A delicious vegan creamy spinach pasta sauce that hides an abundance of goodness. It only takes a few minutes to make this healthy pasta sauce in the blender (paid affiliate link) and you can use frozen spinach and store-cupboard ingredients - it's your ultimate quick recipe for when you have nothing planned and nothing in the fridge! The kids love it too!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
This vegan creamy spinach pasta dish is the friend you call on when you’re running in from a busy day, the kids are starving and asking what’s for supper, and you haven’t had a moment to think, let alone plan what you’re going to cook.
- Super speedy and easy to make - the slowest part will be waiting for the water to boil for the pasta!
- Using ingredients you can always keep on hand - frozen spinach, vegan cream cheese and vegetable stock.
- Nutritious, balanced meal in a hurry.
This is a healthy meal, that can be whipped up in minutes with very little washing up involved and, if your kids are anything like mine, they will gobble it up with gusto! (especially if you’re making it when they are super hungry and you make it so quickly that they don’t have time to ruin their appetite on snacks while they wait for supper).
Nutrition
As fast food goes, this vegan creamy spinach pasta is pretty nutritious! There's a balance of carbohydrates (from the pasta) and protein (from the vegan cream cheese / cashews) and you, of course, get iron and vitamins from the spinach and vegetable stock.
Frozen Vegetables
Did you know that frozen vegetables are a really nutritious alternative to fresh vegetables?
Since they’re frozen straight after being picked, the nutrients haven’t had time to degrade and so they are preserved really well. (If you want to read more about this, I'd recommend this Healthline article.)
As they’re so convenient to keep in the freezer ready to be used whenever I need them, I often have quite a good selection of vegetables in the freezer. One thing I nearly always have is frozen spinach. It gets used in smoothies, in pasta sauces, in casseroles, curries, you name it! I love that you can just throw it in straight from the freezer!
Main Ingredients
- Gluten-Free Pasta - any shape you like but I like shells or fusilli so that it has lots of nooks and crevices for the sauce to collect in (rather than spaghetti or a straight style pasta like that).
- Frozen Spinach - use the frozen chopped spinach that looks like little ice cubes of chopped spinach. You can use it straight from the freezer.
- Vegan cream cheese - I like the Sheese brand of cream cheese, either the plain or the herby versions.
- Vegetable Stock - You could just use water here if you prefer but I like to add a teaspoon of stock powder.
- Sweet White Miso Paste (optional)- I use the Clearspring miso paste which has a lovely mellow flavour. This is an optional ingredients but if you do happen to have some in the fridge, it gives this sauce some depth of flavour and fermented goodness.
- Flavourings - garlic powder, nutmeg, salt and pepper. If you are using herby cream cheese, you don't need the garlic powder.
Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for full list of ingredients and their quantities.
Basic Instructions
This is such a quick and easy meal to make!
- Boil the pasta then drain it.
- While the pasta is cooking, whizz all the sauce ingredients in the blender.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander and put it back in the pan. Stir the sauce into the pasta.
- Gently warm over a low heat for a couple of minutes then serve.
This is a summary only. Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this page for full instructions.
Serving suggestions
This vegan creamy spinach pasta really benefits from a sprinkling of my nutty parmesan alternative on top. You can make it in seconds in the blender - in fact, make a batch before making the sauce so that you don't need to wash the blender out and then you'll have more to keep in the fridge and use over the next few weeks. (Alternatively, you could use vegan cheese grated on top.)
I also sometimes add a sprinkling of dried seaweed flakes or some sesame gomasio seasoning (crushed sesame seeds).
If you wanted to go that extra mile, you could add some chopped broccoli to the pasta pan for the final few minutes of cooking.
Leftovers
Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container. When it comes to re-heating, add a little more water since the pasta will have soaked up some of the water in the sauce so it may be a little dry.
📖 Recipe 📖
Quick Vegan Creamy Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
- 240 g gluten free pasta
- 160 g frozen spinach
- 120 ml vegetable stock or water
- 160 g vegan cream cheese, (plain or herby)
- 1 tablespoon sweet white miso paste (optional)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- grating of nutmeg
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Boil pasta in salted water.240 g gluten free pasta
- Meanwhile, make the sauce by mixing the rest of the ingredients in a blender until smooth.160 g frozen spinach , 120 ml vegetable stock or water, 160 g vegan cream cheese, 1 tablespoon sweet white miso paste (optional), 1 teaspoon garlic powder, grating of nutmeg, salt and pepper, to taste
- Drain the pasta in a colander, rinse the pan, then pour the sauce into the pan.
- On a low heat, gently warm the sauce and then add the pasta back in and stir through.
- Serve with a little “nutty cheese” on top.
Notes
- "Nutty cheese" is just some nuts processed with some nutritional yeast and garlic powder, onion powder, and salt (See nutty cheese topping for the recipe). It's great for keeping handy in a jar in the fridge but if you don't have any to hand, you could just whizz it in the blender before making the sauce (no need to wash the blender out).
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a ⭐ star rating ⭐ on the recipe card!
More Recipes
If you like this recipe, you may like these other vegan and gluten-free pasta sauce recipes too:
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