Red lentil and spinach pasta is a great, cheap and quick comfort food recipe.
This protein-rich and iron-rich pasta sauce is a lovely budget-friendly lunch or dinner option. You can serve it warm or eat it cold as a pasta salad, both ways delicious. It’s simple and quick to make, all you need is a large pot (and an other for the pasta). Red lentil and spinach sauce is also great served on rice, polenta, quinoa or millet, it makes a delicious filling for lasagne and cannelloni, plus it makes one of my favourite breakfasts when served warm on toast with a few slices of avocado.
I promised you cheap and filling meals, here is the next one. In my opinion red lentils are one of the best ingredients for quick soups, stews or pasta sauces. I love that they cook super fast and don’t require pre-soaking. You can spice them in billion different ways, they go very well with most spice combinations. They are also cheap, very satisfying, of course delicious plus have the greatest texture ever. Give them a try!
Red Lentil and Spinach Pasta
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 400 g/14 ounce pasta of your choice (I used GF version)
- 1 cup of red lentils
- 1 large onion
- 2 cups of veggie broth or water
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 tbsp tomato puree
- 4 cups of fresh spinach
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- lemon or lime wedges to serve
- salt, pepper
Instructions
- Prepare your pasta according to package instructions.
- Slice onion thinly, add to a large sauce pan with 2 tablespoons of water and cook for about 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for an other minute.
- Add lentils and vegetable broth, then cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until tender.
- Stir in tomato puree, spinach, nutritional yeast, cayenne, turmeric, pepper flakes, season with salt and pepper, and cook for a few seconds until spinach wilt down.
- Spoon sauce over pasta and serve with lemon wedges. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Vegan
Evi, I’ve soooo been craving the perfect pasta dish. With those amazing red lentils, spinach and spices, I think this is gonna be that dish. I love that you, as always, managed to make an impressive-looking meal out of a simple recipe and cheap ingredients. Well done! Can’t wait for you next post. Cheers!
Thank you, Demeter 🙂
I LOVE red lentils and I’m trying to use more turmeric in my cooking, so this recipe is a winner. Pinned and ready to try. Thank you 🙂
Thanks, Esther 🙂
Protein, vitamins, and deliciousness. What more could you want from a meal? Love it!
Thanks, Linda!
Wow! There is something about the combination of lentils and spinach that makes me smile — such an awesome combo. This pasta looks super flavorful and yummy, Evi.
Thank you, Anu 🙂
I love the combo of pasta and lentils – it’s so comfort and earthy! I think I have always used green/brown lentils since I love its texture. But I think I should try adding red ones to get this lovely creaminess. Well done, Evi!
I absolutely love brown and green lentils too, I’m just too lazy to cook them 😀
Yum! This reminds me of pasta bolognese – only much better 🙂
Hahaha, thank you 😀
Yum. This looks like not only a yummy, filling meal but just all round sustainable, cheap, low fat and really good for you! We all need to be eating more of this. I love red lentils too, they’re so versatile. I usually use them to make dal curry but I will definitely be using them as a pasta sauce base soon! Also, moussaka – really want to try making that out of red lentils!
Thanks, Hannah!
Now you made me super excited, please make lentil moussaka and post the recipe!!!!!! Sounds super delicious 🙂
Lentils are such a favorite around our house too because they’re so cheap and cook fast. This pasta looks great, Evi!
Thank you!!!
Oh this was so delicious! Really unami!
We served it with organic sweet potato buckwheat noodles.
I’m so happy, you like it, Patricia! The sweet potato buckwheat noodles must have been amazing 🙂
Yes it was amazing. Thanks for this great recipe!
Thanks for the sweet comment <3
Super recipe! We loved it! I added a little more water as the lentils cooked as it got dry halfway through.
Thanks for your lovely feedback, I’m so happy to hear that you liked the recipe!
This recipe looks great! Would it be possible to make in big batches and then freeze, or would the texture be wrong?
I’ve never tried to freeze this sauce before, but I’m sure it would work. I would probably freeze the sauce and the pasta separately though 😉
wow, so yummy!
Thanks!
Thanks Green Evi, I love the spinach sauce for the pasta. Next I’m trying lemon sauce for pasta. Your website rocks. Gratitudes for being awesome.
Hey Clare, I’m so glad you liked the recipe! 🙂
If you are looking for more pasta ideas, you can also try one of these recipes:
Sauerkraut Pasta with Smoked Tofu and Walnuts
Hummus Pasta with Asparagus
Simple Beet and Coconut Pasta
Vegan Lemon Miso Pasta (my personal favorite 😉)
Spinach and Caramelized Onion Pasta
Quick Avocado Pasta
Hope you’ll have a nice day!
Making this tonight. So super good and comforting! Best thing about red lentils is that they don`t take long to cook:)
Yes, I appreciate red lentil’s cooking time so much too 😀
I was really excited for this recipe but unless I did a step wrong along the way, which I’ve triple checked everything so I don’t think I did – this recipe was unbearably spicy for me. I can handle a moderate amount of spice but wasn’t expecting a spicy dish based on the description and other comments. If you are making this dish and have a low spice tolerance definitely cut all the spicy ingredient amounts (red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper) in half.
Sorry to hear it was too spicy for you. I always assume people with low spice tolerance adjust recipes to their taste, just like when people don’t like an ingredient they will simply omit it 😉