Let me introduce my new favourite pasta dish… or just new favourite dish, in general: Creamy pasta with spinach & nutmeg, topped with cheesy, garlic breadcrumbs. Sounds good, right? It really is.
The weather is finally heating up now in the UK but I tend to crave comforting dishes like this all year round. Plus, you never know when to expect a cold, rainy day here, so this dish is perfect for then! It’s surprisingly easy to put together and can be ready in 25 minutes.
You’ll want to add these breadcrumbs to all your meals, they’re so delicious! But so simple to make. It’s simply stale bread (or toast) added to a food processor with some garlic and nutritional yeast to create a crunchy, flavourful topping. I can imagine it would be AMAZING on some vegan mac n cheese.
This dish is:
- Vegetarian & vegan
- Dairy-free & egg-free
- Low-fat
- Nut-free (use a nut-free milk)
- Soy-free
Creamy Spinach Pasta with Cheesy Garlic Crumbs
A creamy, crunchy pasta dish that is so flavourful yet low-fat and healthy!
Ingredients
- 180 g dried penne or other pasta
For the cheesy garlic breadcrumbs
- 1 slice crusty bread, slightly stale or lightly toasted is best
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves
For the creamy nutmeg sauce
- 240 ml / 1 cup almond milk or soy milk
- 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
- A pinch of ground nutmeg
- 3 handfuls of fresh spinach
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Add the pasta to a large saucepan filled with water and cook according to the packet's instructions.
- Meanwhile, make the breadcrumbs by toasting the bread before adding it to a food processor, along with garlic and nutritional yeast. Blitz until you have large chunky breadcrumbs.
- Next make the creamy sauce by blending the almond milk and cornflour together and adding it to a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg and spinach.
- Once the pasta has cooked, combine with the sauce and spinach and divide between 2 bowls.
- Top with the garlic crumbs and add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Enjoy!
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What’s your favourite pasta dish?
This is such a healthy dish and I love the ‘Nutmeg Sauce’ really creative.
I’ve never used cornflour to thicken – this is different from cornstarch, correct?
Love pasta with creamy sauce, lovely photos and flavors!
Creamy and crunchy, and delicious. What else could you ask for from a pasta dish?
Goodness lady what are you doing to me?! It is nearly 4 pm. I should be sound asleep. yet here I am DROOLING over this. The late night craving is hitting HARD!
Woah!! This pasta looks absolutely delicious :D
Quite the carb bomb, but who cares? haha
Carb on carb!?!?!? Sign me up! I can never get enough pasta anyway ;)
OMG! Love that cheesy garlic crumbs topping. Im gonna steal that idea.
A crunchy texture always wins for me, so this looks like a definite winner!
Thanks Kelly!
Put creamy, cheese, and vegan all in one sentence and I’m usually IN! This looks delicious, and I’m intrigued by the use of cornflour!
Thanks Anjali! It’s just to thicken the creamy sauce :-)
Ooo this sounds so delicious. I love the thought of the creamy pasta with the crunchy, cheesy sprinkles! And I love spinach with creamy sauces. Great recipe!
The texture combination is SO good! Thanks Mel :-)
Pasta with spinach and garlic flavor will be super hit! These looks so yummy! I like pasta with different flavor:)
Thank you, Uma!
I love pasta regardless of what time of year it is or what the weather is like, so I will defo be trying this! :) looks delicious Aimee!
Thank you my dear! x
Ohhhh Aimee I think I would love this one. Garlic , pasta and crumbs you cant go wrong, can you? Yum!
Exactly! Thanks Hedi :-)
Oh yum to those breadcrumbs, how to make a pasta dish perfect!
Thanks Chris!
Such a comfort meal, living in the UK you need quite few of those, even in the summer! Love the cheesy garlic breadcrumbs!
That’s so true, unfortunately! Thank you Hana :-)
I just love pasta. It’s so good and you can do so much with it. I’m dying over those added breadcrumbs!! They sound incredible as I love different textures in my food!
Me too! Thanks Sophia :-)
I can see myself just eating these breadcrumbs straight from the food processor by the spoonful style! They sound so dang good! The only reason I ever liked baked pasta dishes so much was for the crumbly toasty topping that complimented the creamy sauce so well, but this solves that problem and it’s so much easier!
I definitely did that, I’m surprised there were any left to photograph!
Oh, what a brilliant idea for the breadcrumbs. I have two pots of nutritional yeast in the cupboard but I’ve never thought of doing this!
Thanks Cathy! Well, I add nutritional yeast to pretty much everything :D
Oh my goodness, those garlic breadcrumbs look fabulous!
Thank you Becky!
You had me at cheesy garlic crumbs! Wow, this looks so good! Definitely a recipe that would make me go back for seconds!
Thank you Jenn :-) I think my giant bowl counts for seconds haha!
I’m usually not a big breadcrumbs on pasta kinda person but…girl this looks fantastic! Garlic and cheesyness…no one could pass it up!
Me neither actually… it’s not really something I’d tried much before but now I’m addicted to this dish!