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 Zesty SaladSavors flavor sounds great. I’m a sucker with anything with feta in it ;-)
I’d I’d love to win the dutch oven. Would be a great Christmas gift to me!
This recipe will definitely be going on my menu plan for next week! You always have the best recipes! And the beet, Apple, and goat cheese Salad Savor sounds so good!
Love Le Creuset—hope to be lucky!
This pasta dish would be great to make tomorrow before the family members come in for the holidays! I would love to try the Tangy Beets Salad Savors, it seems like we always have fresh greens but never enough toppings for a salad.
They all song great! I would be willing to try any of them! Yum!
Blue cheese.
looks SO good! i would definitely try the feta salad savors
Great recipe! I can’t wait to try it.
Zesty Feta looks good to me
Pasta looks so yummy and healthy. I’ve never heard of Salad Savors before so thank you for the introduction. They all look quite good. My first purchase would probably be the tangy beet!
I love bitter greens with grains, raisins, and mustardy vinaigrette. Yum!
The Sharp Asiago SaladSavors sounds best to me!
This pasta sounds amazing. The Zesty pack looks so good to top a salad with!
Oh man, so many good options with the SaladSavors. But I’ve been on a cheddar and apple kick lately, so I’d love to try those. And this pasta looks so tasty!
Would love to try the goat cheese or glazed pecans.
I’m excited to try this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing. :)
I want to try the goat cheese saladsavor!
They all sound so good but I love goat cheese!
This pasta looks amazing and easy. My fav flavor is the goat cheese or glazed pecan
This pasta looks awesome and easy which is what I need this time of year. The balsamic vinegar is magical.
I can’t have dairy, but I still think the cheddar, almond, and apple one looks delicious! I think my dairy eating husband would devour it!
Glazed pecans!
I used to eat pasta and broccoli as a kid all the time ! This is a great grown up version of it ! Yummy !
Sure, it looks bold and beautiful. A wonderful healthy dinner idea. Looks like a must try for me :-)
I’d love to try the Fresh one. I looooove goat cheese!
YUM! Perfectly colored bowl of pasta for the holidays. I’m definitely adding pine nuts to my version for a delicious crunch!
Can’t wait to try the Vibrant Blue SaladSavor as well.
I’m always looking for ways to sneak in greens. My husband has a “ratio” when it comes to veggies and food. He’s getting better, but still!
This looks amazing! I especially love all of the colors. I bet Asiago would be another great option. And in the side salad, the Sharp Asiago sounds great. I guess I really want asiago cheese! Can’t wait to make for holiday dinner.
I’d try the tangy beets! Love your blog!
I would love to try the Tangy flavor!
I would love to try the asiago cheese one!!
anything with cheese sounds great!
the asaigo, artichoke, sundried tomato sounds right up my alley!
Delicious!
How do you always make everything sound soooo good!? You’re just awesome!! ;)
:) thank you, Grace!
Thank you for all your great recipes :)
Thank you, Marko!
I want to try the goat cheese one for the beet salad. Yummy!
I would love to try the zesty flavor!
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Thanks!
Awesome! Thank you, Barbara.
I made this recipe with eggplant and green pepper as I did not have any red peppers or broccoli. It turned out great! The flavors were amazing. I will definitely be making this again soon!!
Thank yo, Erica! Your version sounds great!
I just started vegetarian and thus is the first recipe I used. Must say it was yum the only difference is I used gluten free penne. Really enjoyed it
Forgot to rate sorry. Can you add to my original comments
I made this last night. Followed the instructions precisely. Divine. I think it’s worth taking the time to roast the veggies. It’s going in my “make again…and again” file.
This recipe is a HUGE winner with my family members who all have a different palette of food preferences (one vegetarian & two meat eaters who are leary of most things vegan. I’m an Italian-American health-atarian and do all of the cooking) I must say that EVERY recipe I’ve tried from your blog– especially the roasted cauliflower lentil tacos, the mushroom risotto, the spinach artichoke enchiladas, to name a few– have been enormous hits, and totally satisfying for even my hard-core meat eaters. Every Cookie + Kate blog is a special gift I look forward to. Thank you so much for your work and can’t wait for the cookbook to come out. I am one of your devoted followers!!!
Thank you so much, Maria! That means a lot!!!
Yummy! I can’t wait to try this recipe. It seems like this dish has a great taste.
I made this today and it was delicious! I used red onion instead of shallot, chilli flakes instead of pepper flakes, and frozen spinach. I can’t wait to try some more! I’ve wanted to go vegetarian for years but struggled to find tasty dishes, even from well known cookbooks. I’m really excited about this, thank you!
Love that you use real ingredients that I have in my kitchen!!!!
THank you!
One of my favorite dishes! This has become a staple in my household! It’s even hubby approved!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was great! I only used 10 oz of spinach and next time I might reduce it to 8 (not a huge fan of wilted spinach). Did not add cheese and it was still wonderful. Thank you for the recipe!
Pretty tasty!
Even my husband like it
Thank you so much for all your yummy recipes!!!
I’ve just finished high school and i was working part time. The hassle of getting home and finding something quick to cook was a nightmare until i came across your website ! This is a dream come true and has shown me that you dont need meat to make a meal filling ! Thank you ❤️ This pasta was so easy and simple, i added carrots and zucchini as an extra ❤️