Elevate your next vegan dinner with this creamy vegan pasta idea. It starts with vegan mushroom duxelles–a simple stovetop method that involves cooking down finely diced mushrooms. As the mushrooms slowly cook with shallots, garlic, and thyme, their umami flavour gets more pronounced and they become tender, lush, and paté-like. Once you add some non-dairy creamer, miso, and Tamari, you get the most savoury and velvety sauce! It’s a simple but elegant vegan pasta recipe with about 10 key ingredients. I love to finish each silky bowlful with vegan parmesan and peppery chopped parsley.

This is a truly scrumptious pasta that’s perfect cozy nights. I love using Garafalo’s mafalda corta pasta shape because the little ruffles soak up the plush sauce quite well. You can easily make this easy vegan pasta gluten-free by swapping in your favourite gluten-free pasta. I’m partial to Jovial’s GF mafalda for this recipe. Most dry pasta you can buy these days is naturally vegan, made with flour and water. Of course, I always recommend double checking the label though.

The inspiration for this recipe:

• Mushroom duxelles is used as a stuffing, base of a sauce, or as a garnish in French cuisine. It is named after the marquis d’Uxelles. At its traditional core, the dish is a mixture of finely minced mushrooms and shallots sautéed in butter with herbs. The mushrooms are cooked until they have sufficiently dried out.
• Mushroom duxelles is most commonly associated with beef wellington (where it is used as a stuffing) or as an appetizer spread for crostini/toasts.
• In a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated, I saw that Erica Turner used duxelles as the base of a pasta sauce and thought that this was just brilliant! This is my vegan take with some extra umami enhancers and other goodies added.

I chop the mushrooms up fine in the food processor, which takes about 1 minute. These get cooked down slowly until they become dark and paté-like, which takes about 20 minutes. While that’s happening, you can cook your pasta and dissolve a spoonful of salty miso in a bit of hot water. This addition brings incredible depth to the final dish! Pour in a big splash of unsweetened non-dairy creamer and stir the rich sauce all together.

Tamari brings another layer of depth to the sauce. I brighten everything up with sherry vinegar and chopped parsley. Serving this vegan pasta dish with this shaved arugula fennel salad would be a lovely pairing!

Creamy Vegan Pasta with Mushrooms & Miso

Featuring 10 core ingredients, this creamy vegan pasta is a total umami bomb. Loaded with tons of cooked down cremini mushrooms, savoury miso and Tamari, shallots, and garlic. This lush vegan dinner is ready in under 1 hour.

5 from 12 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 35 minutes mins

Total Time: 50 minutes mins

Servings 3 -4

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs (680 grams) cremini mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large shallot, fine dice (about ¾ cup diced shallot)
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Tamari
• 1 ½ tablespoons light miso
• 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy creamer (see notes)
• ¾ lb (340 grams) short pasta of choice
• ½ cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Equipment

• Food Processor

Notes

• This recipe is inspired by one that I saw in Cook’s Illustrated that utilizes the mushroom duxelles technique for pasta.
• I used whole wheat mafalda corta by Garofalo as my pasta here. It’s my current favourite for short shapes. The little ruffles soak up the sauce beautifully. 
• I’ve been using Hikari Miso’s white miso lately and it’s great here.
• My favourite unsweetened non-dairy creamers are by nutpods and Califia. You could also use a rich non-dairy milk in a pinch (like unsweetened cashew or soy).
• A little bit of truffle oil stirred into the sauce at the end would be SO good.

Instructions

• Start the duxelles. Finely chop the mushrooms with a food processor in 3 batches. You want the pieces to be the size of small peas. You can also do this by hand with a chef’s knife if you like.
• Heat a large skillet or braiser over medium heat. Once hot, pour in the olive oil and swirl it around. Add the shallots, thyme, and garlic, and sauté until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes.
• Add the mushrooms all at once and season with pepper. Cook the mushrooms on medium high, stirring often, until they start to release liquid. Then, lower the heat to medium. Continue to cook and stir often until the mushrooms dry out a bit, darken, and become paste-like, about 18-20 minutes.
• Once the duxelles is a bit more dry, add the sherry vinegar and Tamari. Cook until the liquid evaporates and then season with salt.
• Place the miso in a small bowl and add a bit of your hottest tap water to it. Use a spoon or small whisk to “dissolve” the miso in the water. Add this mixture to the skillet with the duxelles. Then, add the non-dairy creamer and stir to combine. You should have a thick, lush sauce with bits of mushroom all throughout. Place a lid on top and keep warm.
• Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1 cup of pasta cooking water.
• Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir. Splash in reserved pasta cooking water as necessary to get a velvety and saucy texture. Stir in the chopped parsley. Check the pasta for seasoning and adjust if necessary (more vinegar, Tamari, salt, pepper etc)
• Serve the pasta hot and enjoy!

Author: Laura Wright

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: French, Italian

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: cremini mushrooms, fall, food processor, garlic, miso, mushrooms, non-dairy cream, olive oil, parsley, pasta, shallots, sherry vinegar, spring, tamari, thyme, whole wheat pasta, winter