Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Black Pepper Chickpeas. Elbows pasta in roasted red pepper sauce with crisp black pepper thyme Chickpeas and fresh Basil. Vegan Soy-free Recipe. Can be gluten-free with gluten-free pasta.
Pastas are dinner savers on days when I need some comfort food. Easy, creamy, filling.
This pasta has a simple roasted red pepper sauce and pasta of choice. Topped with peppery herbed chickpeas and fresh basil, the flavors come together amazingly. Crisp up the chickpeas on a skillet or in an oven. Meanwhile cook the pasta, blend up the sauce, combine and bring to a boil. Add veggies if you like. Serve loads of pasta with a good helping of the chickpeas.
More pastas from the blog
- Pumpkin Sage Pasta with pumpkin cream sauce and crisp Sage
- Black pepper Mac and Cheese
- Chickpea Chorizo, Quinoa shells in tomato sauce.
- Zesty Pesto Pasta with chard and zucchini
- Spinach Penne in Chipotle Habanero cream sauce
- Ziti Cheddar Brussels sprouts bake
All that gorgeous color! Let me know in the comments what you’d like to see more of in November. Soups, Holiday Mains, Cookies!
Roasted Red pepper sauce lightly adapted from Isa’s Roasted red pepper pasta.
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Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Black Pepper Chickpeas
Ingredients
Black pepper Chickpeas
- 1 tsp oil
- 15 oz (425.24 g) can chickpeas drained, washed
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) freshly ground or coarsely crushed black pepper
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) or more salt
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) dried rosemary
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) dried sage
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) garlic powder
Roasted red pepper pasta
- 10 oz (283.5 g) mac or other pasta
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ cup (80 g) finely chopped onion
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1.5 to 2 roasted red peppers
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) garlic powder
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) ground mustard
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) each of dried thyme oregano
- 1 tbsp or more nutritional yeast
- salt to taste
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) black pepper
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup (32.25 g) cashews soaked for 15 mins if needed
- 1.5 cups (375 ml) water
- Fresh basil
Instructions
Make the crisp chickpeas:
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chickpeas, spices, salt and herbs and toss well. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes until crisp on the edges. Stir occasionally. Taste in between to adjust salt and pepper. I like the chickpeas just lightly crisped on the stove top.
- You can also toss everything in a bowl with an additional 1 to 2 tsp oil and bake at 400 degrees F / 200ºc for 20 minutes or so until crisp.
Make the Pasta:
- Cook the pasta according to instructions.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent.
- Add half of the cooked onion garlic mixture to the blender. Add all the ingredients roasted red peppers through water and blend until smooth. Add to the skillet and bring to a boil. At this point you can add in some veggies(chopped small) if you like.
- Taste and adjust salt and heat. Add more salt, a pinch of sweetener if needed. I usually add in some more fresh black pepper to the sauce.
- Fold in the cooked pasta and cook for a minute. Cover and let sit for a few minutes.
- Serve garnished with crisp peppery chickpeas and loads of fresh basil.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Asha
This was easy and so flavorful! I was in a rush when I made it so so didn’t try the crispy chickpeas and instead just threw them into the sauce along with some steamed greens. I’m sure it’s even better with the crispy style and will try that next time. Great recipe- thank you!!
Vegan Richa Support
let me know how the crispy version turns out =)
Susan Curtzwiler
Hello Vegan Richa,
I hope this is the correct box to talk about my version of Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Black Pepper Chickpeas. I’m calling it my version because I had to make several modifications to utilize my leftovers.
I used 1/2 of a green bell pepper stuffed with chick peas and rice with several spices, most likely cumin, kosher salt, black pepper, a little fresh chopped oregano leaves, chopped yellow onion. I made this a few days ago.
Tonight, in a heated cast iron skillet, I added extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 chopped yellow onion, a dash each of black pepper, paprika, cumin, ground red pepper (cayenne), kosher salt and let that mix and get heated. I didn’t have tomato paste or dry mustard – used some ketchup and regular mustard. Chopped fresh oregano – about 5 small leaves. When that was all mixed, I added the stuffed pepper to the mix of seasonings, cut it up and mixed everything together. It looked dry, added the water. I didn’t really have enough pasta, so added some frozen green peas. Also I had some brown sauce that is spicy and sweet from “Veg N Chaat” restaurant near me. Sorry, I don’t know the name of it, pretty good though, in moderation, it is a little spicy.
I didn’t put things in a food processor (don’t have one); therefore, I didn’t get a creamy texture. Still, it was tasty, though a little dry.
Vegan Richa Support
sounds excellent! thanks – good to know
Renae
I’ve made this a couple of times now! The first time I roasted the chickpeas in my air fryer without oil and added 8 oz mushrooms to the dish. The second time I made it with cannelini beans and added spinach and mushrooms to the dish. Really great. Thank you.
Vegan Richa Support
awesome! you can have so much fun with pasta
Sabrina
Is there something I could substitute for the cashews? My husband can’t eat nuts.
Richa
pumpkin seeds, non dairy cream(soy, coconut), or use a mix of flour roux and some boiled blended cauliflower.
Sabrina
I noticed after I posted this that you had that in the recipe notes. Thanks for the quick response anyway! I’m excited to try this!
Mars63
What do you do with the other half of the fried onion/garlic?
Richa
its still in the skillet, so combine the sauce with it.
Mars63
That’s what I ended up doing. Yet another lovely recipe. Thank-you!
Karen Kress
OMG! I made this recipe last night and it was incredible!! Awesome Comfort Food Goodness!! and so easy to make… My husband love it too!!! One of my new go-to recipes for a quick yummy meal! Thank you for sharing!!
Hema
Can I make the sauce ahead of time and store for a couple of day?
Richa
yes make just the sauce and refrigerate for upto 3 days. To serve, boilt he pasta, mix in the sauce to bring to a simmer and top with toppings of choice.
AV
I made your dish recently – some pictures of it are here: https://tmifood.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/creamy-red-pepper-pasta-with-chickpeas/
Cat
Hi sorry I’m late to the party! Can I sub the cashews with another soaked nut? Maybe almonds?
Richa
macadamia. or use a combination of almonds and flour to thicken.
Carol S.
Another Grand Slam, Richa!
I added the juice & zest of a lemon plus 2 Tabs of tahini to the sauce. So DELICIOUS!
Thank You, again for a great dinner. This is the best mac and “cheeze” ever!
Richa
thats a great addition. I will have to try it.
Sylke
That’s a good idea! I made this today and my son kept saying, it doesn’t taste enough of tomato, maybe the added tang would change that as it makes things fruitier. I added smoked paprika powder when I was eating as I was also missing something stronger tasting. If I make this again, I‘ll add the smoked paprika to the chickpeas, that should work really well, and the lemon juice to the sauce.
Kathryn
This sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing, definitely need to try it out 🙂
Kathryn | nimblenote.blogspot.com
Jennifer W
I don’t normally eat a lot of pasta, but this was delicious! I went back for a third helping. ???? I think I’ll make up a batch of the sauce on Sundays to throw on pasta or veggies throughout the week. I hit the wrong setting on my pressure cooker, so my chickpeas weren’t cooked in time, but I’m sure they’ll make a good late night snack. I love the versatility and allergy-friendly options of your recipes!
Richa
Awesome!
Laurel
Can I use jarred roasted red peppersfor this recipe?
Richa
yes you can
Marissa
I would like to see some more recipes for snacks or meals for on the go.
Cindy
I just made this and it was delicious! Especially the chickpeas!
Richa
Awesome!
Mary
It looks so delicious! In this cold weather, it’s exactly what I need 🙂
Livio
Lovely Recipe! I made something similar last week but with sweet peas on top , I will definitely try it with roasted garbanzos
Amanda
Is “tomato puree” tomato paste?
Richa
yes
Jlietta
Actually, it is not the same. Perhaps that is what is meant for this recipe, however in the stores tomato puree and tomato paste are different. Tomato paste is much thicker.
Sylke
Being in Europe, I usually replace tomato paste with tomato purée (the heavily concentrated stuff) as I understood that’s the same. I have never seen tomato “paste” in British or German shops. A thinner tomato product would be passata but that would be way too thin in this context.