Make a healthy, nutritious, delicious, and rich pasta sauce simply using six ingredients. This creamy spinach pasta sauce is vegan and raw. All you need to make this amazing green sauce is a good high-speed blender, six ingredients, and your favorite pasta. This recipe will please your whole family, including picky eaters!
What makes our Creamy Spinach Pasta so good?
- It's Vegan. This pasta recipe is 100% vegan, using just plant-based ingredients. Some creamy pasta dishes are packed with dairy products such as heavy cream making them quite heavy. Our Creamy Spinach Pasta is light and fresh, using silken tofu to get that creamy texture while adding protein to your dish.
- A Healthy meal. Our green sauce is made by simply blending all the ingredients using a high-speed blender. You won't need to wilt the spinach, keeping all the nutrients intact, and the rest of the ingredients are added raw as well. This creamy sauce contains fresh spinach and basil, organic silken tofu, fresh lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and pistachios. Instead of using regular pasta, You can serve this creamy sauce on top of whole wheat pasta, or legume pasta to make this dish even healthier.
- Kids and toddler-friendly. This is a meal for the whole family to enjoy. Our toddler and kid love this green pasta. We make it when they have friends over and is always a hit, even for picky eaters. If you are serving this meal to babies under 1 year old, we recommend using basil leaves instead of spinach.
- Quick to make, under 10 minutes. Yes, you read that right! 10 minutes is all you need to make this satisfyingly creamy sauce. This recipe makes for the perfect easy weeknight meal when you need something quick and nutritious for the whole family.
- Absolutely delicious. The combination of these simple ingredients leads to a delicious pasta sauce. Try it once and you will be making this meal on rotation!
Our Green Pasta is:
- Vegan
- Family-friendly
- Protein-high
- A quick meal
- Perfect for busy weekdays
- Main dish
- Easy to prepare
- Nutritious
- A family favorite
How to make our Creamy Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
Spinach. For this recipe, we use fresh spinach. You can use regular spinach leaves or baby spinach. If you are using frozen spinach, make sure they are completely thawed before adding them to the blender.
Silken Tofu. We use Organic Silken Tofu. You can use firm or soft silken tofu. If you are using regular tofu, make sure you are using fresh soft, or medium tofu. If you want to substitute the tofu in this recipe, you can use cashew cream or coconut cream.
Lemon Juice. You will need fresh lemon juice. Optionally, you can add lemon zest before serving or preserved lemons.
Basil. Adding fresh basil leaves adds a delicious touch to the sauce. Our son Luca loves pesto, so we added some basil leaves for him and realized it adds an amazing touch to the sauce itself.
Nutritional Yeast. This ingredient adds a delicate cheesy flavor and provides vitamin B12.
Pistachios. We love the flavor that pistachios add to the sauce. As well, you can add some crushed pistachios on top before serving this creamy pasta. Alternatively, you can use pine nuts, walnuts, or Macadamia nuts.
Pasta. You can use any type of pasta you like. We recommend short pasta or tubular pasta such as penne pasta as they hold the sauce better.
Step-by-Step Method
- Rinse with fresh water the spinach and basil leaves. Add the spinach, silken tofu, lemon juice, basil, yeast flakes, pistachios, and a pinch of salt to a blender jug.
- Blend until you have a smooth sauce. Don't worry if the sauce is too thick as we will be adding some pasta water later.
- Cook the pasta al dente following the package instructions. Before draining the water, reserve about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the rest of the water and pour the pasta back into the pot or a large skillet.
- Add the sauce onto the cooked pasta, and pour some of the pasta water. Mix well and add the rest of the pasta water if needed.
If you mix the pasta with the sauce right after draining the pasta, the dish will be ready to be served as the pasta will slightly warm the sauce.
Otherwise, you can heat the pasta and sauce at medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Serve this green pasta topped with some crushed pistachios (skip this for kids as they are a choking hazard), lemon zest, or some additional yeast flakes. You can add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil as well, black pepper, or vegan parmesan cheese.
Variations
- Use another type of "cream". To give our spinach pasta recipe a creamy texture, we use silken tofu. You can as well, use cashew cream as we do for our Creamy Broccoli Pasta. To make cashew cream, we use pre-soaked cashews and water. Simply leave the cashews soaking for at least 20 minutes in warm water. Other plant-based options are coconut milk, soy cream, oat cream, or regular heavy cream if you want to make this recipe vegetarian.
- Add veggies. We kept this recipe really simple as this is how our kids love it and how we make it weekly. You can add different ingredients to make this dish more complete or to your taste. Some great options are chopped avocado, cherry tomatoes, steamed broccoli, sautéed mushrooms, or green beans.
- Make it gluten-free. The creamy spinach sauce is naturally gluten-free, so the only thing you would need to change is the pasta. You can use gluten-free pasta, chickpea pasta, or red lentil pasta for example.
- Use different nuts or nut butter. For this recipe, we add pistachios to the sauce. They add a delicious nutty flavor. You can add different nuts such as cashews or walnuts, or simply add some nut butter. You can check our recipes for Cashew Butter and Brazil Nut Butter.
- Make it spicy. Add some chili powder or red pepper flakes to the blender for a spicy touch. Another option is to add jalapeño peppers on top before serving.
Serving Suggestions
Our Creamy Spinach Pasta can be served as a main dish alongside with some vegan garlic bread, a fresh salad, or some black olives.
This dish makes for a great side dish or appetizer as well. Serve it as a side dish with this roasted cauliflower steak from Healthy Recipes, or grilled tofu. Make smaller portions and topped them with pistachios and some fresh basil leaves and serve them as an appetizer for a dinner party. ç
Garnish this delicious Green Pasta with some fresh basil leaves a drizzle of olive oil, and if you like spicy food, some chili flakes.
Store and Reheat
If you have leftovers or you want to enjoy the meal later, you can keep this creamy pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
To reheat the pasta, simply add a little water and reheat using the microwave or a skillet. The water will help you get that creamy texture again.
FAQ and Tips
WHAT IS A GREEN PASTA SAUCE MADE OF?
Green pasta can be made of different ingredients. Our green pasta sauce is made with spinach, basil leaves, silken tofu, pistachios, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast.
IS THIS RECIPE GLUTEN-FREE?
If you want to make this dish gluten-free you need to use gluten-free pasta and make sure the yeast flakes (if you add some in) are gluten-free.
Can I use regular tofu for this recipe?
If you are using regular tofu, make sure you are using fresh tofu whether is soft, or medium tofu.
Can I use frozen spinach?
Yes, you can use frozen spinach for this recipe. Make sure they are completely thawed and squeeze out as much excess water as possible.
Can I make this recipe using an immersion blender?
Yes. We have done it before and it works just as well.
Creamy Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
- 100 g spinach
- A handful fresh basil
- 350 g silken tofu
- lemon juice from ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoon yeast flakes
- ¼ cup pistachios peeled and unsalted
- A pinch of salt
- 350 g pasta
- ½ cup pasta water
Instructions
- Rinse with fresh water the spinach and basil leaves.
- Add the spinach, basil leaves, silken tofu, lemon juice, yeast flakes, pistachios, and a pinch of salt to a blender jug.
- Blend all the ingredients until you have a smooth sauce.
- Cook the pasta following the package instructions. Before draining the water, reserve about ½ cup of pasta water. Drain the rest of the water and pour the pasta back into the pot.
- Add the green sauce onto the cooked pasta, and pour some of the pasta water. Mix well and add the rest of the pasta water if needed until you have the desired creamy sauce.
- Serve with some crushed pistachios on top, some extra basil leaves, and chili flakes if you enjoy spicy food.
Nutrition
| If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram @Sixhungryfeet. We are always happy to see your creations! |
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