Vegan Pumpkin Pasta
This vegan pumpkin pasta recipe is easy to make with just a few simple, everyday ingredients. Serve the decadent pumpkin cream sauce over your favourite pasta for a plant-based meal that’s pure comfort food.
Features
- quick and easy – you’ll need just 20 minutes and a handful of ingredients
- dietary needs – vegan, nut-free, can be gluten-free, can be oil-free
Ingredient Notes
- Pumpkin. Use canned pumpkin puree. I like Farmer’s Market canned pumpkin best but any brand works.
- Coconut milk. You’ll need canned, full-fat coconut milk to create the rich and creamy base of the recipe. And don’t worry if you don’t love coconut, the garlic, paprika and pumpkin add enough flavour that the coconut gets overpowered.
- Vegan butter. There’s nothing like garlic sautéed in butter! If you don’t have vegan butter, you can use olive, avocado or coconut oil. If you prefer to keep the recipe oil-free, use a little splash of vegetable broth.
- Garlic. Garlic is a must when it comes to pasta, don’t you think? The recipe calls for 2 cloves but feel free to add more if you’re a big time garlic lover!
Step by Step Instructions
Before you start: Start boiling water to cook your choice of pasta. Get that cooking as soon as the water boils.
Step 1. Melt the vegan butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute or two, until fragrant.
Step 2. Stir in the canned pumpkin, coconut milk, paprika and salt. Mix it all up and simmer for 5-10 minutes until it thickens up.
Step 3. Add the drained cooked pasta and stir to combine.
Garnish with fresh or crispy fried sage leaves and serve right away.
Pasta Options
- any shape of regular or whole-wheat pasta such as penne, linguini or bows
- zucchini noodles
- chickpea pasta
- edamame noodles
- brown rice pasta or another gluten-free pasta of choice
Related Recipes
- Vegan Carbonara
- Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta
- Vegan One Pot Pasta
- Red Lentil Pasta Sauce
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review.
PrintVegan Pumpkin Pasta
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Prep Time: 5 mins
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Cook Time: 20 minutes
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Total Time: 25 minutes
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Yield: 4 1x
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Category: Main Dish
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Method: Stovetop
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Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
This pumpkin cream sauce is warm, savory and perfectly suited to sweater season. For those who aren’t fond of coconut, fear not. The taste is barely detectable beneath the flavorful layers of pumpkin, garlic and paprika.
Ingredients
- 1 lb (454 g) penne pasta
- 1 ½ tbsp (22 g) vegan butter (such as Earth Balance)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 (15-oz [425-g]) can pumpkin purée
- 1 (13 ½ -oz [382-g]) can coconut milk
- ¾ tsp paprika
- ¾ tsp salt
- Fresh or crispy sage leaves, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, melt the vegan butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute or two, until fragrant.
- Stir in the pumpkin purée, coconut milk, paprika and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
- Drain and rinse your pasta and combine it with the pumpkin cream sauce. Stir to thoroughly combine.
- Garnish with fresh or crispy sage leaves if using, and serve immediately.
Notes
This recipe has been re-printed with permission from Frugal Vegan by Katie Koteen and Kate Kasbee, Page Street Publishing Co. 2017.
Keywords: pumpkin pasta, cream sauce, easy, comfort, plant-based
Update Note: This recipe was originally published on August 28, 2017. It was updated in November 2019 with new photos and text.
This was delicious. Thank you! I seasoned with a little more salt, basil red pepper flakes and crushed black pepper.
This was delicious and easy-peasy (and perfect for my lactose-intolerant daughter)! I doubled the amount of garlic; next time I’ll probably swap smoked paprika for the regular one as well. This is definitely going into dinner rotation!
★★★★
This was so yummy. I just was wondering if the sauce can be frozen? I cook for one person, so I have left over sauce.
★★★★★
Hi Carolina! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Yes, you can freeze the sauce. Let it cool then store it in a freezer-safe container. Thaw in the fridge then reheat on the stovetop. Thanks!
This is SO good! It’s fine as is, but I made a few modifications. Per others’ comments, I added a bit of lime juice for acid and some rubbed Dalmatian sage to the sauce as it was cooking. I cooked it down a bit longer (about 20 minutes) so that it would thicken a bit. I also shredded some smoked Cheddar (of course, you could use vegan cheese) and added just a touch to mine as a topping. My husband added real bacon bits to his. Oh my.
Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
This is so amazing and easy to make! Never going back to boxed vegan Mac and cheese again! Highly recommend!!
★★★★★
So easy and delicious!!!!
Is it possible to use regular coconut milk (in a carton) as opposed to the canned coconut milk? If so, is there something additional I should add? Thanks!
You could but it won’t be as thick and creamy. Cashew cream would be a better alternative. Try blending 1 cup of soaked raw cashews with 1.5 cups water and use that to replace the canned coconut milk.
Made it. Loved it… Might’ve added ginger and cayenne pepper and my goodness, delicious.
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad you loved it. Thanks for the review!
I thought it needed more flavor, the sauce is very creamy but I found that I needed to add more spice to it and an element of acid. I added splash of lemon juice, splash of agave, about table spoon of ketchup, cayenne pepper, thyme, and fresh as well as rubbed sage.
★★★
So yummy!
★★★★★