Ah, you can’t get a meal that feels much fresher than this vegan lemon basil pasta! Extra points if you can pick some leaves of basil off your own living plant.
But that’s not usually the case for me. I’ll be honest, I am terrible at growing herbs! Awful. Either the seeds just never grow at all, or they sprout up super fast and then die. I’ve had cilantro go to seed before I could even use it! I pretty much gave up on ever being able to successfully grow anything besides a snake plant or a ZZ plant. But, a client recently gave me a cutting of her fabulous, healthy basil plant, and I got it to root and now it’s actually growing! *cues applause track.*
So when I had fresh basil leaves to use in a recipe, I assessed what I had in the pantry and fridge. I’ve also been collecting recipe suggestions and ideas from my friends on Instagram. After a cursory look around the kitchen, an idea formed, and I texted my basil-afficianado friend to make sure,
‘lemon and basil go good together, right?’
She confirmed they do indeed, I got cooking, and this beautiful Vegan Lemon Basil Pasta recipe was born!
I kept it super simple
You’ll only need a handful of ingredients, and you can easily make it non-vegan, or gluten free. For my vegan version, you’ll need some pasta, basil, and lemon of course, as well as some veggies, a can of chickpeas, and some salt and pepper. That’s it! I used broccoli in the first recipe I made and it was great, but you could easily swap in cherry tomatoes, sliced zucchini, or hearty greens like spinach or kale.
The secret to this creamy and flavorful dairy free sauce is your pasta water. You’ll want to cook your noodles in generously salted water. When you drain them, save some of that water to make the sauce. Then you’ll make a quick roux with some vegan butter and flour, add back the pasta water, squeeze in your lemon juice, and then toss it all together!
When I used broccoli in this recipe, I added it to the pasta water about 3 minutes before the noodles were done. But for a quicker cooking veggie such as cherry tomatoes or spinach, you can just toss them in the sauce for a quick heat up.
Some fun varieties on this you can try include:
Gluten free/higher protein pasta, such as this chickpea and lentil sampler pack.
Try your hand at growing your own basil with this hydroponic grow kit from amazon!
Vegan Lemon Basil Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz linguine pasta
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 3-4 fresh basil leaves
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup broccoli, chopped (or, cherry tomatoes or spinach leaves)
- 1 tbsp vegan butter or oil
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt, pepper and more basil to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions in heavily salted water. If using broccoli, add it to your cooking water about 3 minutes before pasta is done. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
- Melt butter in large skillet, then whisk in flour. Cook for 1 minute, add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add reserved pasta water, whisk until smooth,Add and cook 1-2 minutes until thickened. Add lemon juice, tomatoes and chickpeas, cook until heated through. Return pasta to skillet and toss to combine.
- Season with salt and pepper, and serve with additonal basil and lemon if desired.
If you’re looking for other lemony, summery and fresh recipes, check out my Lemon Poppyseed Bread for dessert!
Let me know what you think when you try this! Leave a comment below or come connect with me on Instagram. I can’t wait to hear what you think!
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