This roasted red pepper pasta recipe might be your new favorite weeknight dinner! The healthy Alfredo sauce is super creamy, flavorful, and delicious. The recipe is vegan (meat-free, dairy-free), quick, and easy to make with only a few simple ingredients!
Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
After I posted two new rice recipes in a row, I thought it’s time for a new pasta dish recipe! One which you might like if you are a fan of creamy and flavorful sauces. I know, I am! I love everything saucy and flavorful. That’s why I created this delicious vegan roasted red pepper pasta.
You should give this recipe a try because it is:
- A tasty meat-free weeknight dinner
- Creamy, flavorful, and spicy (if you want to add red pepper flakes)
- Easy to make with simple ingredients
How To Make The Best Roasted Red Pepper Pasta?
- First, chop the veggies. Slice the peppers into strips, quarter the onion, and peel the garlic. Transfer the veggies onto a lined baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 15-20 minutes:
- At the same time, cook your favorite pasta. You can use regular wheat pasta or gluten-free pasta.
- Meanwhile, measure all other sauce ingredients.
- Once the veggies are nicely roasted, add them to a blender or food processor.
- Add all other sauce ingredients and blend on high speed for a few minutes until very smooth and creamy
- Heat up the sauce in a pot or skillet, toss in the cooked pasta and you are done!
Simple Ingredients
This recipe is so easy to make with simple ingredients which you might already have at home. The main ingredients are peppers and since this is a roasted red pepper pasta, I would suggest using red bell peppers. As you might have noticed, I only had one red bell pepper, that’s why I used one orange bell pepper, haha.
I used cashew butter which makes the sauce super creamy. You can use 1/3 cup of cashews instead of cashew butter though. Make sure to soak the cashew nuts in hot water for about 20 minutes, this way they blend much easier and smoother.
Nutritional yeast flakes add a cheesy umami taste, however, you can leave them out. The sauce will still taste great but I think it’s even better with nutritional yeast. I order nutritional yeast flakes online but they are available in most supermarkets. If you can’t find them, you could use 1 tbsp of soy sauce instead, which will also add an umami taste.
If you want to make the recipe low-carb, simply use spiralized zucchini or squash instead of pasta!
How To Store Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo?
This recipe serves 2-3 people. You can double the recipe and store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can simply reheat them in a pot with a splash of plant-based milk.
Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce
The cashew butter and plant-based milk make the sauce creamy and delicious. You can use any plant-based milk of choice, for example, almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, or soy milk. I used canned coconut milk because I love the creaminess it adds.
This Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce Is:
- Vegan (meat-free, dairy-free)
- Sweet and savory
- Hearty
- Satisfying
- Flavorful
- Comforting
- Easy to make with simple ingredients
- Perfect for a weeknight dinner
- Completely oil-free
Should you recreate this vegetarian roasted red pepper pasta dish, please leave a comment below and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan and #elavegan because I love to see your remakes! If you love pasta dishes, definitely also check out the following recipes:
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Ingredients
Sauce ingredients:
- 2 red bell peppers (*see notes)
- 1 small red onion
- 4-5 small cloves of garlic
- 1 cup (240 ml) unsweetened plant-based milk (*see notes)
- 2 heaped tbsp (40 g) cashew butter (*see notes)
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2-2/3 tsp sea salt or to taste
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch to thicken
- Black pepper to taste
- Red pepper flakes to taste
Other ingredients:
- 7 oz (200 g) of your favorite pasta (dry) regular or gluten-free
- Fresh herbs to garnish
Instructions
- Watch the video in the post, however, please note that I added the cornstarch and cashew butter at a later point. It's easier to follow the written recipe here in the instructions. 🙂
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice the peppers into strips, quarter the onion, and peel the garlic cloves. Transfer the veggies onto the baking sheet (check the photos in the blog post above).
- You can drizzle some oil on top or roast the veggies without oil in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
- At the same time cook your favorite pasta as per the instructions on the package.
- Meanwhile, measure the other ingredients.
- Add the roasted veggies with all other sauce ingredients to a blender (or food processor) and blend for a few minutes until super smooth and creamy.
- Pour the sauce into a skillet or pot and heat it up over medium heat. Let simmer for about a minute, add the pasta and stir with a spoon.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Add more salt/black pepper/red pepper flakes to taste if needed.
- Garnish with fresh herbs and enjoy!
Notes
- I used one red bell pepper and one orange bell pepper. Feel free to use only red bell peppers.
- You can use any plant-based milk of choice, e.g. almond milk, soy milk, cashew milk, etc.). I used canned coconut milk for extra creaminess.
- The cashew butter will make the sauce creamy and delicious. If you need a nut-free alternative, try tahini (keep in mind that it has a slightly bitter taste) or sunflower seed butter.
- You can also use 1/3 cup (50 grams) of soaked cashews instead of cashew butter. Make sure to soak the cashews in hot water for about 20 minutes, then discard the water and blend with the other sauce ingredients.
- You can also check out my creamy Vegan Lasagna Soup Recipe.
- Recipe serves 3. Nutrition facts are for one serving.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Equipment
If you are using Pinterest, feel free to pin the following photo:
I made this pasta earlier today, My family just devoured it. packed of flavors, so rich and creamy. I used peanut butter instead of cashews because of s cashew allergy, it was so deliciously good. definitely a keeper. thanks for sharing such an amazing recipe.
You are very welcome, Roh! So glad your family enjoyed it. 🙂
I never comment on recipes but this one blew my mind… I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did! I tossed in a couple handfuls of spinach for extra veggies and I am already planning for the next time I make this! Thank you for this.
Yay, that sounds great, Susu! I am so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
I absolutely love this recipe! It’s quick and super tasty. I love the cashew butter so I double the amount of it and it comes out super rich.
Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Greetings from Greece.
Hi Effi! You are very welcome. Thanks for your great feedback. 🙂
A tasty and very creamy sauce – my vegan daughter and friend enjoyed it. Mine ended up tasting too strongly of nutritional yeast and cashew butter (maybe I took the “heaping” part of the directions a little too far) so I added a can of tomato sauce and some basil and that made a good difference. It definitely did not need corn starch to thicken; in fact, I had to thin it with a bit of water. Next time I will take the yeast down to just 3TB and the cashew butter to 1TB but I”ll probably keep the tomato sauce and basil in there; it gave a nice flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Holly, thanks for your feedback! 🙂
This recipe tastes quite sweet The coconut milk paired with the sweet peppers make this a very sweet savory dish. I love sweetness, but not in my savory meals, just in desserts. 🙂 But that is just a matter of taste. The rest of the recipe, however, I found lacked something. I am not sure what and I couldn’t quite fix it. I tried adding more onion powder, then garlic powder, to see if that would add that ‘something’ I was looking for, but they didn’t work. We still ate it, it’s just not as wonderful as the other recipes I have tried on here. .
Hi Annie, did you use sweetened coconut milk? 🙂
It’s funny you should ask, Ela, because the same thought occurred to me this morning. So I checked the can to be sure it was the unsweetened version, and indeed it was. Oh well, plenty of other recipes we enjoy from your blog, and looking forward to trying new ones, too!
This sounds and looks really delicious! I am planning on making this tonight, but am a little unsure of the pasta amount. Do you mean 7 ozs dry or cooked pasta? Thanks!
Hi Annie, it’s dry pasta. The instruction in step 5 says to cook the pasta, but I will make it clearer in the recipe. Thanks. 🙂