A creamy vegetable pasta dish with carrots and zucchini and a delicious cream cheese sauce. Your children will eat their spaghetti with vegetables without any complaints at all.
You will love these creamy vegetable pasta! It is such a simple, easy and quick to make dish, cheap and just delightful!
The perfect middle-of-the-week dish, when you don’t have lots of time to spend in the kitchen, but still want to eat something healthy and comforting. Exactly the time for pasta. And when it’s vegetable pasta it is even better!
What I love most about this dish is that is really kid-proof despite all the veggies. They have no issues with carrots, but zucchini dishes can go either way. They like the zucchini slice or the pan-fried zucchini, but there’s no way I could get them to eat sauteed zucchini with onions, for instance, or other dishes where zucchini are more present.
But every time I make these spaghetti with vegetables, they eat the zucchini without a sound of complaint. No wonder, this dish is so wonderfully mild and creamy, so full of comfort… well, anything we all love about a good pasta dish.
And yes, the pasta has to be spaghetti… all the time. I’ve made this dish with another pasta sort one time and they were not happy.
What do you need?
- Spaghetti. Of course, any other kind of pasta is fine (if your kids allow it).
- Vegetables: carrots and zucchini. When I happen to have it I add some celeriac as well, it has a wonderful flavor that fits this dish perfectly.
- Cream cheese: you can use full-fat cream cheese or lower-fat. I normally go for a lower-fat version with about 16% fat.
- Herbs: any fresh or frozen herbs you like. Parsley, dill, chives, or thyme are all great!
Tips
- I use a vegetable chopper or cutter to julienne the vegetables. You don’t have to, but it speeds up the process.
- You can also cut the veggies by hand. Cut them into long strips, staple some of the stripes evenly, and cut the thin veggie slices. It works fine, but it takes a few minutes longer.
- Cut the vegetables while the pasta water cooks, they will only need a few minutes of cooking time, so they will be ready by the time the spaghetti are cooked.
More vegetable pasta:
Creamy Vegetable Pasta
Ingredients
- 14 oz spaghetti or other pasta
- 1 1/4 cup vegetable stock from a cube
- 3 medium carrots about 250 g/ 8.8 oz
- 1 medium zucchini about 250 g/ 8.8 oz (Note 1)
- 1 cup cream cheese Note 2
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 pinch red chili flakes optional and to taste
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice to taste
- 2 tablespoons fresh herbs (of your choice) Note 3
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or Kosher, to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Cook pasta: Set the water for the pasta. In the meantime, julienne the vegetables. Add the pasta to the pot and set the time according to the packet's instructions.
- Cook veggies: Bring the vegetable stock to a boil, add the veggies, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Make sauce: In the meantime, whisk together the cream cheese and milk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the mixture into the pot with the vegetables. Stir well and cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. If the sauce is too thick, add an extra splash of milk and stir. Adjust the taste with more salt and pepper and some lemon juice. Stir in the chopped herbs.
- Combine: Drain the pasta, add to the creamy pot and stir well to combine.
- Serve: Add Parmesan and stir again. Serve sprinkled with more Parmesan, if you wish.
Notes
- You can replace some of the carrots or zucchini with a piece of celeriac, it tastes wonderful as well.
- You can use either full-fat or lower-fat cream cheese. I usually go for a lower-fat with about 16% fat.
- Fresh or frozen herbs like parsley, chives, dill, or thyme.