25 Minute Weeknight Pasta. Ziti with Chipotle Lentil Tomato Sauce. Smoky Chipotle and lentils in the pasta sauce make it a flavorful and filling meal. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. Easily glutenfree with GF pasta.
This weeknight Pasta is a breeze to put together. Cook the pasta of choice, simmer the sauce and lentils all together with herbs and a chipotle chili pepper in adobo sauce(smoky and hot!). Toss and serve. You can add some seasonal veggies to this pasta like some garlic roasted asparagus, carrots, or roasted brussels. And yes that’s mint in the photos, it should be basil 🙂
Serve this with some gf garlic rolls or whole grain rolls. and Definitely make a double batch! Whats your favorite weekday red sauce pasta?
More pastas from the blog
- Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Black pepper Chickpeas
- Pumpkin Sage Pasta with pumpkin cream sauce and crisp Sage
- Black pepper Mac and Cheese
- Chickpea Chorizo, Quinoa shells in tomato sauce.
- Zesty Pesto Pasta with chard and zucchini
- Ziti Cheddar Brussels sprouts bake
If you make this pasta, do tag me on Instagram, or leave a comment and rating on this post!
Recipe Card
Ziti with Chipotle Lentil Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups (90 g) uncooked pasta like Ziti or Penne
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup (7 g) red onion chopped small (1/4-1/2 inch)
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- 1/2 cup (64 g) chopped carrot chopped small
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) dry oregano
- 1 tsp dry basil or 1 Tbsp packed chopped fresh basil
- 2 large juicy tomatoes pureed about 1.5 cups
- 1 tbsp tomato paste optional
- 1 two inch chipotle chili pepper in adobo sauce chopped or pureed with the tomatoes (remove the seeds to reduce heat if needed) , or use 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder
- 1/3 cup (60 g) red/pink lentils washed and drained
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) pepper flakes or cayenne or to taste feel free to omit
- a generous dash of black pepper
- nutritional yeast or vegan parm and extra virgin olive oil for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to instructions on the box.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for 4 minutes or until translucent.
- Add the carrots and herbs and mix well. At this point you can also add in veggies such as zucchini or thinly sliced mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoe puree and chopped chipotle pepper and cook for 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Add 1 tbsp tomato paste and a touch of sweetener for deeper flavor.
- Wash, drain lentils and add to the pan. Add water and Cook partially covered for 16 to 18 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add salt, vinegar and peppers and mix in. Taste and adjust salt and heat. Cook a few minutes longer, uncovered, if the sauce is too thin. Reduce heat to low-medium.
- Add pasta to the sauce. Cook covered at low-medium heat for 2-3 minutes. let sit for another 2 minutes before serving. Sprinkle nutritional yeast or vegan parm and extra virgin olive oil and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
P
How to adapt for cooking in the instant pot please?
Richa
Use my IP recipe and add lentils to it. https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-ziti-with-tomato-sauce/
Elise Klesmer
We’ve just made this and the sauce was way too watery. We ended up having to add extra tomatoes and use an emersion blender to salvage it.
Richa
hmm, what kind of spaghetti did you use?
Elise Klesmer
Thanks for your reply! This was all before we put the pasta in.
Richa
the pasta should absorb a lot of the moisture during cooking as it is uncooked pasta
Elise Klesmer
The first step in the recipe says “Cook the pasta according to instructions on the box.” Were we supposed to use uncooked pasta? That would make a lot of sense why it was too watery.
Richa
oh wait, oops, i was thinking of a different recipe. Sorry. Yes adjust the sauce if its toto liquidy. Lentils can absorb water differently.
Cassandra
Do you think that this recipe can be good without the tomatoes? Or have any quick sub ideas? Were allergic to nightshade s but this recipe looks so good i want to try a variation.
Richa
it would be difficult to get similar flavor profile. You can use more onions, some zucchini and blended roasted red peppers for the sauce base.
Cathy
hi Richa
This looks delicious. When you say red/pink lentils – do you mean masoor dhal lentils? Thanks, I live in UK.
Richa
yes masoor dal
Allison
Delicious! I used canned tomatoes (it’s winter 😀 ) and ended up heavy on the lentils, and it was AMAZING.
Aaron Stoner
I loved the recipe! Thanks for sharing this! Five stars.
Danica
This is delicious! All i added was a half cup chopped orange peppers and about a cup of chopped cauliflower. I reserved half for pasta sauce but the other half i pureed with a bit more water and had a bisque…it was delicious and creamy! Thank you for this awesome recipe!
Richa
the bisque sounds wonderful!
AB
Can the sauce be made in advance and then warmed? Or would that ruin the consistency?
Richa
Yes, it should work fine. Just cook the sauce till the lentils are just about done and not over done. So when you reheat the sauce the lentils will retain their shape.
Aleigha
Sounds good. Looks good. Tastes good.
Lisa
Made a his for dinner last night – added some veggie sausages yum Even the carnivore enjoyed it 🙂
Richa
yesss
Jennifer
Can’t go wrong with a dish like this! Yum!
annie
i keep seeing vegan chorizo recipes! I gotta try them — especially this noodly one. Looks soooooo good.
Vegan Critic
I love pasta so I was super excited to try out this pasta dish… I absolutely loved it, the sauce is delicious and it´s actually quite easy to make as long as you follow the recipe step by step. I have a vegan restaurant in Tulum and this could be a good addition to our menu. Thank you for taking the time to write it up.
Joyce Langan
this looks and sounds really good, I know from previous recipes of yours that it will taste really good too. Thankyou for posting.
Richa
Thanks!
Archena
Thank you Richa! Enjoy the weekend!
Richa
You too. Thanks!