9 Vegan Pasta Dishes – Dinner For One

I figured I would call these pasta dishes “for college students” because who could use single portion recipes more? There’s lots of pictures in this post because there’s 9 freaking recipes for us to go through. There’s a video at the bottom if you want to watch my dancing hands take you through step by step. I bought some fresh herbs and fresh garlic because I intended to dazzle you with going the extra mile. That did not end up happening. I used dried herbs because L-A-Z-Y.

You can double or triple the recipes below. Yeah, go feed somebody. And bust out that thrift store Foreman grill to add in a bag of frozen veggies to you pasta dishes.

Feel free to taste as you go! Do you think the creamy dishes could be creamier? Add a 1 TB or 2 of extra vegan butter or coconut cream. Do you think the flavors could be bolder? Add more spices or another dash of salt! Do you find you sauce isn’t thick enough? Add 1 ts of flour or more then heat to thicken it! Use fresh herbs, garlic, onion and ginger!

With all of our recipes they’re ALWAYS a work in progress. We’re always tweaking recipes and you should too.

Vegan Thai Peanut Sauce (But With Almond Butter!)

Ours came out dry because we didn’t add oil. It was dry but delicious. Oil recommendation below.

2 TB almond butter, 1/2 TB agave, 1/2 TB soy sauce, 1/4 ts ground ginger, 1/2 lime, 1/2 TB sesame seed oil

1. Mix all of the ingredient together. Heating it up is optional and will help if your almond butter is super thick.
2. Add to 3 ounces of pasta

Vegan Avocado + Basil Pasta

This could easily be tweaked in all sorts of ways. You can take out the lime so that it’s not tart. You could add nutritional flakes or pine nuts. You can double up on the basil!

1 avocado (84 grams), 1/2 TB olive, 1/4 cup basil, 1/2 lime, dash of onion and garlic powder, 1 TB water

1. Blend everything in the food processor
2. Mix sauce with 3 ounces of pasta

Vegan Pumpkin Cream Sauce

I added dill to this. I have no idea if you can really pick out the flavor. I like it for whatever reason but consider it optional. Definitely taste this while you’re making it to ensure it’s creamy and flavorful enough.

1/3 can pumpkin puree, 3 TB canned coconut milk, 1 ts onion powder, 1/2 garlic powder, 1 ts dill, 1/8 ts clove, 1/4 cup water, salt to taste

1. Put everything in a pot or microwavable bowl. Heat it up and mix it together.
2. Mix with 3 ounces of pasta

Vegan Macaroni Salad

Is it weird that I want to act smug about macaroni salad? I didn’t care about it…. it’s only the most under rated dish ever. Dude, why do I act like macaroni salad is not cool?! I love it. I don’t think I’ve eaten it in 15 years but one bite of this and I was like “YES YES YES!”. I added celery seed. I think it takes this recipe to the max but if you don’t own it then don’t worry about it. I did cook my pasta the night before but you can be last minute about it. Just do you.

4.5 TB vegan mayo (I used vegenaise), 1 TB vinegar, dash of celery seed, a hand full of chopped red bell pepper, celery and onion, pepper to taste

1. Mix 3 ounces of pasta with all of the ingredients above
2. Add agave if your vegan mayo isn’t sweet enough. Add salt if you’d like. My was perfect without adding either.

Vegan Garlic Buttered Noodles

The specific earth balance vegan butter I used didn’t leave a strong buttered taste on the pasta. I used the sticks for baking so I’m not sure if that was an issue. Mine tasted like a light butter flavor with a hint of olive oil. I LOVED it! A strong butter taste would have been great but this was great!

2 TB vegan butter, 1/4 ts garlic powder, 1-2 TB fresh chopped parsley, salt if needed

1. Melt vegan butter in pan. Add fresh or powdered garlic. Add parsley and let the flavors infuse for a few minutes.
2. Mix with 3 ounces of pasta. Salt if needed.

Vegan Thai Coconut Pasta

I’ve made this many of times. I went kind of lightweight with the red curry paste in the video but I recommend you taste the sauce after you put 2 ts of curry paste in. More is better but I don’t know if that would be too strong for you. I needed to thicken this with 1 ts flour to my surprise. Usually the coconut cream is thick enough there was too much coconut water in this batch and you do not want this sauce watery. With enough coconut cream and red curry paste this will taste rich, creamy and cheesy! If you want to go pure decadence then follow this recipe instead. <— insane

4 TB canned coconut (cream on top is ideal), 2 ts red curry paste (as shown in the video), 1 ts flour if too watery (recommended garnish is basil or cilantro)

1. Heat coconut on stove or in microwave. Mix in curry paste, more is better but taste it first.
2. If too watery add 1 ts of flour while whisking it in. Turn up the heat til it’s thickened.
3. Mix with 3 ounces of pasta

I am obsessed with this sauce. I think the more sriracha you add the better but I’m not recommending a ton in the recipe since it’s spicy but feel free to knock yourself out. I’m completely addicted to this. It’s pretty much like a spicy teriyaki sauce.

2 TB agave, 2 TB sesame seed oil, 2 TB of soy sauce 1/4 ts powdered ginger, 1 ts corn starch, dash of rice vinegar, 1 ts (or more!) sriracha

1. Put everything in a pot. Heat and whisk until the cornstarch thickens.
2. Mix with 3 ounces of pasta

Vegan Lemon Cream Pasta

I hadn’t tried a lemon pasta dish before. The first half of me eating this I kept thinking, “oh, no… not for me”. But by the end of the dish I kept wanting me. Do I love it, do I hate it? I may hate to love it. I need to make this again. Feel free to add some lemon zest or ground pepper.

2 TB vegan butter, 1/2 cup plain almond milk, 1/4 ts garlic powder, 2 TB parsley, 1/2 lemon, 2 ts flour

1. Add everything to a pot. I heated mine up until the flour thickened then let the sauce reduce down a little more on a low boil for a few minutes.
2. Mix with 3 ounce pasta

This may seem weird but I think this sauce tastes amazing on so many different thing. This sauce is the future. Give it a try and tell me if I’m crazy or not. The more hot sauce you use the better this will taste. I did go light handed in the video as to not appear like a total salt slut but I you need to know. I used chipotle power which depending on the batch can be crazy spicy. You do need a smoked flavor so if you want to avoid heat then try smoked paprika.

2 TB brown sugar, 2 TB tomato sauce or pasta sauce, 2 TB vegan butter, dash of smoked paprika or chipotle powder, 2 TB hot sauce

1. Heat everything up in a pot. Simmer and reduce it down til it’s thick.
2. Mix with 3 ounce pasta

For more details on this recipe watch my video below. AND ENJOY!