Make this creamy vegan pasta recipe for week nights, date nights, or family Sunday dinner. The garlicy sauce comes together in just 5 ingredients, with no eggs required!
Why you’ll love this vegan pasta recipe
- Tastes like a fancy Italian restaurant dish. Trust me, you are going to dream about this vegan garlic pasta. It’s one of those recipes you will make over and over again.
- Impossibly creamy sauce. You’ll be running back to check the ingredients, because it’s almost unbelievable. How can a recipe so thick and smooth contain no heavy cream???
- Easy to make. You need just a handful of pantry staple ingredients.
- Dinner will never be boring. The pasta works great as a main meal or a savory side dish. Stir in roasted vegetables or grilled tofu, and serve for a hearty plant based dinner. Bonus: you can heat up leftovers for lunch the next day!
- Omnivore friendly. My non vegan Italian family ask for this recipe at least once a month.
You may also like this Vegan Mac And Cheese
Step by step video
Above, watch the vegan garlic pasta recipe video
My favorite dairy free pasta dinner
Readers often tell me that they would love to eat healthier or try more meatless recipes, but they just do not have time to cook elaborate from-scratch healthy food every night.
As a new mom, I completely understand. And it’s why I am a huge fan of comforting, easy meals that take longer to eat than to cook.
This homemade pasta may just be my all-time favorite. The entire preparation takes under 10 minutes, from start to finish.
It’s totally vegan, and you will want to put the sauce on pretty much everything.
Noodles, rice, veggies, french fries, Vegan Meatballs, nachos, chocolate bars…
Maybe not that last one. Please do not mix chocolate bars and garlic sauce. It is probably not a good idea.
Then again, you never know.
(Seriously though, I wouldn’t recommend it.)
For dessert, try these Vegan Brownies
Key ingredients
Cashews – Look for unsalted raw cashews at the grocery store, or use raw cashew butter if you do not own a high speed blender. You can substitute unsalted roasted cashews if you want a smoky, nutty flavor. And I’ve included two nut free options in the recipe box below.
Nondairy milk – Coconut milk, oat milk, or soymilk yield an extra creamy vegan sauce. Or go with almond milk for a low calorie option. I suggest an unsweetened milk… unless you think vanilla flavored pasta sounds good. I won’t judge.
Garlic – I find it easier to buy minced garlic in a jar, but chopped fresh garlic works just as well.
Onion powder & salt – A half teaspoon of onion powder adds umami flavor to the nondairy cream sauce. Salt amplifies the garlic and balances the acidity for a rich finish.
Olive oil (optional) – Sometimes I include a tablespoon of good quality olive or coconut oil to help the sauce better adhere to the pasta and add a buttery taste. However the oil free version is still delicious so it’s your choice.
Garnishes – Feel free to top your plant based pasta with black pepper or dairy free Parmesan, fresh herbs, a squeeze of lemon, or vegetarian bacon bits. I like to sprinkle on nutritional yeast, which imparts a cheesy flavor without cheese.
What type of vegan pasta is best?
The recipe makes enough sauce to cover eight ounces of dry pasta, which yields around four cups of cooked pasta. This can be any shape, really.
I love whole wheat penne, spaghetti, or even vegan ravioli.
Chickpea pasta is great if you are looking for a high protein dinner. Or choose gluten free pasta for guests avoiding gluten.
*Many boxed dry pastas are naturally vegan. However, some brands and types of noodles contain egg. Be sure to read the ingredients on the box of pasta before serving to vegans, to ensure it is egg free.
The sauce is also great over other foods besides pasta. I often whip up a keto version for my friends on a low carb diet, swapping macadamia nuts for the cashews and serving over spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles, or steamed vegetables.
How to make vegan garlic pasta
- If you are using raw cashews, start by soaking them in a bowl of water for six to eight hours. This step is optional but will give you a creamier, smoother sauce.
- Drain the cashews and pat them fully dry. Then blend the nuts, dairy free milk, salt, minced garlic, onion powder, and optional oil in a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) until smooth. If using cashew butter, you can skip the blender and whisk everything together by hand with a spoon or wire whisk.
- Cook pasta of choice until al dente, following the package directions. Drain but do not rinse, because rinsing noodles washes away the starch and makes it harder for sauces to stick to their surface.
- Heat the white sauce in a small saucepan or in a microwave safe dish just until it begins to boil. Pour sauce over the cooked pasta and divide among four plates or bowls. Garnish each serving as desired.
- I like to serve the recipe with a small side tomato and spinach salad. It’s also tasty if you stir in roasted broccoli, mushrooms, brussels sprouts, or a vegan protein source for a healthy and filling one bowl meal.
- If you find yourself with leftovers, store them in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to four days. Reheat leftover pasta in the microwave or on the stove top, or bake it in the oven. You can also serve the recipe cold, turning it into a quick vegan pasta salad.
The vegan recipe was adapted from this Cashew Alfredo Sauce.
Creamy Vegan Garlic Pasta
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup raw cashews or 6 tbsp cashew butter (90g)
- 1 cup unsweetened nondairy milk (240g)
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic (22g)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp olive oil (12g) (optional)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast (12g) (optional for garnish)
- 8 oz dry pasta of choice (230g)
Instructions
- 1. If using raw cashews, I like to first soak them in a bowl of water for about 6 hours. (When time is up, drain off all the water and pat dry.) This step is optional but yields a smoother vegan sauce.
- 2. Blend the nuts, dairy free milk, salt, garlic, onion, and optional oil in a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) until completely smooth. If using cashew butter, simply whisk all of the ingredients together with a spoon or wire whisk.
- 3. Cook your pasta (or pasta alternative) according to the package directions. Drain, but do not rinse the noodles.
- 4. Heat up the cream sauce in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Then pour over the cooked pasta. Garnish as desired, and serve.
- 5. Store leftover vegan pasta in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to four days, and reheat before enjoying.
Video
Notes
10 simple vegan pasta recipes
Creamy Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta
Lemon Pasta (One pot recipe)
Are the cashews suppose to soak or not?
No need, but you can if you want.
Jason
This was seriously delicious. I added some nooch and white beans to add flavor and thicken. I also seasoned my cooked pasta with a generous amount of pepper and sun dried tomatoes to balance out the sweetness of the sauce. Amazing! Thanks so much for the recipe! I already know this is going to be my go to white sauce.
P.S. I am very excited to check out your other recipes!
Hi there. Thanks for an awesome and easy recipe. I made it with almond “flour” as I didn’t have cashews, and it was beautiful.
Will this work in a regular immersion blender (not high speed) if I let the cashews soak in the milk?
How many servings of pasta do you recommend using with one batch of this recipe?
Looks so creamy and delicious! Just to clarify about the garlic… did you use minced garlic in a jar? Raw garlic? Dried minced garlic? Thanks!
The kind in a jar is good here!
Just wondering if you dont have cashews or macadamia nuts if macadamia nut butter would work as well? Tempted to try this weekend….
Would this sauce work on a vegan white pizza?
Oh yum that would be amazing!
Thank you!! I’m going to give it a try and let you know how it turns out!!
Just returning to let you know this sauce is absolutely incredible on a white pizza. My husband and I have been craving a white pizza from Screamers pizza in NYC and this fit the bill . My husband could not believe it .
Everyone should try this, it’s amazing!!!!
Thank you for sharing your talents!!!!
Tina
Oh man now I absolutely have to try it too ?
Could walnuts be used in place of the cashews/macadamia ?
Hmm, might not be as creamy? But you never know unless you try! Be sure to report back for the rest of us if you try!
This looks so good! If all I have is salted cashews, what would you recommend? I was thinking maybe should I soak them prior to get the salt off, or just omit the salt from the recipe?
This was so yummy! I put a couple of blocks of frozen spinach in to make it creamy garlic spinach sauce. I had a bit left over so popped it in the fridge and guess what? It tastes GREAT as a dip. Winning!
Really great recipe! I used an extra 1/2 tbsp of garlic and half a tablespoon of lemon juice. I also cooked the garlic beforehand and added onions and mushroom.
What could you use instead of nuts to make the garlic sauce for the pasta. My 2 yr old is allergic to everything other than oxygen I swear lol anyways she can’t do nuts of any sort or soy anything or anything with soy in it like oil or letting etc…. So feeding her has been a huge challenge. FINDING recipes & learning ways to tweak them has been a chore to say the least because rather than not being able to eat one ingredient she can’t have many no milk lactose dairy soy she is gluten intolerant can’t do eggs or nuts or corn syrup pineapple or oranges of any sort & sometimes I even wonder about coconut I still can’t tell oh & fish I’m sure I’m forgetting something but you catch my drift. So yea always looking for new recipes we can try she has been doing plant based/vegan for the most part since being able to eat solids at what 6 months.
Got this pasta recipe in my email last night and had all the ingredients. It was delicious, just as creamy as you said it’d be! I only soaked the cashews two hours to save time and it was still perfect.