Delicious and easy-to-make dinner: Asian-flavored pasta with broccoli and oyster mushrooms, topped with cashew nuts. Simple Asian sauce is made with Tamari sauce, honey, and sesame oil.
This meatless Asian pasta is perfect for the weeknights, because it's so easy to make! I love using oyster mushrooms in cooking, and they taste exceptionally wonderful in Asian dishes. Oyster mushrooms are easily available in Asian stores and in some regular grocery stores, too.
The sauce is very basic but deliciously flavorful: tamari sauce + honey + sesame oil + crushed red pepper flakes (optional). I am using wheat-free tamari sauce, which is basically a gluten-free version of soy sauce. Soy sauce is much saltier than tamari, so if using tamari, make sure to season your final dish with salt, if desired.
Combining fettuccine pasta with oyster mushrooms, broccoli, cashews with Asian sauce results in a delicious dinner.
Because I recently became gluten intolerant, I am using wheat free/gluten free pasta - Fettuccini Style Pad Thai Brown Rice Pasta. I was pleasantly surprised what a great texture this brown rice pasta has to offer - it's not mushy and tastes just like regular pasta. I cooked it the way I would cook regular pasta - by cooking it in boiling water for 8-10 minutes (or a little bit longer, to achieve right consistency), and then rinsing it in cold water to stop cooking.
If you're not following gluten free diet, just use regular pasta and regular soy sauce instead of tamari sauce, but keep in mind that soy sauce is much saltier than tamari, so you might want to use only 1 tablespoon of it in this recipe.
Cooking tips
- Blanch the broccoli by dipping the broccoli head into boiling water for 30 seconds, then draining it. The broccoli head will turn bright green color!
- When serving this Asian pasta with broccoli and mushrooms, top each plate with some whole cashew nuts and some finely crushed ones (use knife to crush them into smaller pieces).
Other Asian Pasta Recipes
Here are more ideas for Asian noodles:
Asian Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing
Spicy Asian Noodles with Mushrooms and Snow Peas
Asian pasta with broccoli and mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound mushrooms (oyster mushrooms or regular ones), sliced
- 4 garlic cloves
- ½ head broccoli
- 2 tablespoons tamari sauce gluten free and wheat-free
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 8 oz fettuccine pasta (for gluten free, use gluten free brown rice fettuccine pasta)
- ½ cup cashew nuts , partially whole, partially crushed
Instructions
Mushrooms
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add oyster mushrooms and garlic, and saute for 2-3 minutes, regularly stirring with spatula.
- Sprinkle the mushrooms with a little bit of salt, cover with the lid and continue cooking the mushrooms for another 5-7 minutes, occasionally stirring. Having the lid on will allow mushrooms generate some moisture and not get burned. Mushrooms should be cooked for a total of 7-10 minutes. Cover the skillet and set aside.
Pasta
- In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta. Cook pasta according to package instructions (in my case, I cooked gluten free Brown Rice Fettuccine pasta like I would cook a regular pasta - by boiling it for about 8-10 minutes until the pasta achieved the right consistency).
- As you cook pasta in boiling water, blanch the broccoli by dipping the broccoli head into pasta boiling water for 30 seconds, then draining it. The broccoli head will turn bright green color! Cut the broccoli head into flowerets and small bite-size pieces. Add broccoli pieces to the skillet with mushrooms.
- Reserve ¼ cup pasta water, drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Set aside
Sauce
- Add 2 tablespoons tamari sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and ¼ cup reserved pasta water to the skillet with mushrooms and broccoli, on medium heat.
- Stir to combine, to make sure the sauce coats the vegetables.
- On medium heat, add cooked and drained pasta to the skillet, mix well until the sauce coats the pasta, taste and season with salt, if desired.
- Note: tamari sauce is not as salty as regular soy sauce, so you might have to add salt to your pasta. If you're using regular soy sauce, you will likely not need to salt your dish.
- To serve, top each pasta serving with some whole cashew nuts and some finely crushed ones (use knife to crush them into smaller pieces).
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I didn't have broccoli for this recipe, but I decided to make it anyway. It was tasty, but I added organic onion powder to the sauce. I'll make this again but I'd like to add 'something' else to enhance the taste. I don't like hot, spicey herbs, but I'll keep experimenting.
Hi Linda, thank you for the feedback! To enhance the taste you might also try adding a small amount (1 or 2 tablespoons) of non-spicy red curry paste (Thai Kitchen brand has a red curry paste that is not too hot).
Adding a tablespoon or 2 of sriracha adds so much flavor, too (even though it could be hot but you can experiment with the amounts).
Delicious Asian dinner! I substituted the honey for agave syrup, to make it vegan friendly. And, i replaced the pasta for brown rice noodles. Highly recommend this dish!
Thank you, Claire! I am glad you liked it!
This looks so good Julia! I love oyster mushrooms and broccoli and the cashews on top are a great addition!
Oooh this looks delicious! I just love Asian dishes that I can recreate at home. I wish I had a plate in front of me right now!
This pasta looks great. Love the combination of mushrooms and broccoli. So healthy and yummy.
Julia - this looks great! Very... umami if I can use it as an adjective 🙂
OOh Julia this sounds so good - the broccoli and mushrooms and pasta sound wonderful together - I need to find me some wheat free tamari so I can make this for my daughter.