Weeknight Cherry Tomato Chickpea Pasta Recipe – Vegan Friendly

This pasta dish is an easy weeknight meal and it gets its creaminess and protein from chickpeas instead of cream, making it easily adapted to a vegan diet. If you’re vegan, just leave out the parmesan and substitute nutritional yeast or vegan parm!

The best part about this pasta is that cherry tomatoes are delicious all year long, so you don’t need to wait until tomatoes are in season to enjoy it!

Roasted Cherry Tomato Chickpea Pasta

Take a Whisk Kitchen

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Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 lb short pasta
• 24 ounces cherry tomatoes halved
• 2 25.5 oz standard cans chickpeas drained, rinsed, and patted dry
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 sprig rosemary optional
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 ½ cups spinach roughly chopped
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan or nutritional yeast
• Fresh basil to taste optional
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 425.
• In a large baking dish, toss the halved cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, garlic, onion powder, rosemary sprig, olive oil, salt, and pepper together until everything is thoroughly coated with olive oil. Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes, or until pieces are starting to turn golden brown.
  24 ounces cherry tomatoes, 2 25.5 oz standard cans chickpeas, 3 cloves garlic, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 sprig rosemary, ½ cup olive oil, Salt and pepper
• While roasting, wash and chop spinach and prepare pasta according to package instructions, adding the spinach to the pasta pot during the last minute of cooking and saving the pasta water for making the sauce later.
  2 ½ cups spinach, 1 lb short pasta
• After roasting, remove the rosemary sprig and discard it. Remove garlic cloves and put them in a blender.
  3 cloves garlic, 1 sprig rosemary
• Take half of the cherry tomatoes and chickpeas and put them in the blender with the garlic. Add parmesan or nutritional yeast. Blend mixture until smooth, adding pasta water to thin it to the consistency that you would like. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired.
  24 ounces cherry tomatoes, 2 25.5 oz standard cans chickpeas, ½ cup freshly grated parmesan or nutritional yeast, Salt and pepper
• Toss everything together and top with fresh basil, freshly grated parmesan, and/or nutritional yeast.
  Fresh basil to taste, ½ cup freshly grated parmesan or nutritional yeast

Notes

If you want the sauce to be creamier: Replace all or some of the reserved pasta water with warmed whole milk or cream (or if you are vegan, your favorite neutral tasting milk substitute).

If you would rather not have chunks of tomatoes and chickpeas: Blend all the cherry tomatoes and chickpeas into the sauce instead of half. You can even blend the spinach into the sauce if you would like.

For the best tasting reduced (but not removed altogether) animal product version: Instead of 1/2 cup of parmesan or nutritional yeast, use 1/4 cup of each. Add 1/8 cup of warmed heavy cream before blending the sauce. Top with freshly grated parmesan.

Keyword cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, pasta, plant based, vegan, winter

Modifications:

If you want the sauce to be creamier: Replace all or some of the reserved pasta water with warmed whole milk or cream (or if you are vegan, your favorite neutral tasting milk substitute).

If you would rather not have chunks of tomatoes and chickpeas: Blend all the cherry tomatoes and chickpeas into the sauce instead of half. You can even blend the spinach into the sauce if you would like.

For the best tasting reduced (but not removed altogether) animal product version: Instead of 1/2 cup of parmesan or nutritional yeast, use 1/4 cup of each. Add 1/8 cup of warmed heavy cream before blending the sauce. Top with freshly grated parmesan.

For another vegan weeknight meal, check out my Vegan Bean Chili recipe.