Who doesn’t love a bit of pasta. Especially a simple vegan pasta recipe like this one. It’s tasty, filling and healthy if you go for wholewheat pasta. Always look at the ingredients as some pastas (especially fresh) are not vegan, most dried pastas are as they’re made from durum wheat.
This simple vegan pasta recipe is my cheat dinner as it uses a shop bought red pesto, naughty I know but it does mean you can have it ready in about 20 minutes so it’s perfect for a mid week dinner. You could make your own red pesto with sun dried tomatoes, basil and pine nuts, I’ll post a recipe for it soon as it can be made ahead and frozen for when you need it. The recipe is good if you’re upping your protein for muscle building as it contains over 17g of protein, you could even add 140g of tofu which would double the protein to a whopping 34g! For more high protein vegan foods check out this article
Another thing I love about pasta is it’s another dish where I can throw in whatever veg I have in the fridge. In this simple vegan pasta recipe I added broccoli, pepper, spinach and mushrooms but you can use courgette, kale or carrots. Anything you have lying around.
Anyway, onto the recipe. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
Ingredients for my simple vegan pasta recipe
Makes 1 serving
Prep time 5-10 minutes
Cook time 12 minutes
- 75g vegan pasta
- 1 tablespoon vegan red pesto
- 100g broccoli
- Half a red pepper cut into 3cm strips
- 50g spinach
- 125g chestnut or closed cup mushrooms chopped
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil or coconut oil
How to make your vegan pasta
- Prepare the veg. Cut the broccoli into chunks so it’s easy to steam, chop the pepper and mushrooms
- Cook the pasta as per instructions, usually 10-12 minutes
- Whilst the pasta is cooking steam the broccoli for 10 minutes until cooked but still slightly firm (half the time if boiling)
- Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat, once hot chuck in the red pepper and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have shrunk and browned and the red pepper has softened. About 5-7 minutes.
- Add the spinach to the pan right at the end of cooking the veg, it doesn’t take long to cook, about 2-3 minutes.
- Drain the pasta then put back in the pan, add the veg and red pesto. Give it all a good stir (over a low heat if it needs warming through)
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition – Simple vegan pasta recipe
| Calories – 491 | Protein – 17.1g |
| Fat – 15.9g | Fibre – 12.2g |
| Carbs – 63.3g | Sugars – 8g |
Alternatives
If you don’t like red pesto or sun dried tomatoes the recipe would work with traditional green pesto, just make sure you buy a vegan one as standard green pesto usually contains parmesan cheese so isn’t even vegetarian. I only recently learnt that parmesan contains animal rennet so isn’t vegetarian never mind vegan!
To make the recipe oil free you could sauté the veg in a little water instead, that would take off about 45 calories.
Most veg would work in this recipe so you could try tomatoes, aubergine, green pepper or mange tout in it.
Conclusion
This recipe isn’t the lowest in calories but it’s great to have as a treat. I try to only have pasta about once a week to keep my calorie intake down, I always make sure I have whole wheat pasta as it’s not as refined as white pasta so it’s retained more of it’s natural fibre and micronutrients. If you’re looking to lose weight on a vegan diet have a look at this article
Can I lose weight on a plant based diet?
I hope you found this simple vegan pasta recipe useful. If you need a reason to go vegan check this out. Let me know if you’ve given it a go by commenting below. Did you enjoy it? What veg did you use? I’d love to hear from you.
Take care
Katie
Jbryce
It’s very thoughtful of you to share this article, sometimes many don’t know how to adapt to being vegan and thaye are not always able to keep up with the demands, this kind of recipes will help them eat a good food. I like yoir idea of sharing, it’s a knda fast food which is what most people look for.
Katie
Hi Jbryce
Thanks for commenting. I’ve never been a fan of spending hours in the kitchen so my recipes are generally quick to make, we all have busy lives right?
Glad you liked the post, let me know if you give the recipe a go.
All the best
Katie