  • Transfer both the drained cauliflower and cooked shallot mixture into a high speed blender along with the chicken broth, nutritional yeast, season with salt and pulse until creamy. Taste and adjust to your preference. Set aside.
  • Place the large skillet back over medium heat and add in the olive oil. Add in the leeks and sweet potato noodles, season with salt and pepper and then cover, letting cook for 7-10 minutes, uncovering to toss occasionally, until noodles are al dente.
  • When noodles and leeks are cooked, pour in the cauliflower sauce, toss to combine and let cook for about 1 minute to heat the sauce back up (if needed.) Plate the pasta into bowls and top with reserved pancetta and parsley, to garnish.
with love, Ali

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comments

  • Will the cauliflower sauce taste as good with veggie stock? It's not vegan with chicken stock. This looks incredible though! Saved!
  • Maybe I missed it but what do you do with the nutritional yeast flakes? I am saving this recipe and will try soon.
      • That was added since this morning. I saved the recipe to a database and the words "nutritional yeast" is no where in #4. Neither was the "swap in vegetable broth to make it vegan.." line.
        • I often change the recipes right after I post them up, since sometimes readers catch errors or misspellings that I miss! Sorry for any inconvenience.
    • It's in step 4
    • Erin - you can try lentils, that would work nicely here!
  • I don't know where to find that sweet potato. I've looked and looked. Any suggestions?
  • Yum! I live by several Korean grocery stores and often buy the purple sweets there. This recipe looks amazing. Being vegan, I will probably bake and use liquid smoke on cubed tempeh to simulate pancetta.
  • First of all WOW to the cauliflower sauce! So good. . Very creative. Thanks again for great creative meals. I subbed the pancetta For dogfish sausage delicious.