I’ve been making this creamy plant-based pasta over and over again this summer. Sometimes I switch the veggies up a little bit, but it never disappoints!
I think this is my favourite recipe right now. It’s based on something out of Ina Garten’s cookbook Barefoot Contessa at Home and I just can’t get enough of it. I recently figured out an easy little trick for plantifying recipes that call for heavy cream and this recipe uses that trick. This is one of those meals that makes me feel like I’m making something a little bit extra special for dinner, but it really isn’t very difficult to pull together at all. I just throw in a whole bunch of summer veggies, add a baguette to go with it, and we’re all set.
Ingredients Needed for the Creamy Plant-Based Summer Veggie Pasta
You’ll need:
- Tri-colored fusilli
- Lemon
- Garlic
- Garlic and chive plant-based cream cheese
- Almond milk
- Roasted red peppers
- Summer squash or zucchini
- Broccoli
- Fresh basil
- Black pepper
- Nutritional yeast
- Extra plant-based shredded mozzarella, if you like
That’s it! It’s a pretty simple pasta dish, but very filling.
Preparing the Creamy Veggie Pasta
I always do kind of a “mise-en-place” kind of a technique for this, getting each ingredient ready beforehand, and then tackling the actual cooking, because the cooking part of things goes really quickly.
You’ll need to:
- Mince the garlic
- Grate the lemon rind
- Squeeze out the lemon juice
- Melt the cream cheese a bit in the microwave
- Slice the roasted red peppers
- Chop the squash
- Cut the Broccoli into florets
And now you’re ready! Put the water on to boil for the pasta and get ready to make the sauce. Follow along with the recipe below, or print it out and save it in your recipe binder for later. 🙂
Printable Creamy Plant-Based Summer Veggie Pasta Recipe
If I’m being honest, this isn’t the exact recipe that I’ve been making over and over again this summer. I actually make three different versions of it, depending on who’s eating. The original was with grape tomatoes in place of the red peppers and arugula in place of the basil. It was outstanding and probably my favourite. Chris doesn’t love fresh tomatoes though, so then I moved on to making the second version of this dish, which involved sun-dried tomatoes in place of fresh. Still delicious, and more accommodating to all of the taste buds in our house.
The version I’m showing you here today is the latest incarnation of this recipe and it came about because a)the garden is full of basil and it needs to be used up and b)roasted red peppers are always a good idea and I was feeling experimental. All three versions of this recipe are outstanding though and I bet you could even come up with a few other variations that would work just as well. Summer vegetables just all seem to go so well together, don’t they?
Here’s the full printable recipe!
I've been making this creamy plant-based pasta over and over again this summer. Sometimes I switch the veggies up a little bit, but it never disappoints!
- 1 Lemon
- 1 package Tri-coloured fusili
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 container Garlic and chive flavoured plant-based cream cheese (I use Daiya brand)
- 1/4-1/2 cup Almond milk
- 1/2 cup Sliced Roasted Red Peppers
- 1 Small summer squash or zucchini, diced
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets (frozen is fine)
- 1/2-1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- black pepper
- extra plant-based shredded cheese to serve (optional)
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Do the pasta prep work: Mince the garlic, grate the lemon rind off the lemon, squeeze the juice out of the lemon, dice the squash, and slice the roasted red peppers.
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Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta until al-dente.
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While the water boils, in a mudium sized pan, saute the garlic for a few seconds, then add the squash and sautee for about 2-3 minutes more.
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To the pan with the zucchini and garlic, add the plant-based cream cheese, almond milk, lemon rind and juice, black pepper, broccoli, peppers, and nutrional yeast. Simmer for five to ten minutes until the cream cheese melts fully and the broccoli is cooked.
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Drain the pasta. Mix the pasta and sauce together in a big bowl. Tear the basil leaves into the bowl and toss further. Top with extra shredded plant-based cheese if desired.
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- Plant-Based Crab Cakes
- Broccoli, Quinoa, and Cheese Casserole
- The Ultimate Plant-Based Lasagna Recipe
- Plant-Based Veggie Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping
- The Creek Line House Food Archives
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.