This is the kind of pasta you might order at a stellar Cajun restaurant: sauteed mushrooms, peppers, onion and garlic, with spicy andouille sausage and shrimp on a bed of pasta, bathed in a creamy cheesy good Cajun cream sauce.
I remember ordering something very much like this at an excellent restaurant down near Louisiana many, many years ago … I was on travel for work, long before my (now adult) children were even born, before I ever met their father. But still, I remember the flavors of that dish like it was yesterday. Once I took a bite, I just couldn’t stop eating … it’s a dish I’ve wanted to re-create so many times, but well, I didn’t want to break my low-carb or low-cholesterol goals.
So I was super excited to find some chickpea linguine at the store the other day. Chickpea pasta tastes very much like regular pasta, but it’s made of chickpeas so it’s loaded with fiber and protein and has much fewer net carbs than regular pasta. Still maybe not something I want to eat every day, but hey, for a special occasion like Mardi Gras or Valentine’s Day, totally worth it! Still I also think this dish would be delightful on a bed of cauliflower polenta in place of the pasta if you don’t want the carbs and extra calories.
It’s c-c-c-cold outside here!
I live in South Dakota and yes, we have cold winters, but usually by February we see it start to warm up a LITTLE bit. But no, not this year. This year we’re having a January kind of February. So I welcome you back to my second in a (hopefully short) series of “it’s-too-flipping-cold-out-to-do-food-photography so I’m resorting to taking pics inside”, on my kitchen table, in my dark little house. Normally I take photos outside, yes, even in the dead of winter when my deck is coated in snow. But dang it, it’s well below zero out there and I am just NOT going to step foot outdoors unless I have to!
When I shoot inside, colors don’t come out right on camera and it’s dang hard to adjust them to look good. The shrimp in the pics were actually a nice coral pink, but they stubbornly refused to show their pinkness in the photos.
Invest in indoor food photography equipment?
Yeah, I know, I could invest in a light box and a fancy camera and such. But guys, in case you haven’t noticed from the lack of annoying videos and crazy popup ads, I’m not here for the money. This is my hobby. I don’t blame other bloggers who have advertising on their sites because they need to make a living. I thought about it, back when I was between jobs, and even gave being a full time blogger a little trial run then, but I quickly found that’s just not my mojo. I love the intellectual challenges I face when working, the comeraderie of the team I lead and the feeling that together we are making things better every day … and yeah, I also love the sense of security that comes with it.
But don’t worry, my dears, I love you too and I’m not going away anytime soon. I love this blog, love sharing my recipes. I love having an outlet for my creative energy and for sharing my voice. I especially love hearing your thoughts, your struggles and I hope that perhaps I can help you find delight and satisfaction in a healthier way of eating, even if I never hear from you.
Why voodoo pasta?
I named this recipe after one of my good friend’s dishes … we made her Voodoo Pasta together one time, and now I don’t remember exactly what was in it, but I do remember the taste: a creamy good Cajun pasta with a bit of a kick.
I also think of voodoo when I remember my trip to New Orleans. I didn’t know much about it back then, yet I find voodoo culture mysterious and intriguing. I encountered a lot of art, music and culture on that trip and I saw voodoo charms and amulets for protection, healing, or the harm of others, still there, for sale in the French Quarters. I heard many different stories from many different people on that visit, especially when we visited the slave plantation. I saw the cages where they used to hold slaves for many days: a 10×12-ish foot wire cage with no bathroom, no beds, a place they said held many people for many days until they were sold. That was a sad, enlightening day for us. We saw the buildings where they lived. We read the words of the slaves engraved on stone. We were moved by their stories. I want to honor their memory. Still today, black people and so many others fight for equality. That just seems wrong to me.
I hope for better times for all people of color and for all those who suffer from discrimination. I honor your fight with this recipe.
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Shrimp & Andouille Voodoo Pasta
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 45 min
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 4 oz. (or 2 servings) uncooked chickpea linguine (or other pasta of choice)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons grass-fed butter
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped, divided (half for the sauce, half for later)
- 3/4 cup half & half or milk
- 1.5 oz. Greek cream cheese or Neufchatel
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 3/8 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon Cajun or Creole seasoning, or to taste
- 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 of a sweet onion, sliced thin and roughly chopped
- About 8 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 6 mini sweet peppers, seeded and sliced into thin strips
- 1 chicken (or vegan) andouille sausage, sliced and roughly chopped
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon more Cajun or Creole seasoning (or to taste)
- 6 oz. uncooked large shrimp, peeled (frozen is fine)
- Louisiana hot sauce, to taste
- Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce: in a small saucepan, melt the butter, then add the garlic and stir briefly, until fragrant. Stir in most of the milk (reserving a couple Tablespoons) and then add the cream cheese in little bits. Smush the cream cheese on the sides of the pan to break it up more as it melts. Use a whisk to smooth out the sauce as the cream cheese melts. Crumble the Italian seasoning into the sauce.
- Add the cornstarch to the reserved milk and stir well to dissolve it. While whisking, slowly stir in the cornstarch/milk mixture, until thickened. Stir in the shredded cheese, then add the creole seasoning to taste. Set aside.
- Drain the pasta, then, in the empty pasta pot, heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute briefly, then add the reserved garlic, mushrooms, pepper strips, chopped sausage and 1/4 teaspoon Creole seasoning. Cover and let cook for a couple minutes, uncovering to stir occasionally, until the mushrooms and the peppers are tender. Make a space in the center for the shrimp then add the shrimp and cook just until pink on the bottom, then flip the shrimp and cook just until they turn pink and curl up. Stir the mixture together, taste and add seasoning, hot sauce and/or salt and pepper as desired.
- Stir the cooked noodles with as much of the creamy sauce as you like (you probably will have extra sauce) and divide the pasta between two plates, then top with the shrimp mixture. Garnish with fresh thyme or basil leaves if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
I used about half the sauce on the pasta, then saved the rest in a small jar in the fridge for other uses. Aside from pasta, it also makes a delightful sauce for pizza, seafood, pork or chicken or you can use it as the base for a cheesy cajun dip.
As long as the pasta and sausage that you choose are gluten free, the recipe should be gluten free.
© Copyright 2021, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. I love it when you share, but please do not use my images on your own site/page without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. Sharing, pinning, and tweeting is always appreciated as long as the shares and pins link back to here for the recipe. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Recipe analysis is a calculated estimate assuming you use 2% milk and about half the creamy sauce. I’m not at all confident in its accuracy as I saw some VERY skewed calorie counts on some things (like the shrimp and the pasta) and tried to adjust to the actual calorie counts on the package.
1 comment
Yummmy yummmy yummmy!! Can’t wait to try this one. Thanks Ann!