Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

If you’re tired of making the same pasta dish over and over, this is a great recipe to switch things up and is sure to make it into regular rotation. It’s also an easy way to include more beans in your diet.

Serve the creamy sauce with pasta of choice for a family-friendly weeknight meal that’s simple, nutritious and tasty. 

Looking for more vegan pasta recipes? You’ll have to try this Creamy Spinach and Tomato Pasta, Creamy Vegan Sun Dried Tomato Pasta, Vegan Carbonara or Vegan One Pot Pasta with Kale and Mushroom next.

For Asian-inspired noodle recipes, check out these drunken noodles, miso noodles, tofu pad Thai, vegan lo mein, cold soba noodle salad and cold peanut noodle salad.

Ingredients

• Pasta: You can use any pasta variety you enjoy. I find shapes that hold sauce well are the yummiest, try rigatoni, penne, fusilli, linguini and pappardelle.
• Olive oil: This can be substituted with broth or water for an oil-free recipe. Vegan butter, avocado oil or even coconut oil works too. 
• Shallots: If you don’t have shallots on hand, white, yellow or red onion works.
• Roasted Red Peppers: You can use store-bought roasted red peppers in a jar or easily make your own – how to make roasted red peppers. You’ll need less than 20 minutes to make your own. You can also use roasted red peppers in Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup. 
• Cannellini Beans: Adds protein, fiber, and creaminess to the pasta sauce without needing heavy cream or cashews. They also keep the dish lower in fat and calories than most creamy pasta recipes.
• Nutritional Yeast: Gives this pasta dish a yummy nutty, cheese flavor while keeping the recipe dairy-free and adding additional protein.
• Unsweetened Almond Milk: This can be substituted with cashew milk or another non-dairy milk of choice.
• Fresh Herbs: Fresh basil or parsley make a great flavor addition when tossed into the sauce. If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, you can substituted them with 1-2 tsp dried herbs. Italian seasoning works if you don’t have parsley and basil on hand.

Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredient list with measurements.

Variations

• Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta: Give this dish a kick of spice by blending chili flakes or cayenne pepper to the sauce or topping the final dish with red pepper flakes.
• For Spinach or Kale Roasted Red Pepper Pasta: Greens can also be finely chopped and mixed in at the end until wilted.
• For Creamy Cashew Roasted Red Pepper Pasta: Swap the white beans for 1 can of full-fat coconut milk or raw cashews that have been soaked for 4+ hours. If you don’t have a high-speed blender, soak overnight. You can use this Vegan Creamy Pumpkin Pasta, Creamy Vegan Sun Dried Tomato Pasta or Easy Creamy Vegan Carbonara if you need more tips on making a coconut or cashew cream sauce.
• To increase the protein: try adding these lentil meatballs, vegan sausage, cubed tofu, tempeh, or add a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas to the final product. 
• Low-Carb Option: Serve over zucchini noodles.
• Gluten-Free Option: Use any gluten-free pasta such as brown rice pasta, chickpea pasta or quinoa pasta.
• Smoky Flavor: Add 1 tsp smoked paprika to sauce in the blender.
• Lemon: Lemon juice and/or lemon zest is a nice addition to the sauce.
• Extra Veggies: You can add any extra veggies you like along with the shallot and garlic. Try diced carrot, chopped mushroom, broccoli florets, diced zucchini, chopped asparagus or cherry tomatoes. You may need to cook a bit longer for harder veggies like asparagus and broccoli, these could also be roasted and stirred in at the end. Green peas can be stirred in at the end.
• Other Additions: Try sun dried tomatoes, capers or kalamata or black olives for more Mediterranean flavor.
• Serving: Try your pasta topped with a spoonful of tofu ricotta, vegan parmesan cheese, nutritional yeast, pine nuts and fresh basil or parsley.

Recipe FAQs