With 9 grams of protein per serving, this Vegan Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta will blow your mind! It’s made with a vegan creamy cashew pasta sauce, roasted veggies, and fresh basil.
This vegan pasta recipe will have you craving meatless Monday every day of the week. Try some of our other plant-based pasta recipes: Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Pasta and Vegan Mac & Cheese.
Pasta All Day, Every Day
Mama’s been craving pasta lately like NO OTHER. For some reason, I’ve been a carbo-freak the past few months and I’m not that mad about it…neither is Mark. Like most guys, Mark could eat spaghetti or pizza every night of the week.
Today we’re sharing a delicious vegan pasta recipe that is sure to turn you into a creamy cashew sauce lover (I mean have you tried our cashew cheese sauce!?).
If you’ve never made a vegan creamy cashew pasta sauce, this recipe will surely change your life. It’s one of my favorite ways to get a protein and texture boost in vegan pasta recipes and once you make it, you’ll see why! This recipe is very basic…and I mean BASIC.
What You Need
- Tomatoes
- Yellow Onion
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Pasta
- Fresh Basil
See what I mean when I say basic? You can get all of these ingredients year-round, making this the perfect dinner recipe to make any time.
Cashew Sauce Party Time
Before you jump into the full recipe, I thought we could chat a little bit about the vegan cashew pasta sauce. Don’t be afraid of this sauce, my friends. It’s actually super simple to make. A few pointers:
Cashew Time
I used to be a stickler about using only raw cashews when you make a creamy vegan pasta sauce. However, raw or roasted cashews will work!
It does depend on your personal preference on flavor.
Roasted cashews tend to leave a little bit of a smokier or sweeter flavor depending on what roasted cashew you use. The good thing is that the texture of the vegan pasta sauce does not change. It comes out creamy and thick no matter what type of cashew you use!
Soak Cashews Until Squishy
Soaking is important when making this sauce because it helps break the cashews down. There are two different ways you can soak the cashes.
- Overnight. Place cashews in a glass bowl and cover them with water. Cover with plastic wrap and let them soak overnight.
- Flash boil. Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil. Add cashews to the pot and remove from the heat. Let the cashews sit for at least 15 minutes.
No time, no problem!
You can always quick boil your cashews instead of letting them sit overnight. This will speed up the soaking process.
High-speed blenders are a dream.
The quality of the blender matters for cashew-based sauces because they really need to get in there and pulverize those nuts. We use and love the Vitamix and highly suggest it!
More Vegan Pasta Recipes
Check Out the Video
Vegan Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta
With 9 grams of protein per serving, this Creamy Tomato Basil Vegan Pasta will blow your mind! It’s made with a vegan creamy cashew pasta sauce, roasted veggies, and fresh basil. This vegan pasta recipe will have you craving meatless Monday every day of the week.
Ingredients
- 6 medium tomatoes, quartered
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1/4 cup olive oil, separated
- 1 teaspoon salt, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 6–8 servings of pasta (we used Whole Foods Organic Ziti)
- 1 cup soaked cashews*
- Fresh basil, chopped, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF and like a baking sheet with tin foil.
- Place tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper onto baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss, making sure everything is coated. Roast at 400ºF 20 minutes.
- While vegetables are roasting, bring a pot of water to a boil. When water comes to a boil, add pasta to the water. Stir occasionally and remove when pasta is al dente. About 6-8 minutes. Strain pasta and set aside.
- Remove baking sheet from oven, remove skin from tomatoes, and roast for an additional 10 minutes.
- Next, transfer all ingredients on the baking sheet (including juices) into a blender along with soaked cashews and the remaining olive oil and salt. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
- Toss pasta with sauce and top with fresh basil and cracked pepper.
- Enjoy!
Tips & Notes
- Overnight. Place cashews in a glass bowl and cover them with water. Cover with plastic wrap and let them soak overnight.
- Flash boil. Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil. Add cashews to the pot and remove from the heat. Let the cashews sit for at least 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/8 recipe Calories: 333 Sugar: 6 Fat: 10 Carbohydrates: 51 Fiber: 4 Protein: 9Keywords: vegan pasta
Is it possible to substitute the cashews for unsweetened full fat coconut milk?
Hey Joy! We haven’t tried this swap, but coconut milk will definitely change the flavor. It’s also a liquid and cashews aren’t. Not sure this will work!
This has become one of my core go-to recipes in rotation at my house! I absolutely love it. It’s also amazing on toast for a fancy healthy breakfast toast 🙂
★★★★★
FANCY TOAST!!!
I sautéed the ingredients as opposed to roasting, and added fresh chilli to the mix, increasing the amount of tomato, and decreasing the amount of cashew. Then in a separate pan sautéed mushrooms and spinach with soy sauce and garlic. Added in the pasta, small bit of pasta water, and blended sauce to the pan and seasoned with salt, chilli flakes, and parmesan.
★★★★
OMG y’all make this ASAP! It’s really very simple and the timing of each element of the dish works out perfectly! It was so fantastic my picky husband ate tomatoes and onions!!! 🙌🏻 I added ground sausage to mine. I loved that the recipe was vegan since I’m dairy free. This will become a staple in our home 🖤
★★★★★
So glad you loved this pasta!!
My daughter tried this and loved it, so she passed it onto me. Fabulous! Because I wanted to try it quickly and didn’t have any fresh tomatoes, I used a sautee pan, cooked the onions & garlic in a touch of broth (I am plant-based, no oil), added 2 cans of organic diced tomatoes and reduced a bit of the liquid. I did add fresh basil. Added that to my Vitamix; delicious! I used Jovial GF Farfalle. Great recipe! A keeper! Thank you!!!
★★★★★
Glad you guys loved this!!
Can you freeze this recipe?
This sauce is AMAZING, 100% would recommend!
★★★★★
Love your vegan recipes – this one is amazing!
★★★★★
YAY! Glad you love it!
Loved it! I also roasted capsicum along with the tomatoes, and added caramelized onions in butter and a stock cube to the blender. Definitely going to be a staple in my household!
★★★★★
This recipe is amazing! I definitely went a little too light on the salt but overall, the flavor and taste was amazing. I am not a vegetarian or vegan but have been looking for good recipes to sub out meat and this one is for sure a winner!
★★★★★
Glad you love it!!
Could you use cashew milk instead if you don’t have any raw cashews on hand?
Hi Margaret! Unfortunately, that is not an adequate sub. The cashews add so much substance and thickness to the sauce!
When I don’t have cashews or wish not to consume the fat and calories I sub with Great Northern White Beans.
So in this time of Covid my sister has been getting these $10 baskets of random veg from a local farmer and shares the haul. That has left me with a ton of beautiful fresh tomatoes and this recipe🙂this sauce is divine. I halved the recipe Cuz there’s just two of us but kept the amount of onion and garlic cuz it’s onion and garlic! I’m sure I left them in the oven longer that’s suggested as I was side tracked by a phone call. Didn’t matter, scooped up all the lovely caramelized bits which added another layer or Smokey roasted flavor . I saved some pasta water to help thin the sauce a bit and added some Parmesan. Final result , two bowls licked clean, just delicious and super easy. Great recipe!!!
★★★★★
Oh I love that! CSA-style!
Our new go-to meal! The family loved it!
Thank you for sharing
★★★★★
tastes great! I cut the serving size to 1/3 and used cherry tomatoes and everything worked out great. I reccomend using less cashews to start, because the flavor can be a bit too nutty. Does anyone have any recommendations for additional ingredients or spices? I’m trying to make a more dynamic sauce.
Great recipe, I added some broccoli to the roasting veggies as it needed using up changed the colour a little but not the flavour. Mary
★★★★★
This recipe was absolutely delicious!!! Omg! My mom and I LOVED it!!! Thank you so much!
★★★★★
This sounds so delicious but my husband is allergic to nuts. Any suggestions for some other type of sauce? I’m very new at this type of diet.
Unfortunately, this is a nut-based sauce, so there are no good swap options!
I’ve made this recipe 3 times (in large batch) in the last 2 weeks since I discovered it. It’s seriously so so mindblowing, amazing! I do have some tips:
– I don’t roast the veggies since I use canned whole tomatoes (that’s what I have on hand atm). Less cleaning and still amazing flavor
– Since I don’t roast the veggies, I sauteed the onion and garlic for around 7 minutes on medium-high heat before adding the tomato. It burned the garlic a bit too much but the flavor is so much more complex with this slight burn.
– I make a huge batch of cashew butter using slightly roasted, unsalted cashew for this recipe and other recipes requiring blended cashew. It’s so fast this way, and I don’t feel lazy anyhow whenever a recipe calls for blended cashew.
– Just properly salting the pasta water is fine. I don’t think we need salt in the veggies.
– I add some pasta water and tonato paste or ketchup after adding the tomato and cashew butter. Creamy and packs a more tomato-y punch.
– I made a large batch of the sauce for meal prep, and boil just enough pasta everytime I want a portion. The sauce heats up very well once I mix it with al-dente hot pasta.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I love it so so much, and will definitely try the roasted version as soon as I cure my laziness and get my hand on some fresh tomatoes 😅
Thank you for all your tips!!! We’d love it if you could rate it using the star rating <3
Your recipes look great, but there are so many ads on your site that it’s incredibly difficult to see or get to the recipe.
Just click print recipe and it will come to the Forefront you don’t have to worry about the ads instead he fall prevention
We made this lovely recipe last night with tomatoes from the garden! I also roasted a bell pepper along with the other veggies and the cashew sauce turned out fabulous. We also used chickpea pasta (hello extra fiber and protein) and the hubs and I loved it. A small glass of pinot noir and a salad on the side and we had a feel good that we didn’t feel horrible about later. Thanks so much 🙂
YAY!! We’d love it if you gave us a 5 star rating!
Hi, made this cashew tomato sauce several times and love it..However decided to put chipotle in it and wow!! Used it as mayo substitute for tuna salad.. it was the best tuna melt I’ve had in along time!!
★★★★★
That sounds AMAZING.