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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!
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
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 tablespoon vegan butter or oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced or crushed
- 16 oz penne pasta
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- salt to taste
- 2 cups spinach packed
- 1 teaspoon 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.
