This simple vegan pumpkin pasta is made with solely eight substances—together with plant-based cream cheese, which supplies it a stunning, creamy consistency. It’s a small batch recipe, which serves two folks, and it’s the right factor to make when you have got a half cup of pumpkin purée left over from baking!
At this level within the fall—after thirty-one days of October—you might be prepared for a break from pumpkin themed recipes.
However I’ve bought one other for you. Hear me out?
In case you spend the autumn months, as I’ve been identified to do, creating batches of orange-hued pumpkin bread or waffles, then you might typically end up with an opened can of pumpkin purée sitting in your fridge, with only a half cup or so of pumpkin left.
Sure, you possibly can make in a single day oats. However what for those who’re craving one thing savory?
This creamy vegan pumpkin pasta is the reply. It’s additionally a handy, low-key dinner that options solely eight substances and is ideal for busy weeknights.
A small batch recipe
In case you learn this website usually, then you recognize that almost all of my recipes are scaled to serve 4 folks or extra.
That is how I cook dinner at house, although I dwell alone. Since I’m a meal prep fanatic, I’d all the time quite make the entire batch and freeze or retailer some than make much less.
The Vegan Week
Embrace the enjoyment of consuming selfmade meals every single day with the hearty and healthful recipes in The Vegan Week.
Whether or not you have got three, two, and even only one hour of time to spare, The Vegan Week will present you the way to batch cook dinner diverse, colourful, and comforting dishes over the weekend.
Every so often, although, I’ve a small quantity of a sure ingredient that I would like to make use of up. In that case, I make a single serve recipe, or a recipe that serves two.
The state of affairs that I described above, the place I’ve an open can of pumpkin and only a small quantity of purée left, is a reasonably frequent prevalence in my house.
My efforts to get inventive with that half cup or so of pumpkin purée is how this pumpkin pasta got here to be.
Over time, I discovered the precise mixture of easy substances—substances that I nearly all the time have at house—to make it work.
The recipe makes one beneficiant or two medium-sized parts, relying on how hungry you might be and what you’d wish to serve the pasta with. Once I make it, I often get pleasure from one portion for dinner and one other for lunch the next day, with some toppings and easy veggie sides.
Plant-based cream cheese is the star of this creamy sauce
I’ve been identified to rely closely—nearly solely, actually—on my all-purpose cashew cream for pasta dishes.
It reveals up in wintery mushroom pasta, one-pot orzo, skillet lasagna, and extra.
A lot as I really like the cashew cream, it has at the least one downside: a few of my readers have cashew or tree nut allergy symptoms. So, after I use cashew cream time and time once more in my recipes, I’m acutely aware of the truth that I’m excluding some people who can’t eat it.
There are additionally instances after I run out of cashews and have to seek out another for creamy, dairy-free dishes.
That’s truly how this recipe initially got here to be. I’d run out of cashews, however I did have a container of Kite Hill cream cheese in my fridge.
I’ve blended vegan cream cheese and water as an alternative to cashew cream earlier than, and I figured it was value a shot right here.
The cream cheese, blended with the pumpkin purée and just a bit little bit of tomato paste for umami, labored superbly.
So, that’s the quite simple, three-ingredient pasta sauce that I’m sharing with you at the moment (OK, 4 substances, for those who embody pasta water).
It offers the pasta a pinkish, orange hue, and a pleasant, savory taste.
Methods to make 8 ingredient creamy vegan pumpkin pasta
The method of constructing the pumpkin pasta is really easy—you received’t even want to cut an onion! Listed below are the steps.
Step 1: Boil your pasta
Deliver a pot of salted water to a boil and add your pasta.
Any pasta form will work right here. I often use a brief or medium form, however you may as well use spaghetti, lengthy fusilli, mafaldine, or one other lengthy noodle.
Likewise, you need to use a sort of pasta that fits your dietary preferences and well being priorities. Gluten-free pasta shall be wonderful, as will entire grain or bean-based pasta.
Earlier than you drain the pasta, put aside a cup of the pasta cooking water. That’ll develop into a part of the sauce.
Step 2: Mix the sauce
Once I make the sauce, I take advantage of my blender or a meals processor for pace and effectivity.
In case you don’t really feel like dirtying an equipment, which I can positively perceive, then you may whisk the sauce in a bowl as an alternative.
In case you do that, although, I like to recommend doing it in a selected order, so that you simply don’t get any lumps or flecks of cream cheese within the sauce.
Place the cream cheese within the bowl first. Add the recent pasta water, tablespoon by tablespoon, whisking as you go.
When you have got a clean liquid, you may stir within the pumpkin and tomato paste. Hold whisking till you have got a clean sauce.
Step 3: Sauté a little bit garlic
Warmth a teaspoon of olive oil in a big, rimmed skillet or a medium sized pot over medium low warmth. Add a clove or two (or as many as you need!) of minced garlic to the cooking vessel.
Swish the garlic round within the scorching oil for about thirty seconds, or till it’s good and aromatic, however not burning.
Step 4: Add the pasta and sauce
Subsequent, you’ll add the creamy pumpkin sauce and the pasta to the skillet or pot. Stir and warmth the substances by.
If the pasta must be a little bit looser, add a tablespoon or two of additional pasta water. Then, style the pasta. Alter salt as wanted, and in addition add a squeeze (a couple of tablespoon) of lemon juice.
Step 5: Serve
You’ll be able to serve the pasta precisely as it’s, maybe with a inexperienced aspect veggie that you simply love.
Some vegetable aspect concepts embody my oven roasted eggplant cubes, miso butter Brussels sprouts, or crispy broccoli Caesar salad.
It’s also possible to high the pasta with a few of my favourite crispy roasted chickpeas or my cashew parmesan cheese. Each of those toppings will add some further plant protein.
What sort of cream cheese is greatest for the recipe?
With quite a few vegan cream cheese choices available in shops currently, you might be questioning which is greatest for the vegan pumpkin pasta.
I’ve two private favorites, each of which is able to work within the recipe. One is the Kite Hill model cream cheese, which I discussed already. It has an almond base.
The opposite is Tofutti cream cheese, which is tofu-based.
An honorable point out goes to Monty’s authentic cream cheese, which is made with cashews and is scrumptious—it’s only a bit difficult to seek out in shops.
Finally, you need to use the kind of vegan cream cheese that fits your preferences, funds, and dietary concerns.
One of many issues that I really like about utilizing cream cheese on this recipe is that there are alternatives accessible to go well with varied meals allergy symptoms and dietary preferences—nut-free, soy-free, and so forth.
Can I take advantage of a selfmade vegan cream cheese within the recipe?
In a phrase, sure!
I intend for the pumpkin pasta to be a fast and straightforward recipe, which signifies that I go for the store-bought cream cheese most of the time.
Even so, I’m a giant believer in making selfmade plant-based fundamentals and vegan cheeses. Cream cheese is a rewarding and versatile ingredient to make from scratch.
I can advocate two selfmade cream cheese recipes for this pasta. One is my 5-ingredient tofu cream cheese, which is so nutrient-dense.
The opposite is my go-to cashew cheese, which has a really wealthy texture and tangy taste, because of cashews and lemon juice.
Neither of those two choices shall be fairly as silky clean as store-bought cream cheese, however each will add taste and richness to the sauce.
To protect smoothness, you need to use the blender or meals processor possibility for mixing for those who use selfmade vegan cream cheese.
Substitutes for pumpkin purée (aka the way to make creamy vegan not-pumpkin pasta)
In fact, the entire hook of this recipe is that it’s a chance to make use of up pumpkin purée, in all of its creamy and beta carotene-rich goodness.
However what if the pasta appeals to you in its quickness and comfort, however you don’t have pumpkin at house?
No drawback. A half cup of puréed, cooked candy potato will work each bit as effectively.
It might be a bit richer in texture than pumpkin, during which case you may skinny the sauce with a little bit further pasta water.
When you’ve got butternut squash or one other cooked winter squash at house, you may as well use a half cup of puréed butternut squash, kabocha squash, or acorn squash.
Meal prep and storage
Usually, it is a small batch recipe that I make and revel in inside a day or so.
But there’s no motive to not retailer the pasta, for those who like. It will hold in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days.
Extra flash within the pan pasta recipes
This may occasionally truly be the quickest pasta recipe that I’ve shared on this area, but it surely’s in good firm.
In case you get pleasure from flash within the pan pasta suppers as a lot as I do, listed here are a number of others for you to try:
Whereas pumpkin season hangs round although, let’s concentrate on this savory celebration of the beloved gourd—my new low-stress dinner favourite.
Creamy 8 Ingredient Vegan Pumpkin Pasta
Writer –
Yields: 2 servings
- 4 ounces pasta form of selection (I particularly like medium and quick pasta shapes for this recipe)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin purée (120g)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste (30g)
- 2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese* (30g)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated on a microplane
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- cashew parmesan cheese (optionally available, for topping)
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Deliver a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta. Prepare dinner the pasta in line with pasta maker’s directions, or till it is cooked to your liking. Reserve 1 cup / 240ml of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
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In a blender or meals processor, mix collectively the pumpkin purée, tomato paste, cream cheese, and 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water. Alternatively, you may whisk these substances togehter in a mixing bowl. Start by including scorching pasta water by the tablespoon to the cream cheese, whisking as you go, in order that it turns into a clean liquid. Then, stir within the remaining sauce substances.
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Warmth the olive oil within the pot over medium low warmth. Add the garlic. Prepare dinner the garlic for 30 seconds, stirring continuously, or till the garlic is aromatic and scorching however not browning. Pour the blended pumpkin combination into the pot, then add the pasta. Warmth and stir for 2 minutes, or till the pasta is warmed by and saucy. If you would like to skinny the pasta sauce, add a number of extra splashes of pasta water to the combination.
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High with cashew Parmesan cheese, if desired, and serve.
With the winter holidays on the best way, many people shall be doing a number of elaborate cooking and baking.
Within the midst of all that, it’s good to have a simple recipe to maintain in your again pocket, and particularly a recipe that can provide help to to make use of up substances that you might have left over from different dishes.
This pasta is it. I hope you’ll get pleasure from it, too.
xo
