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A close up of broccoli pasta with grated cheese and chili flakes.

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4.6 from 11 reviews

Creamy Broccoli Pasta

Recipe by Veronika Sykorova

This broccoli pasta can be made in just 30 minutes, it's simple yet fancy, and it can be made vegan and gluten-free!

  • Total Time30 minutes
  • Yield3-4 1x
  • DietVegetarian

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 large head of broccoli (or approx. 400g frozen)
  • 250g pasta (any kind works)
  • 1 tbsp avocado oil (or other cooking oil)
  • 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (makes about 1 cup)
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 cup milk of choice (I like cashew milk)
  • 1 cup grated pecorino cheese (or parmesan)
  • A squeeze of lemon (approx. 1 tsp - 1 tbsp)
  • Freshly ground pepper to taste
  • Chili flakes (for serving, optional)

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  2. Add the broccoli and cook for 5 minutes. If using frozen broccoli, you might need a little longer to bring it back to a boil but frozen broccoli is usually already blanched so it doesn’t need to be cooked as much, just heated up.
  3. Take the broccoli out and bring the water back to a boil (add more if needed) and cook the pasta in it according to the package instructions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water and drain and rinse when soft.
  4. While the pasta is cooking, heat a pan over medium-high heat and add avocado oil.
  5. Add the chopped yellow onion and cook for 5-7 minutes until translucent. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.
  6. Lower the heat to medium and pour in the milk. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  7. Add ½ cup of the pecorino cheese and a squeeze of lemon, and stir to melt and combine.
  8. Add the broccoli and pasta and toss gently. Let them warm up and add pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce.
  9. Serve with more Pecorino, pepper, and chili flakes if desired.

Notes

Salt: I only add ¼ tsp to the onion (this helps the onion to release water, soften, and cook better) because Pecorino is a very salty cheese. If you’re using parmesan or no cheese, I recommend adding more salt.

No cheese: If you want to keep this dish vegetarian or vegan, use nutritional yeast instead of Pecorino. I recommend adding 2-3 tbsp to the sauce and adding more to taste.

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Category: Pasta
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

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Find it online: https://thehealthfulideas.com/creamy-broccoli-pasta/