This delicious twist on an Italian pasta goodness is quick, easy, and delicious. Our homemade, oil-free Vegan Creamy Spinach Pasta is brimming with comforting flavors, healthy ingredients, and belly-pleasing goodness. If you are a pasta and spinach lover, then this delightfully dreamy, creamy pasta dish is for you! This tasty pasta dish can be whipped up in just about 20 minutes, and it is sure to absolutely delight your taste buds, making it this week’s awesome Whip It Up Wednesday recipe.
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
This week’s Whip It Up Wednesday is our delicious Creamy Spinach Pasta. Tender pasta covered with a creamy Italian herb flavored sauce that is bursting with satisfying flavors; look no further, this dish is fast, easy, and utterly delicious!
Whip it up Wednesday
As you already know, Wednesdays, we feature a quick and easy recipe that can be “whipped up” in 20 minutes or less. This recipe can be made in about 20 minutes which really helps speed things up in the kitchen.
If you are a spinach and pasta lover like we are, then this Italian flavor-packed dish is right up your alley. We enjoyed the creamy sauce that coated the pasta and spinach. We fell in love with the first bite.
The Real Test
Of course, the real test was trying it out on Dad as he is 100% Sicilian after all, and considers himself a connoisseur of all Italian dishes that we create! He loves cream sauces and he dove into this dish like a wolverine who hadn’t eaten in a month. HAHA He gobbled it up and was looking for more. Always a good sign!!
Needless to say, he gave it a 2-thumbs up and called dibs on leftovers. Unfortunately, there were none, so we had to make it again the following day! LOL
If you try this tasty dish, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
Delicious Italian Pasta Dishes
- Vegan Pasta Primavera
- Pasta alla Napolitana
- Pasta Puttanesca
- Italian Pasta and Peppers
- Vegan Carbonara Pasta
- Vegan Parmesan Veggie Pasta
- Italian Pasta and Kale
Products Used:
- Large stock pot to cook the pasta
- Large non-stick skillet or similarly large skillet to cook the sauce
Vegan Creamy Spinach Pasta
- Prep Time: 8 Minutes
- Cook Time: 13 Minutes
- Total Time: 20 Minutes
- Yield: 3 Servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This oil-free Vegan Creamy Spinach Pasta is brimming with comforting flavors, healthy ingredients, and ready in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
Base Ingredients:
- 1 cup yellow onions, fine dice
- 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoon GF flour *
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted almond butter
- ½ cup low-sodium vegetable broth *
- ½ cup water *
- ¼ cup unsweetened plain plant milk
- 1 Tablespoon white miso *
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard *
- 1 Tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari *
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
Spice/Herb Ingredients:
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion flakes
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dried crushed thyme leaves *
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- Pinch of crushed rosemary
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Other Ingredients
- 10 oz. GF pasta, cooked (or pasta of choice) *
- 3 cups baby spinach
Optional Toppings:
- Freshly chopped parsley
- Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Boil the pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water to remove excess starches. Set aside. Note: Right before draining the pasta, pull off one cup of hot pasta water, reserve, set aside to use later.
- Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- In a large ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven/pot or similarly large stockpot/skillet, add the finely diced onion, sauté over medium-high heat for 7 to 8 minutes until the onions are tender. (If needed to prevent sticking, add a splash of vegetable broth or water).
- Add the minced garlic and sauté for one minute. Add the almond butter and stir for one minute.
- Sprinkle the flour over the sautéed onions, garlic and almond butter, then sauté the flour for one minute. It will look like flour covered lumps, that is OK. You want to cook the flour.
- Add the vegetable broth and water, heat to boiling, then immediately lower to a simmer. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or stiff plastic spatula to pull up anything that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then add the Spice/Herb Mix, and all the remaining Base Ingredients. Stir constantly until the mixture comes together nicely and the sauce is thick.
- Stir in the cooked pasta and baby spinach, heat through until the spinach starts to wilt. If the sauce is too thick, add approximately ½ to 2/3 cup of hot pasta water to thin out the sauce. Serve with freshly chopped parsley and Vegan Parmesan.
Notes
Tips for Success:
- Sauce: When cooking the almond butter and flour, it will lump up and some will stick to the bottom of the skillet/pan. Use a wooden spoon or stiff rubber spatula to scrape it off the bottom of the skillet. There is a lot of flavor that can get stuck to the bottom of the skillet, you want to make sure you pull it up and mix it into the sauce.
- Hot Pasta Water: When the pasta is done boiling, pull off about one cup of hot pasta water and set it aside. You may need this extra water to help thin out the sauce (at the end) if it becomes too thick. We used about 2/3 cup of hot pasta water to thin out the sauce. Hot pasta water is excellent for thinning out thick sauces. You may not wish to use any or you could end up using the entire cup of hot pasta water.
- Amount of Pasta: While it is very tempting to use more pasta then the 10 oz.; it is important to understand that the more pasta you use, the less sauce will be available for this dish and it will become dry. We found that 10 oz. is the perfect pasta to sauce ratio for this dish.
*Notes Continued:
*Pasta of choice: You can use your favorite pasta in this dish. We used Dellalo Gluten Free Brown Rice Ziti.
*Dijon Mustard: We used Koob’s Dijon Mustard. As you probably know, Dijon mustards vary greatly in flavor and strength. Feel free to use your favorite Dijon mustard. Taste test the sauce, if you want more tang, feel free to add more Dijon mustard.
*Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.
*Tamari: We used San J Tamari Soy Sauce, Gluten Free, Reduced Sodium. You can substitute the tamari with reduced sodium soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Braggs Coconut Liquid Aminos.
*Dried Crushed Thyme Leaves: We use Penzeys French Thyme. Dried and crushed thyme leaves are not the same as ground thyme. Ground thyme has a powdery consistency. Whereas dried and crushed thyme leaves have texture. You can use either in this recipe. We used dried and crushed thyme leaves, so if you are using ground thyme, scale back to half of the amount indicated in the recipe and check for flavor consistency.
*Miso: We used Miso Master Organic Mellow White Premium Lite Miso, Certified Gluten Free. Miso really lends itself to balancing flavors when you don’t use oil. You can also use chickpea miso for a soy free version.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Servings: 3 Servings
*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 5 days.
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This is a keeper! So easy, ingredients i always have in hand and my non- vegan family loved it! My picky 15-year old said my only failure was not doubling the recipe, ha ha! Thank you for all your wonderful recipes, they are always delicious and easy!
Hi there Darci 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you and your non-vegan family loved this recipe – *doing a happy dance*. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wonderful feedback with us. We appreciate your kind words and support!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Is it ok to omit miso if you don’t have any?
Hi there Silvy 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. Yes, you can omit the miso. You may or may not need to adjust any additional seasoning/spices to fit your personal preference.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made this recipe for my family–most are not vegan eaters. Everyone loved it! Definitely a keeper! Thanks for sharing!
Hi there Trina 🙂
Woo hoo!!! We are so thrilled that you and your family loved this recipe – *doing a happy dance.* We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback with us.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made this the other night and it was so filling and good!
Hi there Atomicvegan 🙂
Awesome!!! We are SUPER excited you enjoyed this recipe. We appreciate you sharing your wonderful review. Thank you so much for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Just made this and I absolutely LOVE it! The sauce is delicious!!!…no beans…no nuts…just low fat and AMAZING! I used a large stem of fresh rosemary since I have 2 huge bushes in my yard…and I used sun butter since it was on hand….but other than that…everything as recipe stated. I’m in LOVE! Thank you! You always have such amazing recipes!
Hi there Courtney 🙂
Yaaay! We are so thrilled that you loved this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing your delicious adjustments and wonderful review with us. We appreciate you taking the time to write. Thank you so much for your kind words and continued support.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I don’t use any nut butters. Do you think it would be OK without it? It sounds delicious!
Hi there Char 🙂
Thank you for your question. You can leave the nut butter out of the recipe with the understanding that the dish will be less creamy and not taste quite as rich. That little bit of fat does trick the mind into thinking the dish is more indulgent than it actually is. I hope this helps.
-Ameera and Robin
Hi, thank you for sharing all your delicious recipes. Do you think adding frozen spinach to the recipe would work instead of the fresh baby spinach leaves? If so, what would be your uggested quantity.
Hi there Julie 🙂
Thank you for your question. Yes, you can use frozen spinach, but you will really need to scale back how much. We would suggest starting out with 1/2 cup since frozen spinach is mature and a much stronger flavor. It will dilute your spices so you may need to ramp those up as well.
-Ameera and Robin
Super easy to make and excellent flavor. The sauce, however, did not make nearly enough. I ended up doubling that part of the recipe.
Hi there Heather,
YAYYY!!! We are so happy that you found this recipe super easy to make and that it had excellent flavor. Thank you so much for the awesome review. We appreciate it.
-Ameera and Robin