Spinach Pasta with Roasted Broccoli & Bell Pepper
This healthy vegetarian spinach pasta features roasted vegetables tossed with light balsamic sauce! Recipe is easily vegan and gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 12, 2024
Would you look at that? I made Christmas-colored pasta, completely on accident. I’m on a perpetual roasted broccoli and red bell pepper kick, you see, and got a hankering for some hearty pasta.
Here, freshly roasted broccoli and bell pepper collide with lots of delicious sautéed spinach, my favorite whole wheat linguine and some balsamic vinegar. Toss all that together with some magical reserved pasta water for a light, silky sauce, and we end up with high-contrast Christmas pasta. I love it.
This spinach pasta recipe is highly adaptable. Feel free to change up the roasted vegetables—just use whatever you have around, cut to similar sizes and roasted until tender. Or, skip the roasted vegetables for a very simple but very flavorful and hearty spinach pasta.
The recipe is easily made vegan and/or gluten free, and the leftovers are great, whether served chilled, at room temperature or warmed again.
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments. I’m always so eager for your feedback, and hope you love my recipes!
Spinach Pasta with Roasted Broccoli & Bell Pepper
This healthy vegetarian pasta features loads of spinach and roasted vegetables tossed with light balsamic sauce! Feel free to change up the vegetables or skip them completely for a simple, hearty spinach pasta recipe. Recipe is easily vegan and gluten free (see notes). Serve with a green side salad for a complete meal. Recipe yields 4 large or 6 more modest portions.
Ingredients
Roasted vegetables
- 1 large bunch of broccoli (about 1 ½ pounds), florets removed and sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into 1-inch squares
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt
Spinach pasta
- 8 ounces linguine or spaghetti (whole wheat if desired)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 shallot bulb, sliced very thin (about ½ cup, sliced)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 12 ounces baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
- Optional: 1 ounce finely grated Parmesan cheese* (about ¾ cup, grated), plus extra for garnishing
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To prepare the roasted vegetables (optional, skip for a more simple spinach pasta): Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup. Transfer the sliced broccoli florets and bell pepper to the prepared baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss until the vegetables are lightly coated in oil (add a little more olive oil if necessary). Sprinkle with salt, arrange the vegetables in an even layer and bake until the broccoli is tender and caramelized on the edges, tossing halfway, about 25 minutes.
- Once the vegetables are in the oven, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta just until al dente, according to package directions. Before draining, carefully reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain and return the pasta to the pot.
- To prepare the balsamic spinach, in a large Dutch oven (my 5.5-quart Le Creuset is perfect here) or large sauté pan over medium heat, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil until shimmering. Add the sliced shallot, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring frequently, until the shallot is translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 20 seconds. While stirring constantly, add several big handfuls of spinach at a time until they have wilted, then repeat until all of the spinach is in the pot. Once the spinach has reduced a bit but is still bright green in parts (this happens quickly!), pour in the balsamic vinegar and remove the pot from heat.
- In your Dutch oven or in a large serving bowl, combine the roasted vegetables and cooked pasta with the spinach mixture. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil and optional Parmesan. Drizzle in about ⅓ cup reserved pasta cooking water and gently toss to coat. Season to taste with additional salt (mine needed about ½ teaspoon more) and freshly ground black pepper. Divide into bowls and serve immediately, with extra grated Parmesan on top for bonus presentation points.
Notes
Change it up: Skip the roasted veggies for a simple weeknight pasta that’s full of greens, or change up the vegetables used.
Make it vegan/dairy free: Use olive oil instead of butter and omit the Parmesan. This pasta is great without the Parmesan, but you could add a light sprinkle of nutritional yeast for some cheesy flavor, if you’d like. Another option for extra savory flavor would be to add about ⅓ cup freshly toasted pine nuts or sliced almonds.
*A note on Parmesan: I always get a few comments on recipes that include Parmesan (“It’s not vegetarian!”) but Whole Foods actually makes a great animal rennet-free Parmesan. There’s plenty of flavor in here without the Parmesan, if you’d rather leave it out.
Make it gluten free: Choose a good gluten-free pasta (DeLallo makes one!).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
The garbonzo bean sundried tomato one sounds lovely
This looks delicious! Definitely trying this soon!
I Love yoir blog! I’ve already made several of your recipes. My favorite is the asian noodle salad!
I’m not a big fan of whole wheat pasta but hoping this recipe will conver me!
I was just in this store yesterday! Their cookware is so perfect!
This pasta looks delicious; looking forward to trying it!
Great Recipe and blog!! Love the easy to follow recipes and easy weeknight meal ideas. Looking forward to trying the Tangy Salad Savers!
Great giveaway and those flavor a all look good.
Looks delicious!
I’ve never had any of these sauces, but they look interesting
Can’t wait to try this dish AND the feta SaladSavor!
The sharp Asiago Salad Savor sounds delicious, but honestly they all do!
Omg! This looks so delicious! I can’t wait to try this pasta at home! I’m looking forward to trying the Sharp salad toppers!
I would try either the feta or the tangy beet flavor. Thanks!
I would try Fresh or Crisp!
I would definitely try the feta…what could be betta?
this looks soo good! I have never heard of these salad savors before but I’ll have to look for them. cheddar and apple sounds great!
I will be pinning this for later!
I’m a suck for anything goat cheese (and cranberries, really!). I usually do almonds, but walnuts will be an excellent change!
The apple crisps ones – yum!
Loving the way a salad with goat cheese sounds right now. Happy Holidays!
This recipe sounds delicious. As for the saladsavors, I’d love to try the zesty feta. Yum!
Great recipe. I love pasta!
Very versatile!
I want to try the Pecan
Wow what a great giveaway!
goat cheese!
What a lovely holiday dish and giveaway!
such a beautifully colorful pasta dish and gorgeous photos! i’ve been kind of obsessed with this dried tomato / goat cheese ravioli at trader joes this month so the fresh goat cheese flavor is the one i’d like to try most :)
Mmm. Torn between Sharp and Crisp. I love artichoke-anything but the cheddar/apple combo is always a favorite. Good to know DeLallo makes a GF pasta too, cause that’s our road! Thanks!
I was visually drawn to this because of it’s freshness amidst all the heavy holiday foods!
Love this blog and have LOVED every recipe I’ve made so far. As for SaladSavors – never heard of them but now I want to try the Crisp flavor for this recipe!
I can’t believe I’ve never seen these before. The Cheddar and apples look delicious! I’ll be scouting my local market for sure.
All your recipes always look so yummy! I can’t wait to try this one as well!
I really want to try the gorgonzola, dried pear, and toasted almonds! Never knew such a thing existed but I want to try saladsavors now :)
Yum! The cheddar/apple one looks great!
Tangy is usually my direction, though Bold could easily sway me!
This looks great!
The Crisp salad savor looks great! Never seen these before but would love to try them.
A wonderful pasta dish for my gluten free friend. I would top with the Feta cheese, lives and sweet pepper mix. Also pick my own spinach from my aquaponic garden.
I love asiago cheese on salad so I would love to try that flavor!
Sounds delicious – I’ll have to look for the Crisp flavor in my grocery store! Love the colors of the pasta.
I would like to try the cheddar and apple!!
Thanks for the giveaway! I think I will definitely be trying one of those salad toppers for a quick dinner fix. Bold Gorgonzola looks like the winner!
Yum! The feta and olive look great!
I found your blog this summer when I was looking for new recipes to try with the veggie bounty from CSA. Every recipe w/o fail has been great! Thank you for all of the wonderful recipes, not to mention the giveaway. I would be inclined to try the apple/cheddar
My Salad Savors choice would be Crisp White Cheddar. Can’t wait to make this recipe!!
The feta cheese olives and peppers salad savors
White cheddar with apple chips sounds amazing
I’d like to try the Fresh Goat Cheese SaladSavor over a bed of spinach and arugula!
The Feta Calmata Olive sounds so yummy! Thanks for such a
wonderful give-a-way. I love all the colors they have for Le
Creuset. What a dilemma!
Mmm, Asiago for sure!
I love all of your recipes and this one will definitely go on my to do list! Yum.