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What is the easiest dinner in the whole wide world? One-Pot Creamy Spinach Pasta. 1 pot, 10 minutes, and 10 simple ingredients. BAM!
Vegan One-Pot Creamy Spinach Pasta
Let me introduce the easiest dinner there ever was: Creamy Spinach Pasta made in ONE POT! Technically, I used a pan, not a pot…but that’s not as catchy.
One-pot meals are popular for a reason – low fuss and fewer dishes. Isn’t that what we all desire in life? Less time spent doing dishes?
This recipe might be easy, but it’s still delicious and full of flavor. Tangy cream cheese, a little extra tang thanks to lemon juice, sauteed garlic, onion powder, pepper…all the goods. Of course, we can’t forget the spinach. Gotta get those greens in.
For the cream cheese, you can purchase it right from the store (so many dairy-free cream cheese options out there these days!) or make homemade vegan cream cheese. While the homemade is delish, my recommendation is to buy it from the store and keep the prep time non-existent.
Tofutti, VioLife, Kite Hill, and Miyoko’s are all brands of vegan cream cheese. And I enjoy them all! (Note: Miyoko’s cream cheese is cultured and super tangy, so if you use this brand, I’d skip the lemon juice!)
How to Make One-Pot Pasta
The steps are simple: saute the garlic, simmer the veg stock and pasta, stir in the cream cheese and seasoning, then fold in the spinach. Serve! Top with vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast if you want.
To make this recipe gluten-free, simply substitute the penne with your favorite GF pasta.
You could also substitute the penne with macaroni, rotini, shells, or any similarly-sized pasta. I personally love tubular pasta because it holds in the sauce so well! Just note that you may need to adjust the cooking time and amount of veggie stock used if switching the type of pasta.
Serve this dish with a side salad or roasted veggies…or on its own! With sides, this recipe serves about 6. If you are just eating the pasta, it serves about 4.
More Easy & Quick Vegan Dinner Recipes:
- One-Pot Vegan Cajun Pasta
- One-Pot Curry
- Instant Pot Mac & Cheese
- One-Pot Sloppy Joes
- Creamy Pumpkin Sage Pasta
One-Pot Creamy Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegan butter – or oil
- 3 cloves garlic – minced or crushed
- 16 oz penne pasta
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- salt to taste
- 2 cups spinach – packed
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- vegan parmesan – optional, for topping
Instructions
- In a large pan on medium heat, melt the vegan butter then saute the garlic for about a minute. Garlic burns super easily, so keep an eye on it.
- Stir in the pasta and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pan and let simmer for 6-8 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.
- If the pasta has soaked up all the water but isn't tender, add a little more veggie stock as needed and simmer until cooked through.
- Stir in the cream cheese, onion powder, pepper and salt. Reduce the heat to low.
- Fold in the spinach a handful at a time then cover the pan until it has wilted.
- Mix in the lemon juice. If the sauce is too thick, add a little veggie stock or non-dairy milk to thin it out to your desired consistency.
- Serve warm! If you want, top with vegan parmesan.
Veronica Galloway says
It took me way too long to try this recipe. It is delicious! I substituted green lentil protein pasta, and it came perfect. Quick & easy, thanks for this recipe!
mr david h whitaker says
I tried this and I think I put too much pepper cos I just have a pepper mill so I didn’t measure it ? But over all I think it came out okay I used a big frying pan because that’s all I had ? Maybe pepper flakes instead next time ? I like that it’s lighter than regular Alfredo .
Sara says
Sooooo good!! Definetely will be doing this one again and again! I could eat this everyday. Thank you!
Terah says
Sooo good. I paired it with a butter lettuce salad and it was so filling. Tastes great
Linda says
So good and so easy. Follow the directions for a perfect dinner.
Lauren says
I’m always looking for recipes like this to make after working all day, this one will be a keeper! This took me 20 minutes, start to finish and was so easy, I used a garlic press so I didn’t even have to dirty a cutting board! I did add quite a bit more lemon juice than called for, along with a full 5 oz package of baby spinach. Topped with nooch it was perfection! I think peas would be wonderful in this, I’ll add them next time. Thanks again! Recipes like this that are quick and don’t leave a huge mess to clean up are always appreciated!!
Sarah Beth Short says
So easy and sooooooo good. I added 1 package of baby bellas and used vegan sour cream (oops bought the wrong one!). This was da bomb!
evan :) says
Awesome recipe!! Thanks so much! I was nervous about the cream cheese but it all comes together so well. I added steamed broccoli, nooch, and red pepper flakes. Currently devouring.