I love a simple spinach and mushroom pasta with an olive oil-based sauce and lots of garlic and chili. I thought about keeping that simplicity but also making a creamy version. The answer turned out to be zucchini and pine nuts blended into a silky sauce that nobody would guess is basically just vegetables! As one reader put it: “The decadent sauce was basically just veggies.” Finish with a heaping handful of vegan parmesan on top.
The zucchini unexpectedly adds such a silky quality to the blended sauce. Combined with the pine nuts, white beans, and some vegetable stock, it becomes silky and luscious without any dairy. I love the flavor of pine nuts with mushrooms specifically. They have a buttery, subtly sweet quality that complements the earthiness of the mushrooms.
From there, the mushrooms get well browned in a hot pan before everything comes together. Well-browned mushrooms are non-negotiable! The caramelization and brown bits add a depth of flavor that is worth the little bit of extra time. Avoid overcrowding the pan and you’ll be golden ;)
This is a super cozy weeknight meal that comes together in under an hour. I like to finish my bowl with a generous pinch of chili flakes for a little heat. The sauce is also excellent scooped up with a piece of crusty bread if you have any on hand.
Creamy Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced and divided
- 4 cups baby spinach (not packed), divided
- ¼ cup pine nuts, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
- ½ cup cooked white beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 teaspoons light miso
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¾ cup vegetable stock
- 1 lb (454 grams) Cremini mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced
- 1 teaspoon Tamari soy sauce
- 1 lb (454 grams) pasta
- vegan parmesan (for serving)
Equipment
- Blender
Notes
- Any pasta shape is fine! I went with Linguine because that’s what I had on hand.
- The sauce-to-pasta ratio is designed for 1 lb of pasta but several readers prefer using 11-12 oz for a saucier result. Start with less pasta and add more if needed.
- I have tried this with a white flour pasta, a brown rice pasta, and a chickpea-based pasta. My honest opinion is that the chickpea pasta was just too bean-y for a sauce that already contains white beans. I know that some folks have dietary restrictions, but I would recommend avoiding a bean-based pasta here.
- You can substitute any of the following for pine nuts: soaked raw sunflower seeds, raw cashews, or macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts will need an increased soaking time of 4 hours.
Instructions
- Start making the creamy spinach sauce first. Set out a large, deep sauté pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, pour in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and swirl it around. Add the zucchini the pan and season with salt and pepper. Sauté the zucchini until very soft and slightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes.
- Add half of the garlic and 3 cups of the spinach to the pan and stir. Keep sautéing until the spinach has just wilted, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Scrape all of the sautéed zucchini, spinach, and garlic into the container of an upright blender. To this, add the pine nuts, white beans, miso, lemon juice, and vegetable stock. You can season with a bit more salt and pepper at this point, but be mindful that the miso is quite salty. Blend this mixture on high until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Give the sauce a taste. It should be pretty intense on the garlic and miso front! Adjust the sauce to your taste if necessary and set aside.
- Start cooking your pasta by following the package directions. Reserve 1 full cup of pasta cooking water before draining.
- Wipe your sauté pan out and place it over medium-high heat. Pour in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and swirl it around. Add all of the sliced mushrooms to the pan and scatter them out into an even layer. Season the mushrooms with pepper and leave them alone for 1 full minute. Give the mushrooms a stir and leave them for another full minute.
- Once the second minute is up, give the mushrooms a stir. They should be glistening and letting off liquid. Season them with salt at this point. Keep sautéing the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until they are deep golden brown and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining garlic and the tamari to the pan and cook for another full minute. Once the mushrooms are done, keep them warm in the pan.
- Reserve a few big spoonfuls of mushrooms for scattering over the top of the pasta. Then, add all of the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the mushrooms, along with the creamy spinach sauce and remaining baby spinach. Start stirring the pasta together with tongs and add enough starchy pasta water to get everything loosened up and super creamy. Add a few pinches of salt and pepper as well.
- Once the sauce level is to your liking and the spinach is wilted, top the pasta with the reserved mushrooms, chili flakes if you wish, and extra black pepper. Serve immediately!
This was great! I will probably add less pasta next time because these portions were HUGE :D Such a good way to add more veggies to my lunch. I liked that a generous pinch of chili flakes gave a very pleasant kick.
Thank you! This is fantastic!
This was soooo tasty! I didn’t have zucchini and I forgot the tamari. I added more miso and used cashews instead of pine nuts. It was yummier than I expected! Thank you!
Laura!! Literally you kill it every time. This was sooo good and so nice to know that the decadent sauce was basically just veggies. Definitely added some chili flakes to the plating. Thank you for bringing such yummy foods to your community! Always a fan.
So good!! The sauce is excellent, we used wheat berries instead of pasta. I get where pasta is a great choice but we had overloaded on pasta recently. It would be great on roasted tofu. So many good things on the first mess!!
I made this recipe exactly as written and it was outstanding. I combined only half the sauce with 8 oz of pasta and I’m glad I did that. I’m going to use the other half of the sauce tonight and make fresh pasta. I’m so happy to have found this food blog. Thank you!
love this spaghetti with mushrooms and spinachs and zucchini. Very filling and healthy. Thanks
This looks delicious! I’ve never combined mushrooms and spinach before but I can only imagine that taste great together!
This was delicious! I used freshly cooked butter beans instead of white beans and upped the miso for that extra umami quick. The sauce was so good, I toasted a lil piece of bread to scoop it up with it :)
We had this for dinner last night and LOVED it. I was worried from a previous comment that there wouldn’t be enough sauce, so I only made 11 oz of pasta. There was really a lot of sauce, and I think it would have easily covered 16 oz. Delicious!
Forgot the rating! 5 Stars.
Made this exact as written and was a little disappointed with lack of flavor and 1 lb of pasta seemed to be far too much for this recipe. Ratio pasta to sauce and mushrooms was off….
As promised, delicious, creamy, and very filling! I ended up with way more sauce than I needed, but I can think of several other uses for it, so it won’t go to waste.
I can’t wait to make this! Is there a gluten free pasta you would recommend?
Hi Diane!
My favourite gluten free pasta (by far) is Jovial’s brown rice pasta. Here is a link to their site: https://jovialfoods.com/gluten-free/brown-rice-pasta/
-L
Looks delicious! Calorie count?
Hi Mary,
Thank you so much! I prefer to leave calorie counts off of my recipes because I try to maintain a sense of enjoyment around my cooking and eating. That said, there are lots of free apps/sites that simply require you to plug in the ingredients to receive a detailed nutrition panel. I think MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular ones.
-L