Creamy Tofu Pasta (with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes)
I adore a creamy pasta sauce. There’s nothing better than twirling some glossy noodles around a fork, flicking little drips of sauce everywhere (the cleaning up afterwards is another matter entirely).
I generally make a cream cheese sauce (because it’s so quick, and I’m lazy), but I thought this time I’d make the sauce using silken tofu instead. And oh my word. It works beautifully. The tofu blends up easily to make a silky, ultra creamy sauce that is honestly just as good as any other cream-based sauce I’ve ever made. I thinned it with a little milk, which could easily be a plant-based milk, if you’d like to make a vegan tofu sauce.
I know cooking with tofu can be a bit intimidating if you’ve not used it before – in fact it’s one of those ingredients that people often turn their noses up at (especially non-vegetarians!). But how could anyone argue with a luxurious creamy sauce, flavoured with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil, garlic and onion, spinach and heaps of black pepper?! It’s absolutely dreamy. I implore you to give it a try before you judge!
⭐️ What Type of Tofu Makes the Best Creamy Sauce?
For this creamy tofu pasta, you’ll need to use silken tofu. It a soft, smooth kind of tofu, which blends up beautifully to make the creamy sauce.
I wouldn’t use firm tofu for this recipe, as it won’t give such a smooth sauce when it’s blended up. Firm (or extra firm) tofu is better diced or sliced, and used for something like baked tofu or teriyaki tofu.
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🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- pasta. Any pasta shape will work well, but my first choice would be any kind of long pasta, like spaghetti or tagliatelle – I love the feeling of slurping up a long piece of pasta in a creamy sauce.
- silken tofu
- onion (half is enough, or one very small onion)
- garlic. I used pre-minced garlic because that’s what I usually have in my kitchen. It’s going in the food processor anyway, so fresh garlic will be just as convenient for this recipe.
- sun-dried tomatoes. These don’t really need any cooking, so they’re perfect for adding straight to the blended sauce, and they bring heaps of flavour.
- spinach. I used fresh spinach, but if you decide to use frozen spinach, thaw it and drain out any excess liquid before adding it to the sauce.
- fresh basil
- milk – just to thin the sauce a little. Use vegan milk if you prefer.
You could add any kind of extra vegetables to this recipe, if you’d like to. Some examples could be:
- grated zucchini (courgette)
- frozen peas
- thinly sliced red peppers
- cherry tomatoes
- sliced mushrooms
Becca’s Top Tip
I liked the fact that spinach and sun-dried tomatoes don’t need any pre-cooking, so you can add them straight into the sauce. If you’re using other kinds of raw veggies, they might need to be cooked off in the frying pan first, before adding the sauce.
📹 Recipe Video
🔪 Equipment
I generally try to avoid using too much non-universal kitchen equipment in my recipes – but to make this creamy tofu sauce, you do need to use a food processor.
My food processor is an old Kenwood that actually used to belong to my Grandma, so it’s at least 15+ years old. I can’t find the same one on Amazon (like I said, it’s old), but here’s a similar food processor on Amazon, which has great reviews:
🖨️ Printable Instructions
Creamy Tofu Pasta
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 1/2 onion
- 1 tsp minced garlic (or 2 peeled cloves)
- 300 g (~ 10 1/2 oz) silken tofu
- 125 ml (~ 1/2 cup) milk (use plant-based milk if needed)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 250 g (~ 9 oz) dried pasta (I used tagliatelle)
- 1 large handful baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 85 g (~ 3 oz / ~ 1/2 cup) sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
- Few sprigs fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Cut the onion into a few chunks, and add it to a food processor, along with the garlic. Blitz until finely chopped. Add the silken tofu, milk, and salt and pepper, and blitz again until fairly smooth. You may need to scrape down the sides of the food processor a couple of times to make sure everything is incorporated.
- In a large saucepan, boil the pasta in plenty of water, until cooked to your liking (approx. 12-14 minutes).
- Meanwhile, transfer the tofu sauce to a frying pan, and turn the heat to medium-low.
- Add the chopped spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, and bring to a gentle simmer. If you have one, you can cover the pan with a lid to prevent it from spitting.
- Simmer the sauce for at least 5 minutes, or until the pasta is ready. This will cook out the raw onion flavour.
- Drain the pasta, and add it to the sauce, along with the chopped basil. Mix to combine – I find it easiest to use a pair of tongs for this, especially if you’re using a long kind of pasta like spaghetti or tagliatelle. Add more black pepper at this point if you’d like to, and / or a drizzle of the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Serve warm.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Sure – just store it in an air-tight tub in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. Reheat it thoroughly in the microwave or in a frying pan (you might need to add a splash of water to loosen it back up), and serve.
As long as you use an unflavoured plant based milk, this recipe is totally vegan.
Thank you for your recipe! Delicious!
You’re welcome! Thank you!
This could have turned out well if the instructions were to gently saute the onion and garlic before blending. I should have followed my instinct to do just that. But I followed the recipe exactly as described and the rawness of the onion and garlic were overwhelming. No amount of boiling the sauce can replace the simple act of first cooking in hot oil. Sadly, as it turned out this was a flop.
Sorry this one didn’t work for you! I wonder if onions are more or less pungent depending on where you are in the world, as they weren’t overwhelming for me at all. Personally I like to make the preparation of a recipe as simple as possible, but if you’d prefer to sauté the veggies first, that would totally work too!