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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!
Ziti with Chipotle Lentil Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups uncooked pasta like Ziti or Penne
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup red onion, chopped small (1/4-1/2 inch)
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup chopped carrot, chopped small
- 1/2 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 red/pink lentils, washed and drained
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
LOVED THIS!! I used it as a clean out the fridge Friday meal, adding zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, and swapped the chipotle out for powdered chipotle as you suggested. Also, because end of week meals are like this – did not use the pureed fresh tomatoes, but canned tomato puree and some tomato sauce and added a little extra water. Great flavor and texture. Your recipes are so reliable, I love trying them. Thanks for a new favorite!
awesome! thanks so much for your kind comment! so glad you enjoyed!
How to adapt for cooking in the instant pot please?
Use my IP recipe and add lentils to it. https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-ziti-with-tomato-sauce/
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.
hmm, what kind of spaghetti did you use?
Thanks for your reply! This was all before we put the pasta in.
the pasta should absorb a lot of the moisture during cooking as it is uncooked pasta
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.
oh wait, oops, i was thinking of a different recipe. Sorry. Yes adjust the sauce if its toto liquidy. Lentils can absorb water differently.
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.
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.
hi Richa
This looks delicious. When you say red/pink lentils – do you mean masoor dhal lentils? Thanks, I live in UK.
yes masoor dal
Delicious! I used canned tomatoes (it’s winter 😀 ) and ended up heavy on the lentils, and it was AMAZING.
I loved the recipe! Thanks for sharing this! Five stars.