Made with simple and wholesome ingredients, this Roasted Red Pepper Pasta is comforting, delicious, and makes the perfect weeknight dinner. It’s dairy free, vegan friendly, and gluten free!
Pasta, I love you. Pesto pasta, mac and cheese, and this roasted red pepper pasta, you name it, I love it. It’s my go to comfort food and there’s so many fun and delicious sauces to pair with it.
This roasted red pepper pasta is one of my favorite pasta recipes. It’s rich and creamy and is perfect for an easy weeknight dinner. You can sprinkle on top some cashew parmesan, fresh basil and red pepper flakes for some spice!
I love to serve it with some grilled chicken (or my lemon pepper chicken), but for a vegan version you can try my lemon pepper tofu!
It takes around 30 minutes to make and is loved by kids, adults and people in all dietary camps. If you love this recipe try my roasted carrot pasta next!
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Easy to make
- Vegan friendly
- Packed with flavor
- Kid approved
- Healthy
The key to a creamy sauce
If you’ve recently cut dairy out of your diet, I understand the struggle of not knowing what to use in cooking to make things creamy.
Fortunately, there lots of amazing replacements these days to satisfy your creamy pasta cravings. There are a few key ingredients we will be using that will yield a super creamy red pepper sauce.
Cashews: Raw and soaked cashews are my go to ingredient to make any pasta sauce cream. I do have a slight intolerance to cashews, but I deal with pain after eating this pasta because it’s just so good.
Olive oil: A good quality olive oil is going to give this sauce depth of flavor and will help round out the creamy texture. You can omit this if you are oil-free, but it won’t be quite the same.
Almond milk: You can use any non-dairy milk in place of almond milk if needed. Just make sure it is both unflavored and unsweetened, we don’t want any hits of vanilla in this pasta!
How to make roasted red pepper pasta
First, add the cashews to a bowl of boiling hot water and soak them while you prep everything else. Next, you’ll want to chop the onion, peppers and peel the garlic.
Add them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
While those are roasting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. When it’s done, don’t rinse it, but drizzle with a bit if olive oil and toss around.
When the veggies are done, add them to a blender with the drained cashews and all remaining ingredients.
Process until smooth. Combine with the cooked pasta, top with fresh basil and enjoy!
My favorite gluten free pasta
The sauce is naturally gluten free and no adjustments need to be made here! To keep this dish gluten free I used brown rice pasta, but any pasta will do! For extra protein you can use chickpea pasta or a legume based pasta.
How to store
Once prepared, this vegan roasted red pepper pasta will store in the fridge for about 3-5 days. To reheat, add the pasta to a pan with a splash of almond milk, oil or water to bring out the creaminess and reheat over low heat until warm.
You can also just pop it into a microwave and heat until warm and creamy.
Can I make it nut free?
I have not tried this recipe with something in place of the cashews. You can try using tahini in place of cashews (about 1/4 cup tahini), but you will need to decrease the amount of milk to about 1/2 cup.
I have not tried this myself, but I think it would work well! The flavor will be a bit different and more nutty, but still delicious! You can also try my tahini pasta instead!
You may also like..
- Mushroom Broccoli Rigatoni
- Tomato Basil Cream Sauce
- White Wine Cream Sauce
- Vegan Vodka Sauce
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5 from 31 votes
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
by: claire cary
Made with simple and wholesome ingredients, this Roasted Red Pepper Pasta is comforting, delicious, and makes the perfect weeknight dinner. It's dairy free, vegan friendly, and gluten free!
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Prep: 10 minutes mins
Cook: 30 minutes mins
Total: 40 minutes mins
4
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pasta of choice
- 2 large red bell peppers
- 1 large red onion
- 4 large cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup raw cashews
- 3/4-1 cup plain unsweetened almond milk or other milk
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch
- ¼ cup parmesan or nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup fresh basil
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
US Customary – Metric
Instructions
Add the cashews to a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside while you prep the remaining ingredients. If you have had trouble with cashew based sauces in the past, you can boil them in a pot for about 20 minutes while you prep all other ingredients which helps to soften them further.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Peel the garlic, and chop the onion and bell peppers into large chunks.
Place on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Drizzle with the oil.
Roast for 30 minutes.
While the veggies are roasting, cook your pasta of choice.
When the veggies are done, add to a high speed blender with the drained cashews and all remaining ingredients and process until completely smooth. Start with 3/4 cup of milk and add more as needed to thin it out.
Stir the sauce into the cooked pasta, and top with extra fresh basil if desired!
Notes
I recommend using pretty large cloves of garlic and a large onion because this is where much of the flavor comes from. If your garlic cloves are small, you can use 5-6 instead of 4.
To deepen the flavor of the dish, you can add extra tomato paste. This will also give the sauce a deeper red color.
Serving: 4servings / Calories: 406kcal / Carbohydrates: 55g / Protein: 11.9g / Fat: 18.9g / Fiber: 5.7g / Sugar: 6.5g
