Creamy One-Pot Pasta with Broccolini

This satisfying pasta dish combines all the best ingredients: hearty whole grain rotini, fresh veggies, and a creamy, tangy sauce to tie it all together. The best part? It only uses a single pot for minimal kitchen cleanup. Feel free to swap in any produce that you enjoy to make it a truly customized dish.

Tip: Save a little water from cooking the pasta—the starch in it adds extra creaminess to the finished sauce. To make it gluten-free, substitute gluten-free pasta such as lentil, brown rice, or chickpea pasta.

By Shelli McConnell,

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. dry whole wheat rotini pasta
  • 6 oz. fresh Broccolini, trimmed, sliced lengthwise, and cut into 1½-inch pieces
  • 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 8-oz. package fresh cremini mushrooms, quartered
  • 1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced (2 cups)
  • 1 medium yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and sliced (1¼ cups)
  • ¾ cup slivered red bell pepper
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup cashew butter or tahini
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Sea salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • In a large pot cook pasta according to package directions; reserve 1½ cups pasta cooking water. Drain; set rotini aside.
  • In the same pot, cook Broccolini with ¼ cup of the vegetable broth over medium-high about 3 minutes. Add the next six ingredients (through garlic); cook 5 minutes more or until just crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; add rotini and squash.
  • In a bowl whisk together the remaining ¾ cup broth and the next four ingredients (through mustard). Add to pasta mixture in pot; toss to combine. Add reserved pasta cooking water a little at a time until creamy. Return to heat; heat through. Season with salt and black pepper.

Comments (32)

(5 from 18 votes)

Recipe Rating

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Christal

I like that this recipe is simple. Most time consuming part was prepping the veggies. Cook time is not accurate, just the veggies take 8 minutes (according to the instructions). I was wondering why no nutritional facts are listed on the recipes???

Jennifer

I roasted my veggies in the air fryer oven. I cooked the pasta in the broth and used that liquid for my dressing. By mistake I added the garlic to the dressing mixture and bullet blended it. It had a good flavor though-hubby liked it 😃

Karla

This was most outstanding! I subbed with almond butter instead and added in a lot paprika, extra salt, pepper, and a whole lot of crushed red pepper. Definitely didn't use most od the pasta water. At all. So yummy.

Angie

Nice! I added mote of the flavoursome ingredients like garlic lemon mustard (and I also added a couple of tbsp of miso) as a few people saying it's bland. Turned out very nice. Will make this again with the added ingredients. Do be careful putting in the pasta water. I only needed half what was in the recipe.

Valerie Curtis

I can't seem to lose any weight, so I eat as little fat as possible. How about mashing some white beans in place of the Cashew butter?

Megan Edwards

Hi Valerie, Yes that should work just fine! Let us know how it goes.

Jen

Good but not much flavour. I added pesto to it to give it more flavour.

Cheryl

What can replace the mushrooms with In with the creamy one pot pasta with broccoli dish.

Michele

This recipe turned out “creamy” and rich tasting. I did as another reviewer did and roasted my veggies in the oven while the pasta cooked. I blended the sauce in my magic bullet with the pasta water. Delicious, and my carnivore husband loved it too!

Britta Brand

My hubby and I loved that meal. It was very yummy and delicious. It was creamy and satisfying. I didn’t had to use the pasta water. The broth was enough. I added some more lemon juice which brought the taste nicely out. Will certainly cook it again.

Kelly

I had high expectations for this easy one pot pasta with loads of veggies but i agree with some of the other comments that is was a little bland. It was definitely creamy enough it just needs more flavour and it will be great. I definitely need more quick and easy recipes!

Maralyne

My husband and I are on our first several days of embracing this new way of eating and I selected this recipe because it seemed easy enough and we like all of the vegetables. I went to the grocery store and spent the bulk of my time trying to find tahini, finally asked for help and it took two store employees to figure out where it was located and low and behold it was out of stock. I reached for the cashew butter as a replacement and found two brands - the store brand for $10.99 and an organic brand with a pretty label for about 75-cents more. Both were very small containers containing just slightly over a cup so I selected the more expensive with the nice label. Everything else was easy to find, though I have never used nutritional yeast before, so this was new. I doubled the recipe intentionally so there would be leftovers for tomorrow and the doubled recipe made a very generous batch. I was concerned about all of the oil in the cashew butter since “no oils” is part of the mantra. We ate it and it was okay, but very plain and bland, so I too am wondering what I can do to make this recipe more flavorful.

Karen

Tastier on day 1; average overall.

Lauren

What can I use instead of tahini? Not allowed any oils.

Karen L.

You can find tahini without added oil (for example “Once Again”) or you can make your own - it is just ground sesame seeds.

Jennifer

Maybe I did something wrong, but the sauce was crazy runny and far from creamy. It was still delicious, but next time I will put in far less broth than the recipe calls for. The recipe is unclear about when to add the squash. I like my squash more al dente, so I cooked the other veggies 3 minutes before adding the squash and then cooked it another 3 minutes. That turned out perfect for my taste.

Samantha Mull

This was so good! Also this recipe was easy to make!

SW

Looks great! Tasted great!

Teresa Cancel

Filling but I still added some extra garlic salt to taste

Linnea

My family loves this pasta.

Susan Holmes

What is the serving size

Brad Leeger

Are you supposed to add the pasta water to the sauce little by little, and then put the sauce on the pasta, or add the sauce to the pasta and then the water to the pasta and sauce little by little?

Barbara Monroe

Combine the pasta and sauce and add small amts of pasta water to make it creamier.

Liz

What's a substitute for cashew butter, besides tahini? Is sunflower butter acceptable?

Shannon

I use almond butter and it is delicious!

Minnow

I'm confused about the directions for this recipe, and I'm not sure I'm reading it right. It says "Add the next six ingredients (through garlic); cook 5 minutes more or until just crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; add rotini and squash." When you add the six ingredients, you add the squash. So how can you add the squash when you add the rotini?

Evie

You already cooked the rotini.

Anjie

It SHOULD say "add rotini TO squash"

Novella

Amazing! I was not expecting this to be as tasty as it was. Definitely will be adding this to the weekly rotation.

Lizwiz

Me too! As a non-American speaker, I found the use of the word ‘through’ confusing too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe refer to the ingredients by order before: it only takes an enthusiastic editor to ‘tidy’ the list and it invalidates the whole recipe. So, when do you add which ingredients?

Rebecca Waldron-Geranis

So fantastic! I tried roasting the veggies instead and also put the sauce ingredients in the high powered blender which turned them into a nice thick sauce. I love how I am learning to not use oil! I thought it was always necessary! Thank you, Forks Over Knives!

Cindy

So easy and yummy!! Creamy sauce is very tasty.

About the Author

Headshot of Shelli McConnell

About the Author

Shelli McConnell

Shelli McConnell graduated with a bachelor of science in consumer food science and a minor in journalism from Iowa State University. She began her career as a home economist in the Better Homes & Gardens test kitchen before moving into an editorial position within DotDash Meredith. She has since freelanced for 25 years and has served as an editorial project manager for many books and magazines, including three editions of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book. She has also developed thousands of recipes for publications including Forks Over Knives magazine; Eat This, Not That!; Diabetic Living; Better Homes & Gardens; The Magnolia Journal; and more. McConnell loves to entertain and inspire, so when she’s not in her office, she’s usually in her kitchen. Find her on LinkedIn.
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