Vegan Pesto Pasta with Roasted Fall Veggies Recipe
This vegan pesto pasta recipe with roasted fall veggies is an easy and comforting weeknight dinner. Use any seasonal vegetable you like, but this combination of carrots, delicata squash and brussels sprouts is especially tasty for cold weather months!
I keep seeing this “awkward days between Christmas and New Year where you don’t know what day it is, or what you’re doing with your life” meme floating around, and I think it pretty well captures how I’m feeling right now.
As I shared on IG, our Christmas….well, it kinda sucked. Our 11 year old Bernese Mountain Dog, Savannah, ended up at the emergency vet Christmas Eve with a septic abdomen, which we later found out was from chewing on a sick that ruptured her intestines. On Christmas Day we were faced with either euthanasia or a surgery she had a 50/50 chance of getting through, and there was a chance they would open her up and find systemic cancer was the cause. With my unhealthy level of attachment to her, as you can guess we went forward with the surgery. Happy to say she is healing like a champ, they found no evidence of cancer and as the surgeon responded “her insides look surprisingly good for an 11-year old Berner,” and hopefully (knock on wood, fingers crossed and all those things), we will be bringing her home today or tomorrow.
Phew. Deep breaths.
Obviously, life has been pretty chaotic, but that doesn’t change the fact that my body still needs food. Working with my nutrition counseling clients, I often find that times like these are when people either skip meals or don’t feed themselves adequately, or live off of foods they’re not feeling so great about (which is certainly a better alternative than the former!).
The past week, I’ve been living off a lot of leftovers, takeout, and frozen meals, and feeling really grateful for formula meals, quick, easy and satisfying “recipes” I can make without much thinking, like this vegan pesto pasta with roasted fall veggies recipe.
Formula Meal: Vegan Pesto Pasta with Roasted Fall Veggies
Even though I’m writing this vegan pesto pasta recipe as an actual step-by-step recipe, I want you to think of it as really just a formula meal.
Pasta + Pesto + Roasted Vegetables
That’s really all this dish is! It’s simple, satisfying and endlessly adaptable based on what you have on hand, which is how I came up with this vegan version made with roasted fall veggies.
For the vegan pesto sauce, I used classic basil, but I often make pesto with a mixture of whatever greens I have on hand as a way of using them up before they go bad - arugula, spinach, kale, parsley, cilantro, etc, as well as combinations of greens all work great! I rarely follow a recipe, just a few handfuls of greens, a handful of whatever toasted nuts you have, a clove of minced garlic, a bit of lemon juice to brighten it up, and enough olive oil to turn it into a sauce. I often freeze the leftovers to use later. I rarely don’t have parmesan on hand, but when I came up with this recipe, it was the one thing I forgot to pick up from the grocery store, so I went with this vegan version that swaps nutritional yeast for a bit of cheesy flavor.
For roasted vegetables, use whatever veggies you enjoy, and feel free to do a seasonal mix. I used a very fall-inspired mix of Brussels sprouts, delicata squash and carrots in this pesto pasta with veggies recipe. My quick formula for roasting vegetables is to cut them evenly sized, toss with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and pop them in the oven at 400 degrees and roast until golden and tender.
Vegan Pesto Pasta with veggies Recipe Adaptions
The whole point of formula meals is that you can make it with whatever you have on hand. If you need some inspiration to break out of the traditional pesto rut, I also have recipes for a spicy jalapeño pesto, mustard green pesto, and a kale-hazelnut pesto, that would also go great with this dish.
If you want to use other vegetables, feel free to use sun-dried tomatoes (a great shelf-stable way to add veggies when you’re not going to the grocery store!), broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini or eggplant.
To add protein to this pesto pasta with veggies, try leftover rotisserie chicken, a can of drained and rinsed white beans or chickpeas, or even a crumbled up veggie burger! I also like to make this with chickpea pasta like Banza (affiliate link).
If you’d like more inspiration for meatless pasta recipes, check out my Vegetarian Pasta Dishes board on Pinterest, where I share favorites from both my blog and others.
This vegan pesto pasta with roasted fall vegetables recipe was originally published Oct 2015. Recipe, images and text have been updated to give you the best possible content.
Roasted Fall Vegetable Pesto Pasta
Serves 4ish
This recipe makes extra pesto. Freeze extra for another night you need a quick and easy meal.
Ingredients:
1 delicata squash, halved, seeds scooped out, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (you can keep the skin on - it’s tender and edible!)
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
12 ounce Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 ounce whole grain penne
Parmesan or vegan parmesan, optional, to serve
Vegan Pesto:
2 cups basil, lightly packed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup nutrition yeast
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Toss squash, carrots and Brussels sprouts with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and spread evenly on a large baking dish. Place in the oven and roast for 25-30 minutes, tossing halfway, until browned and tender.
While vegetables are roasting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions. Drain, reserving a cup of starchy pasta water, and set aside.
While pasta and vegetables are cooking, place basil, lemon juice, walnuts, nutritional yeast, and garlic in a food processor. Blend until finely chopped, then stream in olive oil and continue to blend until pureed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add pasta back into the pot. Add roasted vegetables and about 1/3 cup pesto (or more) with enough starchy pasta water to form a sauce, then serve.
If you like this vegan pesto pasta recipe, you might also like:
Pasta Primavera with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
Creamy Pumpkin Spaghetti with Shiitakes and Peas
Spaghetti with Tempeh Sausage Marinara
