This easy and healthy vegan white sauce pasta with vegetables is sure to become your next go-to weeknight dinner! Highly customizable, low in calories and ready in 30 minutes, this kid-friendly recipe is undetectably plant-based and so tasty.
If you’re in need of a simple and delicious plant-based dinner idea, look no further than this white sauce pasta with veggies!
It comes together in under 30 minutes with minimal prep and it allows you to clean out your fridge at the same time.
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Using any pasta and veggies of your liking, this recipe is easily customizable and totally family-approved.
It’s low in calories and fat as written in the recipe card below, but we’ll share some tips for making this dish heartier.
Nobody will believe that this vegan white sauce pasta doesn’t have any butter, cheese or cow’s milk and everyone will ask for seconds.
If you love pasta as much as well do, be sure to check out our high-protein pesto pasta, this easy hummus pasta, one-pot pasta marinara and healthy vegan mac and cheese!
Let’s look at what’s needed to create this delicious vegan white sauce pasta as well as our top tips around the recipe.
Recipe overview
- Highly customizable
- Very family- and kid-friendly
- Flavorful, luscious &low-fat
- Lazy 30-minute weeknight dinner
- Budget-friendly & low in allergens
- Great way to eat more veggies
Our whole food plant-based recipe is a really mess-free dinner as you don’t have to use a lot of utensils.
Ingredients needed
- Pasta — we like to use macaroni-shaped pasta but any will work.
- Vegetables — our recipe uses bell pepper, broccoli, spinach, onion and corn.
- Dairy-free milk — this is the base for our low-fat vegan white sauce; choose your favorite!
- Cornstarch — our gluten-free binder for the creamy béchamel!
- Spices — garlic, vegetable broth, oregano, nutritional yeast and white pepper add flavor to our white sauce.
- Plant-based protein — add a handful of chickpeas to this vegan white sauce pasta for extra texture and filling protein!
As you can see, our simple white sauce pasta recipe is highly customizable to your preferences or needs!
Just swap any of the ingredients to make this meal work for you and find some more ideas below.
How to make vegan white sauce pasta
Prepare your veggies
This recipe is so beginner-friendly, the hardest part is choosing, washing and chopping your vegetables! While you do so, cook your pasta on the stove according to the package instructions.
Cook pasta
Once the pasta is al dente, drain it (reserving ½ cup of the cooking water) and set it aside.
Make white sauce
Heat soy milk in a saucepan on the stove. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and cold vegetable broth together until no lumps are left. Add it with the rest of the spices to the warm milk.
Cook it for a few minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently until it thickens and turns into a smooth, creamy sauce. Set aside to make the vegetables.
Sauté veggies
Get a large non-stick pan or skillet and sauté your diced onion in a spritz of vegetable broth for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Once translucent, add the bell peppers, broccoli, garlic, corn and chickpeas.
Combine & enjoy
After another 5 minutes of cooking, add the fresh spinach and cooked pasta. Now, mix everything well with a spoon while pouring the white sauce over everything.
Add some of the cooking water from earlier as the pasta will need additional moisture!
Serving & storage suggestions
Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2-3 days. Keep in mind that it will thicken over time, so make sure to add a splash of dairy-free milk when heating the pasta up again.
If you want to make larger batches and enjoy this pasta over a couple of days, it’s best to store the components individually and combine them when heating (with an additional splash of plant-based milk.)
You can enjoy this white sauce pasta on its own, serve it with some freshly baked rolls or arugula salad.
Tips & FAQs
Adjust the nutritional profile
This vegan pasta recipe is relatively low in fat and calories, so it’s really weight loss-friendly.
You can increase the protein content by using legume-based pasta and making this high-protein vegan cheese sauce!
If you or your family are not super keen on veggies or don’t have a huge appetite, you can reduce the amounts used.
Use gluten-free pasta if needed and sauté your veggies in olive oil to make this dish richer.
Is white sauce vegan?
Typically, white sauce is heavy in dairy products and therefore not plant-based or vegan. White sauce, also known as béchamel sauce, is often used in French and Italian pasta recipes, such as lasagna.
If you want to make a traditional white sauce that is vegan, you need to swap the dairy milk for a dairy-free alternative and use vegan butter or margarine. To add some cheesy flavor, a good pinch of nutritional yeast is highly recommended!
However, the low-fat white sauce for our easy vegan pasta recipe is not made with any flour or butter at all — it’s an entirely whole food plant-based yet really flavorful dairy-free white sauce that only requires a handful of staple ingredients.
Is white sauce healthy?
Most white sauce recipes are not really healthy as they call for white flour, butter, cheese, eggs and dairy milk. None of these are very nutritious and, depending on the amounts used, can be high in saturated fat.
To create a healthy white sauce pasta, there are some simple food swaps needed!
Our low-fat vegan bechamel sauce recipe is allergen-friendly, creamy, inexpensive and so easy to make — combined with some whole grain pasta and veggies of your choice, you end up with a really nutritious meal.
Other delicious add-ons
This vegan pasta recipe is highly customizable, so we wanted to share our favorite swaps and add-ins you can choose from when making your own!
- Bell peppers
- Spinach or kale
- Broccoli or cauliflower
- Zucchini
- Eggplant
- Mushrooms
- Corn
- Green beans
- Carrots
- Fresh tomatoes
- Green onion
- Fresh herbs
- White beans or chickpeas
- Tofu or tempeh
- Vegan mock meats
- Vegan cheese
Tip: use frozen veggies for more convenience!
Try these tweaks
For a super lazy version, just boil your vegetables in the same pot as your pasta and prepare the white sauce ahead of time!
You can even make a baked version of this vegan white sauce pasta by dumping everything into a baking dish, putting it in the oven (perhaps with some shredded vegan cheese on top) and baking it until the top starts to brown.
25+ Vegan Casserole Recipes →
More vegan dinner recipes
Check out the following goodness on our website if you like this vegan pasta dish!
- Healthy Vegan Lasagna
- Cauliflower Buffalo Tacos
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Mushroom Pea Risotto
- Black Bean Meatballs
Did you try this recipe and like it? Be sure to share your experience with us in the comments below and leave a rating. You can also Pin the vegan pasta recipe here and tag us on Instagram if you’ve made it — we’d love to see your creations.
Ingredients
- 8.8 oz macaroni pasta dry (250 g)
- 1.5 cups broccoli florets 240 g
- 1 red bell pepper de-stemmed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 orange bell pepper de-stemmed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup corn kernels 165 g
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas 165g, drained
- 2 cups fresh spinach 60 g
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 yellow onion diced
For the white sauce
- 2 cups soy milk unsweetened (480 ml)
- 4 tsp cornstarch
- 1 cup vegetable broth 240 ml
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp dry oregano
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1-2 tsp salt
- Freshly ground white pepper
To garnish
- Red pepper flakes
- Nutritional yeast
- Vegan parmesan
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, then drain (saving ½ cup of the cooking water) and set aside.
- Meanwhile, make the dairy-free white sauce by putting the soy milk in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Mix the cornstarch with vegetable broth in a small bowl, then add it to the warm milk in the pan with the rest of the sauce ingredients.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until it starts to thicken and turn into a smooth, creamy sauce.
- Let’s move over to the veggies! Add the diced onion to a large non-stick skillet and sauté for a minute over medium heat. Add a spritz of water or vegetable broth and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until translucent.
- Now, add the chickpeas and the rest of the vegetables except for the spinach and keep cooking for another 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.
- Add the pasta and spinach to the rest of the veggies, stir to combine, then pour the sauce over everything and mix thoroughly.
- Add two or three tablespoons of the pasta cooking water, as the pasta will absorb moisture.
- Finally, divide into serving bowls, garnish with red pepper flakes and nutritional yeast and serve warm.
- Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2-3 days. Keep in mind that it will thicken over time, so make sure to add a splash of dairy-free milk when heating the pasta up again.
Notes
- For a quick & dirty version, cook your veggies in the same large pot together with the pasta for a few minutes, then drain everything and add the white sauce.
- Feel free to choose any pasta you like from whole grain to gluten-free or legume-based.
- You can pick any plant-based milk when creating the vegan white sauce. Or try this high-protein bean-based cheese sauce!
- Find ideas for what else to add to this vegan pasta recipe in the article! You can also choose mixed frozen veggies for some more convenience.
I didn’t know how much i needed this recipe until i saw it, haven’t made it yet but i can already smell and taste this wonderful white sauce pasta, love love love????????????????
Tried this tonight and it was hearty, healthy and nutritional but I would’ve liked to see more attention to seasoning the veggies and creamier sauce. Following the directions to a T, this didn’t come out as I’d hoped with very little sauce for all the veggies it calls for and a bland dish overall.
thanks so much for the feedback, super helpful! I personally use almost no salt when cooking for myself and everyone’s used to a different level of seasoning — I’ll keep that in mind :)
I made this today and was very delicious, I will be making it again! Thanks for the recipe!
happy to know, thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Alena,
I am Louise, fellow vegan blogger. Such a beautiful blog you have created!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that we loved this Pasta so much that we have included in a “Best Vegan Pasta” round up.
I wrote a little text to accompany the recipe, and included two links back to you :-) (number 26, no particular order).
Hope to stay in touch with you!
Warmest regards,
Louise
Hi Lousie,
how lovely of you to reach out to me here! I’ve seen your blog around and am really happy to know that you featured our white sauce pasta :)
Be sure to stay in touch, I’ll pin the article now!
Best wishes,
Alena
I will probably be making this dish. It sounds easy and nutritious. I just have one question, a question which arises frequently for recipes. I love chickpeas (garbanzo beans) so have no problem adding them anytime to a recipe. In the ingredients list you say “1 cup chickpeas, cooked & drained (165 g).” Is it 1 cup of chickpeas dry weight and then cooked, which would produce about 2 cups of cooked chickpeas, or is it 1 cup of cooked chickpeas? I am very often confused when it comes to peas and beans. So many people say 1 cup of beans cooked, when they really mean 1 cup of cooked beans. Some recipe writers don’t realize there is a difference here.
The recipe sounds really good, so I am looking forward to making it.
thank you so much for pointing this out, Jeanette! In my recipes, I always use cooked (canned) beans, unless I write “dry chickpeas” or “dry lentils” and it will be included in the instructions that one needs to cook them.
How about I change the writing to “1 cup cooked chickpeas (165g), drained”
Enjoy the white sauce pasta dish!
what kind of milk could I swap out with Soy? We dont do soy here but would love to try this recipe!
Hi Jolene,
try coconut, almond or oat milk! They all have a slightly different taste and nutritional profile, so it’s up to you which one you prefer :)
I was excited to try this easy and affordable recipe, but it didn’t turn out as great as I excepted. I used frozen veggies to make this more affordable for me and I don’t think this altered the recipe that much. I made more pasta than the recipe called for and I wish I made more sauce. The sauce did not really have much of a presence in the flavor aspect of this recipe. My boyfriend and I ended up adding tomato sauce and a tofu spinach pasta sauce I made previously. Althought I appreciate the affordability and nutrition in this recipe, it was quite bland by itself.
Alena, thanks you so much for you work in providing so many nutrious recipes. This recipe has a good representation colors, along with good carb and protein counts. It is relatively low in sodium, and I added a teaspoon of sea salt to liven up the flavor a bit as it is a bit bland before adding the garnishings. As mentioned in a prior comment I would double up on the sauce ingredients, as one serving make approximately 21 oz of food, and perhaps try adding a bit of tomato sauce to the recipe for more zest. Overall a 4 star recipe.
thanks so much for your in-depth feedback and review, William! I’ll be sure to make this recipe again soon and update accordingly :)
I did follow the recipe, just eliminated the corn, and no one in my family enjoyed this dish.
I just made this recipe tonight for my little family and added more broccoli but kept everything else the same. We enjoyed it! I feel like the amount of sauce was perfect. It wasn’t heavy but was comforting. I’ll definitely make this recipe again.
aww that is fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing Elise — we love this dish as well :)
I just made this. It is absolutely amazing. I love the bounty of veggies and the colors and the taste!!! Yummy!!!
aww thanks so much for the lovely feedback, Janice! This humble pasta dish is one of my all-time favorite dinners :) Glad you like it, too!
My family loved this. So pretty with all the veggies. We did add more garlic salt. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
so great to read, Stephanie! Yay for enjoying a simple and healthy dish with the whole fam :) not always easy to find a recipe that works for every eater. Best wishes!