Vegan Chili Pasta with Veggies

Step 1

Make sure your veggies are chopped/prepared at the beginning, as the sauce comes together pretty quickly.

Step 2

Bring a large pot of water to boil for your pasta. Adding a lid will make it boil faster. Make sure to salt the water well so the pasta is well seasoned.

Step 3

Add the onion and broth to a large sauce pan over medium heat. Once it begins to simmer, cook 5 mins and then add the zucchini and just 1/4 teaspoon of salt at this time. Stir well and cover. Lower the heat to medium-low. It's important to cover the zucchini so it cooks through well.

Step 4

Cook about 8 minutes until the zucchini is tender (no longer crunchy), but not mushy. Check a couple of times to stir it and make sure there is enough broth to keep the zucchini cooking. Add a bit more only if needed. You basically want most of the liquid gone though before the next step.

Step 5

Once the zucchini is tender, remove the pan from the heat and add the 1 cup cashew milk (or coconut milk), tomato sauce, Italian spices, chili powder (start out with 2 teaspoons if sensitive-I used the full 3), nutritional yeast, 3/4 teaspoon salt, pepper and liquid smoke (if using). Stir well.

Step 6

Return back to the heat over medium heat and add the spinach. The spinach will look like a ton but will decrease significantly. Cook and stir the spinach continuously until it cooks down and the sauce thickens just a bit. You don't want to overcook the sauce, you want it fairly creamy/saucy but it should be creamy thick, not watery.

Step 7

Taste the sauce and add more salt or chili powder if desired for more spicy. I used the full 1 tablespoon chili powder and loved the perfect kick of heat and chili flavor. Remove from heat.

Step 8

The pasta should be done. Drain and scoop in desired amount of pasta into the sauce, leaving plenty of sauce to enjoy. Devour! How much you end up with will depend on how much pasta you add, but this makes a good amount of sauce.