Vegan Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce

This vegan Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce recipe is from the new Frugal Vegan cookbook by Katie Koteen and Kate Kasbee. This cookbook is a great introduction to inexpensive, simple vegan cooking and baking. The book contains 99 affordable and delicious, plant-based recipes so you can live a healthy vegan lifestyle without breaking the bank.

Review of the Frugal Vegan Cookbook

Katie and Kate are here to changing up a vegan cooking routine using less expensive ingredients. The recipes are very easy with minimal, basic ingredient lists, so this is definitely a good book for plant-based beginners. With practical tips plus approachable recipes, Frugal Vegan will help you create simple yet stunning plant-based meals on a budget.

Here are a few of the recipes you can expect:

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• Backyard BBQ Bowl
• Falafel Bowls with Israeli Couscous
• Crunch Thai Salad
• Beer Battered Avocado and Black Bean Tacos
• Chickpea Curry
• Twice Baked Potato Bites
• Gooey Mushroom Quesadilla
• Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
• Walnut Brownie Cookies
• Warm Fall Harvest Bowl
• Lentil Soup with Greens
• Mini Key Lime Pies with Graham Cracker Crust

There’s a ton of awesome, easy sauces and dressings too which are so great for taking sandwiches, buddha bowls and salads to the next level. Here are a few of the sauces, dips and dressings you’ll find in the book:

• Garlic Miso Dressing
• Sun-Dried Tomato White Bean Hummus
• Thai Peanut Sauce
• Simple Vinaigrette
• Sriracha Mayo
• Orange Chia Dressing
• Curry Dressing
• Cucumber Tzatziki Sauce

There’s a good balance of recipes from breakfast to dessert. The “Mornings” section features Pancakes with Roasted Bananas, Pineapple Scones, Butternut Squash and Spinach Quiche, Crispy Vegan Bacon and Peanut Butter and Jelly Granola. For the “Glazed and Confused” chapter, you’ll be drooling over everything from Frozen Chocolate Banana Swirl to Warm Apple Crisp, Chocolate Coconut Cream Puffs and a simple Rustic Pear Gallete. There is also a great selection of simple but delicious soups and a chapter for bite-sized sides and appies.

Budget Shopping Tips

The cookbook also features an awesome list of smart shopping substitutions you can use to replace ingredients with less expensive options. In addition, you’ll find tips for building a budget pantry, how to batch cook and a list of recipes from the book that are great for freezing. The list of dishes you could batch cook and freeze includes the Creamiest Pinto Beans, Black Bean and Tempeh Chili or Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup.

Vegan Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce

I had a hard time choosing which recipe from Frugal Vegan to share with you. The Vegan Mini Key Lime Pies were a front-runner, as was the Wacky Cake and Falafel Bowls but in the end I decided to go with one of the simplest recipes in the book, Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce. Anyone can makePenne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce and who wouldn’t love cozying up with a bowl of this on a chilly day?

Choose Your Noodles

The pumpkin cream sauce is made form coconut milk but with the layers of flavour from garlic, pumpkin and paprika you can’t actually taste the coconut. Instead of flavour, the rich coconut milk lends it’s beautiful creaminess to the sauce without the need for dairy. This sauce would be amazing over rice or another grain, roasted veggies or whatever other kind of noodle or pasta you feel like.

Follow the recipe and enjoy this dish with penne or try the pumpkin cream sauce over sweet potato or zucchini noodles for a lighter version, either way it’s going to be delicious! You could also try brown rice pasta, black bean noodles, edamame noodles or gluten-free pasta, any of which would be a delicious pairing for the pumpkin cream sauce.

Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free

This dairy-free, nut-free and soy-free dish comes together in less than 20 minutes. All you need to do is prepare some pasta, easy, and make the sauce which is ready in 5 to 10 minutes.

You can purchase Frugal Vegan on Amazon for just $14.95 and I would recommend it as an approachable, affordable and delicious introduction to vegan cooking.

This recipe and photos have been re-printed with permission from Frugal Vegan by Katie Koteen and Kate Kasbee, Page Street Publishing Co. 2017. All photos are credited to Allie Lehman.