High Protein Vegan Pasta Primavera

If you are looking for an easy to make high-protein meal that packs in a ton of veggies and flavor, look no further than this high-protein vegan Pasta Primavera! This is one of my favorite meals to meal prep. Since it makes six pretty big servings, you can make a batch during the weekend (or whatever day you have off work), and then you have lunch or dinner for the rest of the week!

It’s also the perfect meal if you’re trying to incorporate more plant-based foods in your diet and are new to plant-based cooking. It would be great for a Meatless Monday and it’s a pretty chill meal that I think any kid would like it too, if you’re cooking for a family.

If you’re focused on a Whole Food Plant-Based diet (WFPB), you could easily make this WFPB by not including the vegan Parmesan that I use on top. If you’re gluten free, this could easily be made gluten-free by using red lentil or chickpea pasta.

What makes this Pasta Primavera high-protein is the Extra Firm Silken Tofu and Nutritional Yeast that we use to make the creamy pasta sauce. We also use plant protein rotini pasta, which has more protein than normal pasta. If you prefer a red lentil pasta (which I love and use all the time), this will also add more protein. My favorite thing about this Pasta Primavera is how versatile it can be – you can literally swap out the veggies listed for other veggies and have an entirely different meal every week and just use the same base sauce!

Ingredients

• Pasta – I used one package of rotini pasta, specifically the Barilla plant protein plus pasta. Any pasta will do though. I would recommend rotini or penne pasta to really soak up all of the sauce. I really like red lentil pasta for this as well, especially if you’re gluten-free.

Creamy Sauce

• Extra Firm Silken Tofu – if your new to plant-based cooking, or maybe you just haven’t used a lot of different tofu varieties, let me fill you in on the differences! Silken tofu is different than firm tofu and different then extra firm/super firm tofu. It’s used in a lot of sauces, dressings, etc. – anything that you want to be creamy and still have a bunch of protein. For silken tofu, there are two varieties – the refrigerated type, and the shelf-stable type. You can usually find the refrigerated variety of silken tofu near the other tofu options at the grocery store. For the shelf-stable variety – I am normally able to find that near the International Food Aisle at the stores I shop; I am in the States though, so this could be different depending on where you live. You can also buy the shelf-stable variety online; I really like the brand Mori-Nu. There are a few different firmness levels of shelf-stable silken tofu. I prefer using the extra firm silken tofu because the macros are really good – for this variety, it’s actually 60% protein on a calorie basis. If you can’t find extra firm silken tofu, silken tofu work great to – your macros and calories might just change slightly.
• Soy Milk – I used soy milk for this recipe because it is my favorite non-dairy milk. Soy milk happens to be the highest protein per calorie of the dairy non-dairy milks so it’s usually the one I choose. If you have a different preference though, feel free to use that instead. I would try to focus on thicker plant-based milk, meaning that I probably wouldn’t use almond milk as a sub, but maybe something like Oat milk.
• Nutritional Yeast – also known as Nooch. This is a great shelf-stable vegan ingredient that is used in a ton of plant-based cooking to provide a savory and cheesy flavor to meals. You can find this at almost any grocery store and you can also buy it online. Aside from the cheesy flavor, my favorite thing about nutritional yeast is that it has a crazy amount of protein on a calorie basis. This is one of the ingredients that definitely cannot be substituted out because it adds so much flavor!
• Apple Cider Vinegar – I use apple cider vinegar for this recipe, but really, any mild flavored vinegar work just fine. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, I would recommend either rice vinegar or maybe white wine vinegar instead.
• Salt – adjust to taste.
• Garlic Powder and Onion Powder – these are the seasonings that I used to make the sauce taste good!

Other Ingredients

• Artichokes – I used one can of artichoke hearts and chopped them. You could also use fresh artichoke, which I’ve personally never used before, so I can’t even tell you how to prepare those!
• Mushrooms – I used Baby Bella Mushrooms for this recipe. You can really use any kind of mushrooms you like.
• Broccoli – I used fresh, chopped broccoli. I really like adding broccoli wherever I can because it’s one of the highest protein vegetables around and is pretty awesome nutritionally.
• Peas and corn – I used frozen peas and corn for this recipe but you can use fresh or canned if you want. If it’s between frozen and canned though, I will use frozen every time.
• Shredded carrots – I used already shredded carrots that you can buy in a bag, but if you can shred your own too!
• Vegan Parmesan – this is an optional ingredient, but I think it gives it a little extra cheesy taste and makes it look fancy. I used the brand Peaceful Rebel for this recipe but there are other great vegan cheese options as well! If you’re making this recipe WFPB, just omit this or sub in Nutritional Yeast on top instead.

Instructions

• Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta for the package instructions.
• In a high powered blender, mix together the extra firm silken tofu, nutritional yeast, soy milk, apple cider vinegar, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder until very smooth. This is your creamy sauce.
• Chop your veggies accordingly. I recommend cleaning your mushrooms and thinly slicing them, chopping your broccoli and artichokes into bite-size pieces and shredding your carrots.
• In a medium-heat skillet, cook all of your vegetables for about 15 to 20 minutes. If you don’t have a non-stick skillet, you may want to spray this with oil. Either way, you should be stirring your vegetables regularly to avoid burning and sticking to the pan.
• Once your veggies are cooked, add in the sauce and heat up for a couple minutes.
• Next, add in your cooked pasta and mix everything together well.
• Top with your vegan Parmesan or serve plain. If you’re going to meal prep this and freeze, it, make sure to portion it out before you freeze it – otherwise, you will have a block of pasta ice that you can’t cut in the morning when you’re running late for work.

Silly Little Haiku

Silken Tofu sauce

Makes any pasta taste great

Red lentil pasta