This vegan pasta bake with spinach and mushrooms is wonderfully creamy, fabulously delicious and easy to make – It’s a simple plant-based pasta gratin casserole recipe without eggs, dairy milk, butter, heavy cream or cheese!
Easy Healthy Vegan Pasta Bake Recipe
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love the combination of pasta, mushrooms and spinach! So why not make a quick, easy, no-fuss pasta bake with whole grain rigatoni, cremini mushrooms and spinach in a creamy, light cream sauce, topped with tofu feta and vegan cheese?
This pasta gratin recipe is not only delicious, but healthy too! While the whole grain pasta keeps you full for a long time, the mushrooms and spinach provide plenty of vitamins, nutrients and plant-based protein. Since sautéed mushrooms naturally have a meaty texture, you won’t miss any meat in this dish either.
However, if you don’t like mushrooms, feel free to replace them with other vegetables or omit them completely and use more spinach instead. And if you love carbonara pasta, feel free to mix in finely diced smoked tofu that will remind of the taste of ham. There are so many options when making this casserole recipe – get creative!
Ingredients needed for this recipe
To make this vegan spinach and mushroom pasta bake, you’ll only need a few simple ingredients that are easily available everywhere. These are:
- Pasta: I used whole grain rigatoni, but you can of course use your favorite kind of pasta or gluten-free pasta.
- Vegan butter: or margarine. Alternatively, olive oil or canola oil will do too.
- Onions and garlic: for the aromatic base.
- Mushrooms: Use cremini or any other mushrooms you like.
- Spinach: fresh or frozen.
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but you can also use gluten-free flour.
- White wine: this is optional, but it adds more flavor to the sauce and provides a better taste.
- Vegetable broth: or unsweetened plant milk and more spices.
- Vegan crème fraîche: you can buy vegan sour cream in the supermarket or make your own cashew cream cheese. More alternatives are mentioned further down in the post.
- Spices: fresh parsley, dried Italian herbs, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Toppings: for topping, I use tofu feta and vegan grated cheese. Also, vegan parmesan for garnish.
How to make Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Pasta Bake
As always, I recommend checking out the recipe video and these step-by-step instructions first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Sauté onions, garlic, mushrooms.
First, sauté the onions in vegan butter until translucent. Next, add the garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Then sprinkle with some flour, add the wine, vegetable broth and spices and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Step 2: Cook pasta and preheat the oven.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling salted water until almost al dente and preheat the oven to 392 °F (200 °C).
Step 3: Refine the sauce, mix everything together and bake.
Stir the vegan crème fraîche into the sauce. Then mix in the spinach and parsley. Now drain the pasta and combine with the sauce. Then transfer everything into a baking dish, top with tofu feta and vegan cheese and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Done!
Ingredient notes and recipe variations
- Vegetables: instead of mushrooms and/or spinach, you can add other sautéed vegetables such as savoy cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, squash, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, etc.
- Protein: smoked tofu or legumes like cooked beans, chickpeas or lentils are a great addition for more protein.
- Béchamel sauce: you can also make this pasta bake with a dairy-free béchamel sauce according to my recipe for vegan lasagna.
- Cashew sauce: In my recipe for lentil zucchini lasagna you will also find instructions on how to make a super creamy cashew sauce, which is also suitable for this pasta bake.
- Cooking cream: Furthermore, there is the option that you simply use vegan cooking cream such as oat, almond or soy cream instead of vegetable broth + dairy-free crème fraîche.
- Vegan cheese: if you don’t want to buy a plant-based cheese alternative for gratinating, feel free to try my homemade vegan cheese.
How to store and reheat pasta bake?
You can store the leftover pasta bake covered in the refrigerator and then reheat it in the oven or microwave. If it’s too dry, simply drizzle with a little unsweetened plant milk.
This vegan pasta bake with spinach and mushrooms is:
- Plant-based
- Dairy-free (lactose-free)
- Can be made gluten-free and soy-free
- Easy to prepare
- Loaded vegetables
- Healthy
- Nutritious
- Hearty
- Topped with vegan cheese
- Very tasty!
- Perfect for lunch or dinner!
More delicious vegan oven recipes to try
- Vegan Lasagna
- Pumpkin Pasta Bake
- Broccoli Mac and Cheese Casserole
- Potato Bake
- Mexican Tortilla Casserole
- Lentil Zucchini Lasagne
- Ratatouille
- Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins
- Baked Potatoes with Herb Dip
- Turkish Stuffed Eggplants
- Enchiladas
If you try this easy vegan mushroom spinach pasta bake recipe, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you share a photo of your delicious pasta casserole dish on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your creations! Happy cooking! 🙂
Vegan Pasta Bake with Spinach and Mushrooms
Author:Ingredients
- 14 oz (400 g) pasta variety of choice, optional gluten-free pasta
- 2 tbsp vegan butter or margarine
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 8.8 oz (250 g) mushrooms sliced
- 1 tbsp flour all-purpose or gluten-free flour
- ½ cup (120 ml) white wine optional
- 1 cup (240 ml) vegetable broth
- ⅔ cup (150 g) vegan crème fraîche or sour cream or cream cheese, see notes*
- 3 cups (100 g) baby spinach or sub frozen, then thaw and squeeze
- ½ bunch parsley + more for garnish
- 1 ½ tsp Italian herbs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 pinch of ground nutmeg optional
Toppings (optional)
- ½ cup (80 g) tofu feta optional
- ½ cup (60 g) vegan grated cheese
- vegan parmesan
Instructions
*Note: Feel free to check out the recipe video + step-by-step pictures above!
- Melt the vegan butter in a large pan or skillet and sauté the onions for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Then add the garlic and mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes or so. Then sprinkle with the flour, pour in the wine and vegetable broth. Season with Italian herbs, a little salt, pepper and nutmeg and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling salted water until almost al dente (2-3 minutes less than stated on the package) and preheat the oven to 392 °F (200 °C).
- Stir the vegan crème fraîche into the sauce, taste again and adjust seasonings if needed. Then stir in the spinach and parsley.
- Drain the pasta and combine with the sauce. Then transfer everything into a baking dish and top with tofu feta and vegan cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Then garnish with vegan parmesan and fresh parsley if desired and serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- Sauce: This pasta bake can also be made with a vegan béchamel sauce as instructed in my vegan lasagna recipe, or with a cashew sauce as instructed in my lentil zucchini lasagna recipe.
- Vegan crème fraîche: You can buy vegan sour cream in the supermarket or try my homemade cashew ricotta cheese. You can also substitute the vegetable broth + crème fraîche with vegan cooking cream only.
- Vegan cheese: If you do not want to buy dairy-free cheese, you are welcome to try my homemade vegan cheese.
- Vegetables: Instead of mushrooms and/or spinach, you can also use other sautéed vegetables such as savoy cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, squash, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, etc.
- Protein: smoked tofu or legumes such as cooked beans, chickpeas or lentils are a great addition for more protein.
- More information about the recipe, including storage instructions, are mentioned in the blog post above!
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This was a definite favorite among my Thanksgiving family dinner peeps! Carnivores, vegetarians and vegans alike; even non-mushroom lovers. I used vegan cream cheese which is fine, but hopefully next time I’ll have time to use my own vegan cashew cream recipe. It’s certainly versatile. We loved the option of adding vegan parmesan (store bought) and french fried onions as toppings. Shitakes were a great mushroom choice. My advice: don’t skip the white wine, onions and garlic specified! Nutmeg always enhances a cream based dish too! Thanks so much!
I neglected to add, I sprinkled some panko bread crumbs along with the french fried onions and vegan parm…sprayed with a little evoo.
Great, that makes me happy. Thank you for the excellent feedback! ☺️