Pumpkin, spinach and walnut spaghetti
Pumpkin, spinach and walnut spaghetti
It’s almost the middle of the week so today’s dish is a no fuss, simple, mid-week supper. If, like me, you always have a container full of roasted pumpkin in your fridge during autumn, you will have your dinner on the table in no time at all.
If you need to roast your pumpkin, you can always do a quick yoga session while your oven does its magic. That’s what I’ve been trying to do lately – incorporate small yoga sessions into any waiting time.
I have a love/hate relationship with yoga. I know I need it as I have the flexibility of a small tank, but because I really suck at it, I tend to procrastinate. My current strategy is to develop a yoga habit (certainly much better than my current chocolate one;)) by finding 20 minutes to practise each day. Waiting for your veggies to finish roasting is as good a time as any. Once you finish, you’ll be in a good mood and your dinner will be just minutes away.
While many people enjoy pumpkin desserts, I’m a sucker for savoury dishes punctuated with this sweet vegetable. Its caramelised goodness goes so well with the flavours of garlic, chilli, spinach, walnuts and lemon that even writing about this makes me salivate. It’s a marriage made in heaven and it’s kind of hard to describe so best make it yourself:).
- 200 g / 7 oz spaghetti (use gluten-free if you are gluten-intolerant)
- 45 ml / 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more if desired
- 2-3 garlic cloves, finely diced
- 450 g / 2 cups of cubed butternut squash / pumpkin*
- 100 g / 3.5 oz spinach
- ½-1 tsp chilli flakes (depending on level of heat and your preference)
- ½ lemon, zest and juice
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 30 g / 1 oz walnuts, finely chopped
- Coat cubed butternut squash in 1 tbsp of olive oil and season with salt. Bake in a 220º C / 430º F oven for about 25-30 minutes, until butternut squash turns soft and gets caramelised. Give it a good stir half way through baking time.
- Heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Fry off garlic gently on a low-medium heat, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn. Add chilli flakes and cook for another minute or two stirring frequently.
- Cook spaghetti for a minute shorter than you would normally.
- Mash half the butternut squash with a fork or potato masher (you can also use a food processor or blender for a smoother texture). Put both mashed and whole butternut squash chunks into the pan with chilli and garlic.
- Add drained pasta and washed spinach into the pan. Incorporate them well into the pumpkin. Taste and season with pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and additional salt and chilli if needed. You may also want to use some extra olive oil, but that’s optional.
- Serve immediately with chopped walnuts and lemon zest on top.
I was for a hunt of another pumpkin recipe and found your fantastic pumpkin spinach and walnut spaghetti. We just added some non-vegan ingredients, fine diced smoked prosciutto and parmesan cheese. It was a really good experience, especially with the lemon juice and lemon zest. I was a bit unsure how that will taste, but I think that makes it.
And it is also good, if vegan friends coming for dinner, its so easy to add things what everybody likes.
Thank you! <3
The pumpkin shrunk a lot after being in the oven and as we loved them we would probably add 1 more cup next time. I had to turn down the temp 20 min and some pieces ended burnt still. But they were still delicious overall 😍. I guess it was because mine were in smaller pieces. would suggest monitoring the pumpkin since everyone may slice them differently and all ovens are different.
Thanks for the recipe!!
I am glad you've enjoyed this - it is one of my personal autumn favourites too. Yes, I concur, you can never have too much roast pumpkin!! Thanks for taking the time to review and rate this recipe – much appreciated! x Ania
My first reaction when I tasted it was how delicious it is! Then halfway through eating it, I realised "oh wait, is this a vegan recipe?" I honestly had no idea.
I'm not of the vegan persuasion myself, but I love finding these 'accidentally vegan' recipes. I think this is one of the best such recipes I've ever found.
Thank you!
That's fantastic to hear, thank you. I am delighted that you enjoyed it so much! Ania
(I used 1/4 tsp of chilli-in-a-jar and it was perfect).
Sure thing, I don't see why not if you enjoy it. I would bake it with pumpkin although it should be done much sooner so make sure you take it off the tray earlier. I would also maybe reduce the oven temperature by 20º C / 70º F to make sure the cauliflower does not burn and extend pumpkin baking time by 5-10 minutes. It is even more delicious with a sprinkle of salt, smoked paprika and nutritional yeast before baking. Hope that helps! Ania
This recipe has staying power! And for good reason: you've been steadily getting comments for 3 years! It is such a wonderful combination of flavors. I admit that the baked pumpkin squares are like candy and the first batch that I baked never made it to the recipe. The second batch was still quickly disappearing before getting them into the mix.
This is one of those great dishes that is so rewarding to share -- if there is any left : )
Thank you so much for sharing!
Catherine
Thx for sharing, I enjoyed it.
Spinach, Sweetness of pumpkin, and a touch of lemon and I put a little bit of cayenne pepper is really perfect !
Thanks for sharing this! :)
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I would like to try your recipe but I don't have an oven :(
What could you suggest to replace this step please ? It looks so yummy !!
Thanks !
What you could do instead is steam, stir-fry (cut it into smaller pieces if you do) or saute pumpkin in some veggie stock (after frying garlic) until soft and until the moisture cooks out. Hope that helps! Ania
I plan on making this tonight it looks amazing. I have some add ins I could try to be
a little more creative but I will let you know how it comes out. You location sounds amazing
to would love to live in the middle of little island:)
Thanks for the recipe I will be in touch
We tried this today since we had a huge pumpkin at home and we loved it! Thank you so much for such easy and delicious recipe. I used kale instead of spinach since I had that at home and it worked fine!
I'm hoping to make this soon, and I just wanted to know if a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top wouldn't be too much (I've got a lot of it at the moment)
Thanks :)
I'm glad to hear that you are planning to make this - hope you'll love it! As for Parmesan, I cannot help you as we are vegan so we don't use it.
Ania
If you want a tiny bit of chilli, simply use a pinch of chilli powder, but if you don't like it at all, skip it altogether :) .
Ive just come across your blog and am loving your recipes.
Want to try this one out on the weekend!
great work,
Emma
Glad that you like the sound of this recipe. Sorry to hear that your partner is allergic to chillis. I cannot think of anything that would be an equally mouth-tingling substitution, I'm afraid. I would simply garnish it with plenty of black pepper once cooked.
Hope that helps a little,
Ania
Hope that helps and please let me know how it turned out!
Ania
I'm guessing Diane, like me, is from the US. Here "pumpkin" is typically used only to refer to a type of orange gourd most easily described as the ones often carved into jack o'lanterns for Halloween.
Questions:
(1). Would this recipe work with the American pumpkin?
(2). My sister introduced me to using spaghetti squash as a replacement for standard pasta. Do you think using both spaghetti squash and butternut squash (or American pumpkin) in the same recipe would work? Or would it clash somehow?
Many thanks!
I'm not sure I've ever had American pumpkin as all I can get here is butternut squash, hokkaido pumpkin and kind of jack o'lantern ones but small. I would say that any firm (with smaller water content) pumpkin would work here so if American pumpkin is like that then it will be fine. I know what you mean about spaghetti squash, but again I cannot buy it here (the issue with living on a small Greek island in the middle of the sea ;) ) so I've never tried. My gut feeling is that you may want to use them for two separate meals as pumpkin spaghetti with roast pumpkin may be a bit too much in one dish! :) Ania