Creamy Garlic Spinach Pasta Recipe - Just toss your favorite Pasta in a creamy garlic sauce with fresh baby spinach and bake with Mozzarella cheese on top. Result - Creamy and healthy spinach pasta with a subtle hint of garlic. This recipe is quite similar to my favorite Creamed Spinach Recipe.
See this recipe for Cauliflower Spinach pasta for some variety.
Wondering What can you do with a lot of spinach? The most basic and the easiest thing to do is to make spinach pasta. You can also make
- Spinach Lasagna
- Spinach and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken
- Spinach Ricotta Stuffed Shells
- Black Bean and Spinach Soup in Crock Pot
- Lemony Chicken Orzo Soup with Spinach
- Spinach Ricotta Orzo Stuffed Peppers
One of the healthiest pasta dishes where you cook everything in an oven-safe skillet and then bake in a preheated oven until the cheese melts.
Easy, peasy, and super-delicious😋
Creamy Spinach Pasta gets its creaminess from cream cheese!
Cream Cheese adds a creamy, and a tarty taste to the overall flavor of this Spinach Pasta.
Besides that, garlic adds a kick of flavors to the mix.
Jump to:
- Ingredients - What is Spinach Pasta made of?
- Instructions - How to Make Spinach Pasta?
- Substitutions
- Variations
- How to Make Vegan Spinach Pasta?
- How to Make Gluten Free Spinach Pasta?
- How to Store Spinach Pasta
- Top tips to Make the Garlic Spinach Pasta Bake
- Is Spinach Pasta healthy?
- More Pasta Recipes
- Recipe
- Creamy Garlic Spinach Pasta Recipe
Ingredients - What is Spinach Pasta made of?
You can make Creamy Vegetarian Spinach Pasta with the following ingredients.
- Pasta (of your choice) - Penne, Spirali, Rigatoni, Ziti, Bow-tie, or any other pasta that you like.
- Butter - I like to use good quality butter. No need to choose unsalted butter.
- Garlic - Freshly chopped cloves of garlic
- Onions - Yellow or white or red onions finely chopped.
- Cream Cheese - You can use cream cheese block (US readers) or cream cheese for tub (non US readers)
- Baby Spinach - Fresh Baby Spinach washed, drained, and rinsed.
- Salt and Pepper - To season the pasta
- Parmesan Cheese - For that fruity and nutty taste, I like to grate fresh Parmesan Cheese at home and then add it to my pasta.
- Mozzarella Cheese - A touch of cheesy mozzarella brings in a delicate touch to this pasta.
See recipe card for quantities.
Jump to RecipeInstructions - How to Make Spinach Pasta?
- Step 1: Sauté Onions and Garlic
Sauté onions and garlic in a skillet with some butter. Allow them to soften over medium-low heat.
- Step 2: Stir in Cream Cheese
Add Cream Cheese and stir with a spatula until it combines well. Cream cheese adds a delicate layer of creaminess and tarty goodness to the pasta sauce.
- Step 3: Add Spinach
Add roughly chopped fresh baby spinach. Make sure spinach is washed and rinsed. Use a spatula to mix it in.
- Step 4: Season with Salt and Pepper
Season your Pasta with Salt and pepper as per taste. At this point, you can add more spices if you want.
- Step 5: Add Cooked Pasta
Add Pasta that has been cooked to al-dente. You can add any pasta of your choice. Use a spatula to combine pasta with spinach and the cheese sauce.
- Step 6: Add Cheese
Take your Pasta off the heat. Add Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese and few slices of Mozzarella Cheese.
- Step 7: Bake and Serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 10-minutes or until the cheese melts. Serve right away.
Not interested in this? You can try these recipes instead:
- Baked Rigatoni Pasta with Ground Beef
- Instant Pot Chicken Parm Pasta
- Instant Pot Crack Chicken Pasta
- Pasta alla Norma Recipe
Substitutions
- Kale - instead of Spinach you can use freshly chopped Kale to make this pasta.
- Gluten Free Pasta - To make this pasta gluten free, just use any variety of gluten-free pasta.
- Meat - Add cooked diced chicken or cooked ground beef or cooked turkey into the mix and make it taste the way you want it to be.
Variations
You can make the following changes to the recipe for spinach pasta.
- Spicy 🌶- add red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper to make it spicy.
- Tomato 🍅 - You can add a can of diced tomato into the mix to make tomato spinach pasta. This is a great combination.
See this Tomato Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta or Creamy One-Pot Fusilli Pasta with Tomato Basil Sauce and you'll know more.
How to Make Vegan Spinach Pasta?
To make this recipe vegan, you need to replace regular cream cheese with vegan cream cheese. You can buy vegan cream cheese from the market or you can learn how to make vegan cream cheese here from Nora Cooks. It's just a 5-minute recipe and I would recommend you make it at home.
Moreover, you'd also need vegan cheese. If you are a vegan, then chances are you might already have vegan cheese stacked in your shelves. If not, then you can easily buy Vegan Cheese from the market.
How to Make Gluten Free Spinach Pasta?
The only way to make Gluten Free Spinach Pasta is to use Gluten Free Pasta. These days there are so many varieties of Gluten Free pasta available in the market. Such as Chickpea pasta or Quinoa Pasta or Soba Noodles and etc. I learnt about these pasta after reading this article by Healthline.
How to Store Spinach Pasta
Yes you can store Spinach Pasta. Spinach Pasta can be easily stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Moreover if you want to store it in the freezer transfer cooled pasta to an airtight container. Don't use tupperware as it is not necessarily air-tight. Wrap the container with an foil or a plastic wrap. Freeze your pasta for 2-months.
Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight. And then warm it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10-minutes or until completely warmed through.
Top tips to Make the Garlic Spinach Pasta Bake
- Use Best Quality Butter to sauté onions and garlic.
- Finely mince garlic so that you get the best taste.
- Cut your onions evenly. This might sound quite basic but it certainly determines the overall taste and look of your spinach pasta.
- Wash and rinse spinach until you see them clean. Take a look at this article by Fine Cooking and learn how to wash spinach properly
Is Spinach Pasta healthy?
Well, not necessarily healthy. But, you can call it healthish. Basically, as you can see from the nutritional information below, Spinach pasta gets all its carbs from cheese. If you want you can skip Mozzarella cheese and make it healthier. But, I don't recommend skipping Parmesan cheese as it is highly nutritious and good for your health.
More Pasta Recipes
- Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella Recipe
- The Simplest Recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta
- Mediterranean Shrimp Pasta
- Kale Pesto Pasta with Walnuts
Recipe
Creamy Garlic Spinach Pasta Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- ½ pound pasta any pasta of your choice penne, bow tie, rigatoni, etc.
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 10 ounces fresh baby spinach washed and rinsed (see blog post if using frozen spinach)
- salt and pepper as per taste
- ⅓ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup Mozzarella Cheese slices
INSTRUCTIONS
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a quick boil over high heat. Add Pasta of your choice and cook until al dente as per package directions.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Melt some butter in an oven-safe skillet over medium high heat. Add finely minced cloves of garlic and sauté over medium heat until fragrant. Add thinly sliced onions and sauté over medium heat until translucent and soft.
- Add cream cheese and use a spatula to mix it in. Whisk until the sauce becomes creamy and smooth.
- Add washed and rinsed spinach. Season with salt and pepper. Toss lightly and cook for 3-4 minutes or until spinach reduces in quantity.
- Add cooked pasta and toss lightly for about 1-minute and then take it off the heat.
- Add Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and few slices of Mozzarella Cheese. Bake for 10-minutes in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F or until the cheese melts. Serve right away.
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