There are a few ways to get a beautifully creamy pasta dish that’s dairy-free and vegan. All you need to know are a few small tips and tricks and your pasta will be taken to the next level. Pasta as a meal is fairly straightforward; you can simply add a sauce over the noodles and include your favorite vegetables or plant-based protein (or both!).
Creating a creamy pasta that’s both dairy-free and vegan isn’t complicated. Usually, the cream in these recipes uses a base of non-dairy milk, cashews, or even coconut cream. You can even use hummus or non-dairy yogurt to achieve a creamy texture! Using these tips with the following recipes will make your creamy pasta dishes taste delicious! The recipes below are sorted by the base of the cream in the recipes: non-dairy milk, cashew, or coconut cream. Check out these tips to get started!
We also highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest meatless, vegan, plant-based, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help you get healthy! And don’t forget to check out our Weekly Meal Plan Archives!
This week, we’re bringing delicious, fully vegan, and plant-based ways to enjoy creamy pasta dishes!
Use the Pasta Water:
The pasta water contains extra starch so adding it to your sauce will thicken your dish. If your sauce and noodles look too runny, add a few spoonfuls (to start) into the dish and keep cooking it on low heat, stirring it slowly. This is a great way to get a nice, creamy dish without losing flavor.
Avoid Overcooking Your Pasta
When you’re making a creamy pasta dish, usually you add the pasta to the cream and mix it before serving. When the pasta is getting stirred into the sauce and thickening a bit, the process of that takes a few minutes. In that time, the pasta will cook a little longer as it’s in the sauce. So, when you’re boiling your pasta, set a timer and aim to cook it al dente or a little under. This will help avoid your pasta dish getting too mushy by the time you serve it.
If you Can, Make Your Pasta Sauce
Most pasta sauces are fairly simple to make at home; most of them take a can of crushed or pureed (?) tomatoes. Making your sauce allows you to play around with the spices you like or some of the flavors you’d like to include that might not be found in store-bought sauces.
Nondairy Milk as a Base:
Source: Pasta with Creamy Chestnut Pesto
The easiest way to create a creamy pasta dish is to use creamy non-dairy milk, preferably unsweetened. This way, you’re getting less of a sweet edge in the final dish. Using non-dairy milk is also simple since you might already have it in your fridge!
Cashews as a Base:
Source: Creamy Lemon Asparagus Pasta
Cashews make an excellent creamy base to add to pasta. For a cashew base, soak your cashews and then blend them into a creamy sauce. This is an excellent option if you want to play around with flavors and seasonings!
Coconut Cream or Milk as a Base:
Source: Tagliolini Pasta with Creamy Chanterelle Mushrooms Sauce
Using coconut cream is another option, but can also add a bit of a coconutty flavor to your dish. Keep this in mind, depending on what you’re creating.
Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home
Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Unfortunately, dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, and prostate cancer, and has many side effects.
For those interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend purchasing one of our many plant-based cookbooks or downloading the Food Monster App which has thousands of delicious recipes making it the largest vegan recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Here are some resources to get you started:
For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!