Vegan Pesto Pasta with Charred Broccoli. Easy Vegan Pesto with Ziti, served with roasted cherry tomatoes and charred broccoli. 21 gm of protein! Vegan Soyfree Recipe. Can be gluten-free and nut-free. Jump to Recipe
This pesto pasta is perfect for any time you have access to fresh basil or other fresh herbs/greens. Process with seeds or nuts, add some flavors, serve with pasta of choice. Add a fun twist like roasted broccoli or cauliflower, roasted cherry tomatoes, or other veggies.
Summery, Vibrant and flavorful! The pesto takes just 10 minutes, few ingredients.
If you haven’t tried roasted broccoli yet, this is a perfect dish to jump on the train! Add the broccoli and tomatoes to the same baking dish, roast and serve with the pasta. This dish is easily gluten-free with gluten-free pasta and nut-free with sunflower seeds. I love the pesto with a combination of basil and spinach and pecans and sunflower seeds. Lets make this pesto!
More Pasta Recipes to try.
- Garlic Pasta with Cajun Cauliflower – super popular
- Rose Sauce Farfalle – so Creamy!
- Lentil Bolognese with Spaghetti.– Hearty
- Cauliflower Parmesan Pasta Bake – sliced cauliflower, baked then dressed in vegan mozz, baked over pasta
- Chickpea Chorizo, Quinoa shells in tomato sauce. GF – So Meaty.
Try this Pesto with this Pesto Spaghetti with Chickpea “meatballs”, or Pesto Potato Pizza!
Add extra virgin oil to preference or use water or broth to make oil-free.
Vegan Pesto Pasta with Charred Broccoli & Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
Pesto:
- 1/2 cup (12 g) packed fresh basil
- 1.5 cups (45 g) spinach , or baby kale, chard or cilantro or more basil
- 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 2 tbsp pecans, or use almonds, cashews, more sunflower seeds, hemp seeds
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 ) salt
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast , optional
- zest of half a lemon , or use lemon juice to taste
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- water as needed
- black pepper, red pepper flakes or other flavor additions
Pasta:
- 12 to 14 oz (14 oz) Ziti or other pasta, gluten-free if needed
- 1 cup (149 g) or more grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 bunch broccoli
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp oil
- 2 cloves of minced garlic or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
Instructions
- Add basil, spinach, sunflower seeds, pecans, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, lemon zest to a food processor. Process until a coarse mixture. Add oil and a tbsp or so water. and process again. Add more water if needed to make a homogeneous mixture.
- Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package. Drain and Mix the pesto with the pasta.
- Grease a large baking dish. Slice the cherry tomatoes and place in the dish. Sprinkle some salt.
- Add broccoli to a bowl. Drizzle oil and lemon over the broccoli. Cover and shake to coat. Add the garlic, pepper flakes, salt, shake again and spread in the baking dish which has the cherry tomatoes.
- Bake at 410 degrees F (210 C) for 18 to 22 minutes. then broil for a min. Add the roasted broccoli and tomatoes to the pesto pasta and serve. Garnish with black pepper, vegan parm (optional).
Emily says
July 22, 2018 at 8:53 pmoh my gosh. This is the perfect dinner for Sunday! Everyone loved it.
Richa says
July 23, 2018 at 11:32 pmawesome!
Linda says
July 23, 2018 at 6:43 pmI cooked this for my hubby and he loved it!!! Thank you so much!!!
Denise says
July 23, 2018 at 6:56 pmI don’t understand the last 3 steps. So many bowls. What goes in with what? What are the “rest of the ingredients” in step 4 with the broccoli? Then in step 5 it says add the broccoli to the pasta…..what?? So confusing.
Richa says
July 23, 2018 at 9:03 pmgarlic, pepper flakes and salt. Its 1 baking dish for both the cherry tomatoes and broccoli, and 1 bowl to mix the broccoli, oil, lemon, garlic, pepper flakes and salt. Added photos as well. Hope it helps!
Joanne says
July 24, 2018 at 1:03 pmThis looks delicious. Just one question, is the protein content just from the mixed nuts?
Richa says
July 24, 2018 at 2:20 pma bit more than half is from the pasta, and the rest from the nuts/seeds, broccoli.
Joanne says
July 24, 2018 at 2:51 pmThanks for clearing that up for me.
Monica says
July 24, 2018 at 6:34 pmI made it tonight for dinner and let me tell you, my 1 year old stuffed his face with this pasta! I loooooved it and how creative to put the tomatoes that makes it sweet. Love your recipes!! 🙂
Richa says
July 24, 2018 at 8:19 pmthats awesome!
Susan Sparkes says
September 3, 2018 at 12:38 amThis was amazing – another one from your catalogue to add to our weekly meals! Hubby loves pasta, ambivalent on pesto but finds shop bought versions – vegan or otherwise – a bit bland. But he loved this version. I might have made it a little too runny – I made it in the Nutribullet which blitzed it completely and I ended up with a bright green very smooth sauce with no texture – but it was still delicious.
I used sunflower seeds and ground almonds as I had them left over from the vegan feta, and bow shaped pasta left over from your pasta salad from a few weeks back. I’d probably get more texture with an alternative nut. I’m not a huge tomato fan, but baked like this and with the pasta and sauce they were delicious so both of us were happy and full.
Richa says
September 3, 2018 at 11:08 amAwesome! a food processor will help. Blender will blend the nuts or seeds to smooth.
Susan Sparkes says
September 7, 2018 at 1:47 amRicha, should this freeze ok? I have some baby spinach to use up and thinking of making a batch for later as it was so popular
Richa says
September 7, 2018 at 10:09 amYes pesto freezes fine. add a few drops of olive oil to seal the top of the pesto in the container so it doesnt get freezer burn
Rachel says
June 25, 2020 at 12:44 amReally yummy and everyone loved it
Vegan Richa Support says
June 25, 2020 at 10:54 amSo glad!
Joanna says
December 15, 2020 at 1:21 pmI love pesto.
This recipe sounds great.
Thanks for sharing.
Can the pesto pasta part be made ahead of time? Is this good as a cold salad?
Vegan Richa Support says
December 16, 2020 at 1:22 pmawesome ! sure thing. and it would be great as a room temp/cool salad