Easy Vegan Pasta Recipes
Few dishes are as versatile and nutritionally dense as pasta. With such a wide variety of recipes, pasta dishes can easily be personalized to fit nearly every occasion and taste.
However, variety can also make it difficult to pick what exactly to cook. Explore these three vegan pasta dishes for inspiration on what to serve next.
You can enjoy a hearty vegan meal at one of our several locations in NYC or pickup and delivery orders. However you decide to enjoy your plate of our signature vegan cuisine, we look forward to serving you a memorable and delicious meal. Order Now.
Tips for Cooking Pasta
The foundation of any unforgettable pasta dish is the pasta itself. Whether you prefer homemade dough or dry pasta, taking the extra steps to properly prepare your pasta can set the tone for your entire recipe.
Before adding more vegan pasta recipes to your recipe book, explore these three tips for cooking the perfect pasta that professional chefs all over the world recommend.
Wait for a Rolling Boil
Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. However, there are different types of boils that occur at different temperatures.
When you’re cooking pasta, you’re going to want to wait until your water gets above the boiling point, which will create a rolling boil. A rolling boil features a high-temperature boil that creates an active churning motion within the pot. The high temperature and added movement are crucial parts in perfecting pasta.
Use Salt
Home cooks and professional chefs alike know how important seasoning is in creating a balanced and flavorful meal. While this is most often seen in sauces or with proteins, seasoning is also an important part of boiling pasta.
One of the most important, but often forgotten, steps of cooking memorable pasta that compliments your sauce and additives is to salt your water.
The boiling process is the most crucial for your pasta and forgetting to season with salt here will impact the flavor of your entire dish, no matter how skillfully your sauce is prepared. As your pasta softens, it absorbs the water around it – which means it will also absorb the salt and its heightened flavor.
This step should also be taken when making your own homemade pasta dough, as it undergoes the boiling process in a way similar to dry pasta. You can even add salt to the dough itself – just make sure to use a fine variety that won’t interfere with the structure of your dough.
Don’t Add Oil
While you’ll want to add salt to your pasta water to ensure that perfect al dente finish, you won’t want to add much more than that.
It’s a common cooking misconception that adding oil or similar ingredients, like butter, can help improve how pasta cooks. While it may help prevent your pasta from sticking together while cooking, this effect can make its way to your plate by preventing your sauce from efficiently coating your pasta.
The best way to prevent sticking while preserving the integrity of your pasta is to use plenty of water (it’s recommended that you use around 4 cups of water for every 3.5 ounces of dry pasta) and stir frequently. This can also help prevent boiling over.
Top 3 Vegan Pasta Recipes
These three vegan pasta recipes are rich in nutrition and contain a variety of ingredients to appeal to diverse palates. They’re also exceptionally easy to create, making them the perfect option for everything from fast weekday dinners to family gatherings.
Tofu and Vegetable Penne
This easy vegan pasta recipe pairs pan-seared tofu with a creamy red sauce and a melody of fresh or frozen vegetables, all served over penne.
The star ingredient of this recipe is the tofu, which uses a variety of favorite seasonings such as paprika, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper to boost flavors. Pan sear your tofu in this combination to begin.
This nutrient-dense tofu is paired with asparagus and spinach, in a sauce made from petite diced tomatoes and cashew cream. Spinach provides all the benefits of dark leafy greens, including iron, and asparagus boosts the dish with its texture and vitamins. At the same time, tomatoes offer several key vitamins along with antioxidants.
While tofu is the main source of protein, cashews also provide a healthy amount, alongside copper, magnesium, and manganese. Blended into a cream, this ingredient adds a rich creaminess to the tomato sauce that adds depth to the pasta.
Nutrition: Calcium, Protein, Iron, Antioxidants, Copper, Magnesium and Manganese.
Red Lentil Bolognese
This recipe adds a vegan twist to traditional Bolognese, a meat sauce from Bologna, Italy. It does this by incorporating textured and protein rich lentils boiled in vegetable broth until they lose their texture. And then combined with walnuts and tomatoes for a healthy, delicious sauce well paired with many pasta.
Red lentils are one of the best ways to provide a variety of nutrients to many diverse dishes. Easily incorporated in everything from soup to pasta, they offer B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc – all important nutrients for the immune system. The crushed tomatoes and paste used in this recipe can also help bolster the immune system, both in short-term and long-term accounts thanks to its antioxidant properties.
Vegetable broth can be a viable way to introduce many different vegetables and their benefits into your diet without the hassle of learning how to incorporate each one into a single recipe. Cooking the red lentils in this broth allows for that ingredient to also develop additional nutritional value.
Lastly, finely chopped walnuts are used to add texture to this recipe, specifically in the sauce. Walnuts can help reduce the severity of certain conditions while improving gut health and providing many necessary vitamins and minerals to your diet.
Nutrition: Vitamin B, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Zinc.
Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Tomato Pomodoro Sauce
Not all pasta has to be made from pasta, though. Whether you’re looking for innovative ways to incorporate new vegetables into your diet or you’re looking to reduce gluten, spaghetti squash offers the perfect solution to traditional pasta. After simply cutting and baking, the insides of the squash form a stringy consistency similar to that of spaghetti, which is how it gets its name. It’s also a great source of Vitamin C and Vitamin B6.
This recipe also involves sautéing garlic and yellow onions in olive oils. Even small amounts of these ingredients can enrich your daily intakes, such as offering healthy fats, while also adding depth to your meal that overall bolsters texture and taste.
The sauce for this easy pasta recipe is a simple tomato Pomodoro, which can be made by reducing whole peeled tomatoes and seasoning with fresh basil and a variety of dry seasonings to your liking.
Enjoy Vegan Meals Made Easy with Beyond Sushi
Pasta is only one example of traditionally non-vegan food that can be innovative and served with completely vegan ingredients.
Here at Beyond Sushi, we strive to offer a wide variety of globally-inspired vegan and kosher meals that provide both exquisite tastes from around the world and a healthy balance of all the nutrients you need. You can enjoy a healthy vegan meal at one of our several locations in NYC or indulge in pickup and delivery orders for a perfect night in.
