Simple Bowtie Pasta with Tomatoes

This yummy pasta dish with tomatoes, parsley, garlic and lemon is bright, fresh, and vegan. It is a simple pasta meal that comes together in the amount of time it takes to boil and cook the noodles, and impresses without requiring a lot of fancy ingredients.

I love this simple bowtie pasta with tomatoes recipe because it is truly so easy, and uses ingredients I almost always have on hand.

It puts to use ingredients I often forget about and need to use up before they go bad. You know when you pull out a carton of cherry tomatoes that are starting to wrinkle? They are no longer looking too great to snack on fresh or throw in a salad, but they are perfect to toss into a warm pasta dish.

If you are someone who doesn’t feel that comfortable in the kitchen and is looking for a forgiving dish and a quick win, then I would totally recommend trying this vegan pasta recipe out.

simple vegan pasta with tomatoes ingredients:

You’ll find the full ingredient list below—but here’s what to expect in this plant-based recipe!

• Pasta (pick your favorite!)

• Cherry tomatoes

• Parsley

• Garlic

• Lemons

• Optional: white wine and/or vegan butter

prep & serving tips:

I know, I know…why is the white wine and butter optional? Truly, I wanted to make a pasta recipe that was as basic as possible, but still packed fresh flavor. So I started with base ingredients and did not include the wine or vegan butter.

Of course, you can add both of these ingredients and love this meal. But I wanted to come up with something that was deliciously satisfying when I can’t get my hands on vegan butter, or I don’t have white wine to spare.

I promise the combination of fresh herbs and lemon add so much flavor, the basic recipe will stand on its own.

If adding lemon to a warm pasta meal is new to you, give it a shot. It’s so fresh and pairs perfectly with the garlic and parsley. This is the perfect throw-together summer meal.

be flexible - ingredient substitutions:

If you’re anything like me, sometimes you’re browsing through recipes on Pinterest simply for inspiration, or confirmation that you can throw together a bunch of stuff you already have in your fridge and pantry and it’ll be a nice-tasting meal. If that’s the case for you right now, I hope this recipe does that for you.

I use about 2 pints of cherry tomatoes in this recipe. Two pints is important for recreating this dish because the juice from the cooked tomatoes is the base for the sauce.

If you’re here looking for inspiration and not a complete recreation of this recipe, then you can get away with 1 pint of tomatoes, I would just make a smaller batch of pasta. Or, you could add in other veggies you have on hand—like asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms (with a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar), peas, fresh spinach, kale—the list goes on. Anything works, friend.

I will say, when it comes to the herbs in this recipe, fresh is best. I consider the parsley an essential ingredient since there are so few. While the pasta meal will not taste the same, dried herbs will work if that’s all you have. Start with a tbsp at a time and taste as you go.

perfect for vegan meal prep

Pasta may not be the first dish that comes to mind when you think meal prep, but I LOVE pasta for meal prep.

This dish will keep well in the fridge, and heats up nicely. I like to pack mine for work with an extra lemon wedge because it wakes everything back up again after reheating.

While I typically meal prep most of my work lunches at the beginning of the week, usually on Sunday, I find that I actually enjoy making this meal for dinner fresh midweek. This dish shines when made fresh, so I’ll cook it on a Wednesday or Thursday night, then save the leftovers for a warm and comforting end of week lunch.

Doing it this way also adds variety to your meal prep menu by adding a new option at the end of the week. It gives you the flexibility to not have every single meal cooked by Sunday evening, and you don’t need to worry as much about getting bored with your options.

I hope you love easy vegan pasta recipe as much as I do! Be sure to follow along for more plant-based goodness on Pinterest and Instagram.

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Simple Bowtie Pasta with Tomatoes

serves: 4

15- 20 minutes to make

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. of pasta (bow ties)

• 1 quart of red cherry tomatoes

• 1/2 quart of yellow cherry tomatoes

• 1/2 cup of parsley, chopped and loosely packed

• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1/4 cup of reserved pasta cooking water

• 1 tsp. italian seasoning*

• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

• salt & pepper to taste

• 1 tbsp. olive oil

• Optional: 1/4 cup of white wine and/or 1-2 tbsp of vegan butter

Instructions:

1. Prepare pasta according to package instructions. Remember to reserve about a ¼ cup of pasta water once done cooking.

2. While pasta is cooking, chop and dice the tomatoes, parsley and garlic.

3. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium low heat.

4. Add tomatoes to your pan and cook over medium-low heat until tomatoes soften and blister—about 5-10 minutes depending on how soft you prefer your tomatoes. Salt your tomatoes at this step, and stir occasionally. If adding white wine, add to pan at around the 5-7 minute mark of cooking your tomatoes.

5. Once tomatoes are ready (they should have released a bunch of yummy juice into the pan), add the garlic and continue to sauté for another minute, stirring frequently. If using vegan butter, add cold butter to pan at this step.

6. Turn heat down to low, and add your cooked pasta to the pan and stir.

7. Add the ¼ cup of reserved pasta water to the pan and stir to combine.

8. Add Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.

9. Once everything is warmed through, add parsley and lemon as the final step. Stir to combine and serve immediately.