This Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta is an easy and comforting vegan dinner ready in only 20 minutes. All the decadence of creamy pasta without dairy!
Who needs a big bowl of pasta? There are times when nothing other than a decadent creamy pasta bowl will do. Plus, I feel like we haven’t shared enough cashew cream recipes on the blog. You might have tried my Cashew Frosting or Candied Cashews.
If you are unfamiliar with cashew pasta sauce, let me tell you, it is the most simple and delicious creamy vegan sauce for many dishes.
What’s Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta?
The classic creamy mushroom pasta is of course not vegan-friendly as it’s made with loads of cream and cheese. While there are perfectly fine vegan cream alternatives that you can use to mimic the classic, I’m proposing in this recipe to use a homemade cashew-based cream.
Ingredients and Substitutions
In fact, this recipe is ready in only 20 minutes using less than 10 ingredients:
- Mushrooms – a great vegetable or vegan protein source.
- Garlic – for taste.
- Olive Oil – I use a locally-sourced extra-virgin olive oil.
- Vegan Butter – It’s optional.
- Pasta – Any shape, I recommend using those healthy pasta options: chickpea pasta, buckwheat pasta, edamame pasta, or wholewheat pasta (or brown rice pasta if gluten-free).
- Vegetable Stock – Or water with seasoning.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk – You can also use cashew milk.
- Nutritional Yeast – a vegan-friendly ingredient.
- Paprika – or smoked paprika.
- Cashews – Cashews are a great way of making creamy sauces without any dairy. Use raw cashews that need to soak overnight.
- Parsley – Or basil.
- Lemon Juice – Or lime juice.
How To Make Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta
This is comfort food at its best—a creamy vegan pasta bowl with stir-fried garlic mushrooms and cashew cream sauce. Pasta, mushrooms, cashew cream, and garlic are a winning combination!
The crucial word to say about this recipe is easy!
The cashew pasta sauce is an easy vegan pasta sauce using only 3 main ingredients.
- Soaked cashews – the trick is to soak the cashews for at least 12 hours in cold water or 1 hour in boiling water. Soaked cashews become really soft and can easily blend into a thick cream when combined with liquids. That is how you make a good cashew pasta sauce.
- Liquid – can be vegetable stock, almond milk, or a combo of both as used in this recipe.
- Spices – nutritional yeast is great to add a cheesy flavor to your vegan creamy pasta sauce. Other great spices to add are garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, cumin, or turmeric.
The best ratio of soaked cashews/liquid to create a creamy vegan pasta sauce is 1 cup of liquid for 1 1/2 cup of soaked cashews.
Then, depending on how creamy you like your pasta, you can reduce the liquid to 3/4 cup or increase and simmer the pasta in the sauce to thicken.
- In a blender, combine all the cashew pasta cream sauce ingredients in any order: soaked/drained cashews, unsweetened almond milk, paprika, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and salt.
- Blend on high speed until the cashews transform into a creamy, smooth texture with no lumps. If your sauce has lumps, it might be due to inadequate nut soaking or a blender with insufficient power. Don’t worry; the sauce will still be delicious, albeit slightly less smooth. Set the sauce aside.
- In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms and dried parsley, stir-frying for 5 minutes until the mushrooms release their water and reduce in size.
- Stir in vegan butter and minced garlic. Once the vegan butter is melted, add vegetable stock, cashew pasta cream sauce, and cooked pasta.
Serving Suggestion
Vegan creamy pasta recipes with cashew cream are the best! This creamy mushroom pasta tastes like your classic favorite mushroom pasta, except that you have replaced the regular dairy with cashew cream. The best toppings to serve your vegan mushroom pasta are:
- Chopped Italian parsley
- Toasted pine nuts
- Vegan parmesan – or my Vegan Ricotta.
Storage Instructions
This recipe can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze! Simply defrost the pasta the day before and rewarm it over medium heat in a saucepan. If the sauce thickened too much in the fridge, I recommend adding a splash of vegetable stock or water into the saucepan to lighten up the sauce.
More Vegan Pasta Recipes
If you love the creamy texture of cashew cream, you will also love my red lentil pasta recipe below.
More Vegan Protein Dinner Recipes
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Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
Cashew pasta cream sauce
- 1 ½ cup Cashew - soaked overnight in cold water or soaked 30 minutes in boiling water
- 1 cup Soy Milk Protein Plus - or plant-based milk you like
- 2 tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Mushroom Pasta
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil - divided
- 10.5 ounces Mushrooms - sliced
- 1 tablespoon Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted) - optional or use more olive oil
- 2 Garlic - peeled, minced
- 1 tablespoon Parsley
- 1 cup Vegetable Stock
- 18 oz Cooked Pasta - (about 9 oz uncooked) chickpea pasta, buckwheat pasta or whole wheat
Instructions
Cashew Pasta Cream Sauce
- In a blender, add all the cashew pasta cream sauce ingredients. The order doesn't matter: soaked/drained cashews, unsweetened almond milk, paprika, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt.
- Blend on high speed until the cashews turn creamy, and smooth with no lumps. If there are lumps in your sauce, it may be because you didn't soak the nuts long enough or that your blender doesn't have the power to turn the cashews into a smooth sauce. That's ok. The sauce will still be delicious, but slightly less smooth.
- Set aside.
Mushroom Pasta
- In a large saucepan, warm olive oil under medium heat.
- Add sliced mushrooms, dried parsley, and stir fry for 5 minutes, until mushrooms release their water and reduce size.
- Stir-in vegan butter and minced garlic.
- When the vegan butter is melted, pour the vegetable stock, cashew pasta cream sauce, and cooked pasta.
- Stir to combine, cover and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes until the pasta is warm to serve.
- Taste the sauce and adjust with salt and pepper before serving.
- Serve with fresh Italian parsley, toasted pine nuts, or vegan Parmesan.
Storage
- Store in airtight containers in the fridge for 3 days or freeze. Defrost in the fridge the day before.
- Rewarm on medium heat in a saucepan. If the sauce has thickened in the fridge, add a splash of water or vegetable stock to lighten up.
Do l use two whole garlic or two garlic cloves?
Two garlic cloves
This pasta recipe is awesome .
The cashew sauce combined with the mushrooms, total yummyness.
Thank you Carine for this savory creation! It’s going to be on repeat in my kitchen for sure!
Very tasty! With a high speed blender, I only soaked the cashews for 1/2 hour, started in boiling water. The sauce is creamy and decadent. This was a hit with my non vegan family members as well.
Thank you!!
This was fantastic!! Husband and I had seconds. Used shiitake mushrooms, did not use oil or butter to keep it to our way of eating. Amazing. Flavorful. Super creamy. Just superb. Thanks so much!!!
Is there a different nut that you can use? or a substitute for cashews..
(allergy to walnuts, pecan, cashews, pistachio).. i see a lot of vegan recipes with cashews and was curious if i just need to find something else to make 🙂
Yes, walnuts sunflower seeds or macadamia turns into creamy sauce too !
How can you reduce the calories in this sauce??
You can’t really reduce the calories of the sauce, but you can use low-carb pasta.
Delicious! I used baby Bella mushrooms and added baby spinach too! This sauce can be so versatile. I look forward to making it again.
Do you use raw cashews or can you use regular unsalted? Thanks
Both options works
I soaked the cashews but didn’t realize that I needed a different yeast. I thought that I could use regular??? What can I do now?
Thank you do much
Nutritional yeast only add a cheesy flavor to the sauce, skip it and add any spices you like instead like vegan parmesan, paprika or more garlic
This was a pleasant suprise for the family. We really enjoyed it. I roasted 1 pint of grape tomatoes and a headof garlic and because we’re not vegan, some bacon. The bacon was delicious but it would have been without it as well. May add some frozen peas next time. It’s a great base for many veggies and spices. Looking forward to making it again!