This easy, 30-minute Spinach and Mushroom Pasta with garlic, parsley and dried herbs, is coated in a creamy and cheesy sauce. A perfect weeknight recipe!
Sometimes cooking can seem intimidating. However, making delicious food at home doesn’t have to be difficult at all. And simple food can be delicious too. For us, pasta is proof of this. Obviously, there are pasta recipes out there that are more difficult to make than others. But as a general rule of thumb, cooking up a pasta recipe is usually pretty easy. This Spinach and Mushroom Pasta recipe definitely falls in the easy-to-make category, while also being super delicious. The flavours in this recipe mainly come from the garlic, both fresh and dried herbs and the easy (and cheesy) sauce. This is a recipe that the whole family will love and it’s also a great way to add some leafy greens to your diet, which are incredibly healthy.
If you love pasta recipes (who doesn’t?), be sure to take a look at our other pasta recipes:
- Beetroot Pasta Sauce
- The Best Vegan Pasta Salad
- Vegan Orzo Salad with Pesto
- Healthy Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff
- Healthy and Creamy Green Spaghetti
The Ingredients
- Pasta – You can use your favourite type of pasta for this recipe, but I would recommend using a short type of pasta over long pasta’s such as spaghetti, tagliatelle or linguine. For this particular recipe good options are: farfalle, penne, fusilli and orecchiette.
- Spinach – Adds a beautiful bright-green colour to the dish and is a very healthy addition to any meal, of course.
- Italian herbs (dried) and fresh parsley – Are used to give this recipe its herby and fresh flavour.
- Mushrooms – Because you can’t have a Spinach and Mushroom Pasta without mushrooms. You can use any type of mushrooms, but we love to use a mix of different mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms, shiitakes and chestnut mushrooms.
- Plant milk, nutritional yeast and flour – Just 3 ingredients are needed to make a simple yet delicious sauce that will coat the pasta beautifully.
Cooking Tips
- How to cook al dente pasta – For those who don’t know what al dente means, it describes the texture of cooked pasta when it’s cooked until tender but still slightly firm and chewy when you bite into it. The literal translation means ”to the tooth”. To cook the pasta until perfectly al dente, generally speaking reduce the cooking time as described on the package instructions by 2 minutes. So when the package tells you to cook the pasta for 10 minutes, 8 minutes of cooking time should result in an al dente cooked pasta. You can also taste the pasta a couple of minutes before it’s done to test if it’s cooked al dente.
- Making a sauce using flour – Whenever you use flour to make a sauce, you really want to make sure to cook the flour first before adding in the liquid. If you don’t, the flour will remain raw. So add the flour first, cook for about a minute and then add the wet ingredients to make a creamy sauce.
Substitutions and Variations
- Nutritional yeast – You can use a vegan parmesan cheese instead of nutritional yeast, or even use both to create a really delicious and cheesy sauce. However, if you are looking for the healthier option, stick with the nutritional yeast.
- Herbs – You can mix and match different types of dried and fresh herbs when making this Mushroom and Spinach Pasta. We use a mix of dried Italian herbs, but if you don’t have such a mix at home, you can use some dried oregano and thyme instead. Fresh herbs that will work well in this recipe are parsley, flat leaf parsley, basil and thyme.
- Spinach – This recipe can also be made with other leafy greens such as kale and swiss chard.
FAQ
Spinach and Mushroom Pasta
- Total Time: 25
- Yield: 2 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This easy, 30-minute Spinach and Mushroom Pasta with garlic, parsley and dried herbs, is coated in a creamy and cheesy sauce. A perfect weeknight recipe!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (250 grams) mushrooms
- 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) pasta
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1/2 cup (100 ml) plant milk
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp saltÂ
- Pinch of black pepper
- 5 cups (100 grams) fresh spinach
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/10 cup (6 grams) fresh parsleyÂ
Instructions
- Slice the mushrooms in thin slices.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions.Â
- Place a large pot over medium heat and add the oil. Sauté the mushrooms for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have released their liquid.
- In the meantime, peel and finely chop the garlic.
- To the mushrooms, add garlic and Italian herbs and sauté for 2 more minutes while stirring regularly.
- When the pasta is cooked al dente, reserve some of the cooking water, then drain and set aside.Â
- Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir well to prevent clumps of flour in your dish.Â
- Add plant milk, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Stir until well mixed.
- Add spinach and cook for 2 minutes or until the spinach has wilted but still green.
- Add the al dente cooked pasta and cook for 2 more minutes while stirring regularly. If the sauce is too thick, add splashes of the reserved pasta water until you reach a creamy and smooth consistency.
- Before serving, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Roughly chop the fresh parsley and add to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.Â
Notes
Nutritional facts are estimates. If you want to be sure about the nutritional facts, be sure to check your product labels.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cook
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 417kcal
- Sugar: 4,8g
- Sodium: 0,6g
- Fat: 8,2g
- Saturated Fat: 1,4g
- Carbohydrates: 64,0g
- Fiber: 6,6g
- Protein: 19,7g