This vegan baked spaghetti recipe uses chickpea pasta to increase the protein and add a bit of fiber. Pasta is a go-to recipe for busy nights or when you’re looking to stretch a meal a little longer. Add this veggie-heavy recipe to your meal plan this week.
What You’ll Need
The ingredients list isn’t too long, but you’ll need to gather a few things. These are likely items you will have on hand. Tool-wise, you will need a vegetable spiralizer to make the zucchini noodles easily. If you don’t have one, don’t worry! Add it to your Amazon cart for next time, and read the recipe notes for other ideas.
- Chickpea pasta for protein and fiber
- Pasta sauce
- Green chilies because I live in Arizona, and everything is better with green chilies.
- Mushrooms, you can buy them pre-sliced to save time, or if you buy them whole, you can slice them yourself.
- Vegetable Spirailzer, to easily make zoodles, also known as zucchini noodles.
How To Make
Pasta dishes can be a way to add tons of veggies. This vegan baked spaghetti has mushrooms, tomatoes, green chilies, and zucchini. All of the veggies, except the zucchini, are sauteed before adding to the dish. Cooking them like this gives the meal more flavor.
A tip for texture-sensitive individuals is to blend all the veggies into the sauce after cooking them. That way, you still get veggies but don’t have to worry about the texture.
What Is Vegan Baked Spaghetti?
Baked spaghetti is different than non-baked spaghetti because… You guessed it, it’s baked! Because this was a take on my grandpa’s recipe, I left it as is for baking, but I’m pretty sure the main draw is for melting cheese. I didn’t use vegan cheese in this recipe, but if you wanted to, you could pick your favorite meltable vegan cheese to add on top.
Baking it still helps remove moisture from the zucchini and creates a nice texture you don’t get if you skip the oven.
Veggie Loaded Vegan Baked Spaghetti
Description
I grew up eating baked Spaghetti. It was one of the meals my grandpa liked to make the most. This comfort recipe was one of my grandpa's go-to recipes. He'd make this every year for my birthday with a jel-o cake. You're right; those two things don't go together, but I have never questioned it. I did jazz up his recipe to be higher in protein and have more veggies, hopefully he's not too upset!
Ingredients
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 375F. Then, in a large saucepan, saute the onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers in the avocado oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until the onions turn translucent. Using a vegetable spiralizer, spiralize your zucchini and set it aside for later.
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While the vegetables are cooking, start the pasta. Cook according to package directions and keep 2-4 tablespoons of pasta water with the noodles after cooking.
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Once the onions turn translucent, add the spices, can of diced green chilies, and can of fire-roasted tomatoes to the pan and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
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Add the jar of pasta sauce and meatless crumbles to the pan with the veggies and can of fire-roasted tomatoes. Turn the heat to low. Let simmer for another 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of the sauce to coat the bottom of a 9” x 13” cooking dish. Please don't skip this step because your pasta can get stuck to the bottom without it.
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When the pasta is cooked according to the package directions, drain over a liquid measuring cup to reserve the liquid. Once drained, add 2-4 tablespoons of pasta water into the sauce mixture and mix.
Add the spaghetti noodles and spiralized zucchini to the pan with sauce. Mix everything with tongs and then place into a baking dish.
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Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes. Top with basil and nutritional yeast, and serve.
Note
Pasta Alternatives: This recipe has also been tested using whole wheat noodles with successful results.
Make it cheezy: Add vegan mozzarella cheese to the top for a classic baked spaghetti and bake until melted. That is the main draw of baking it, but I like to do it this way without vegan cheese.
No Vegetable Spiralizer: If you don't have this tool, you can do a few different things. Slicing them thin, like the pasta, helps "hide" the veggies. Instead, use a vegetable peeler to thinly slice the zucchini and then cut it lengthwise with a knife. Or if you don't need or want them hidden you can dice them up like the pepper and toss them in.
