Rich and creamy vegan pasta bake that feeds a crowd AND you can make it in advance so it’s perfect for a dinner party!
Well I never, doesn’t it look exactly like there’s a thick layer of cheese on top of that vegan pasta bake you see before you?
Well it’s not! It’s white sauce. Isn’t that some magic right there?
I wanted to make this pasta bake with a lentil bolognese sauce, but at the last minute decided to mix the bolognese with some cashew cream for a creamy sauce.
And then the creamy pasta is topped with a white sauce that bakes to look just like cheese! It’s too good.
It’s definitely rich. But it makes a perfect meal to feed a crowd.
There are a few steps involved but it’s actually quite simple and the prep for this is only around 70 minutes. Then it bakes for 20 minutes, so the entire meal is ready in 90 minutes.
And if you love this pasta bake then you’ll also love our vegan baked ziti so check that out too.
How To Make Vegan Pasta Bake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Put the pasta on to cook. When it’s cooked, drain it, cover it (to prevent it from drying out) and set aside.
- Prepare your bolognese sauce. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic to a pot with olive oil and fry until softened. Add sliced mushrooms and soy sauce. Cover the pot for a minute and allow the mushrooms to release their water. Then remove the lid from the pot and let the water from the mushrooms cook off a little. Add tomato paste, lentils and chopped tomato. Bring to a simmer. Add a little light brown sugar to balance out the flavors. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Prepare your cashew cream. Add raw cashews, lemon juice, water and salt to the blender jug and blend until smooth.
- Add the cashew cream to your bolognese sauce and mix it in.
- Then add the cooked pasta and mix it all in together.
- Prepare your white sauce. Add vegan butter to a saucepan and let it melt and start to sizzle just a little. Add all purpose flour and stir it in quickly, then add coconut milk and vegetable stock and whisk it in. Then switch to a wooden spoon and keep stirring while you bring it to the boil. Once it boils keep stirring for about another 4 minutes until it’s noticeably thickened. Remove from the heat and add ground black pepper, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast and sea salt.
- Place the pasta and bolognese mix into a 9×13 oven-safe dish and smooth down.
- Pour the white sauce over the top and smooth down.
- Bake uncovered at 430°F for 20 minutes until golden on top.
Ingredient Notes
Bolognese Sauce:
The bolognese sauce is a simple mix of onion, garlic, olive oil, mushrooms, soy sauce, tomato paste, lentils, chopped tomato (canned), a little light brown sugar for flavor balance and salt and pepper to taste.
- The mushrooms – we used white button mushrooms but cremini mushrooms (baby bella, portobellini) would be great too.
- The lentils – we used one 15-ounce can of brown lentils (drained). You can use canned lentils or just use 1 and ½ cups cooked lentils.
This bolognese sauce is totally delicious as is. And if you want to go with it exactly as is, you definitely can.
But I was inspired to make a simple cashew cream and mix it in for a creamy bolognese sauce.
The Cashew Cream:
- The cashews – we didn’t soak the cashews first since we didn’t find it necessary in our Vitamix. However, if you think your blender may struggle with it, then add the cashews to a bowl, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle and leave them to soak for 15 minutes to soften. Then drain and rinse.
The White Sauce:
The white sauce that looks exactly like a thick layer of cheese on top of this vegan pasta bake is just like your classic bechamel sauce, but made with vegan butter, all purpose flour, coconut milk, vegetable stock and then some black pepper, dijon mustard and sea salt added for flavoring and nutritional yeast added for cheesiness!
- Vegan butter – can be replaced with olive oil but we enjoyed the buttery flavor added to this sauce.
- Coconut milk – we used one 14-ounce can (400ml) full fat, unsweetened coconut milk. If you avoid coconut then you can switch this for 1 and ⅔ cups (400ml) soy milk or other creamy non-dairy milk.
- Nutritional yeast – we used nutritional yeast for added cheesy flavor, but you can omit it if you prefer.
Serving Suggestions
This recipe results in a very rich, very satisfying vegan pasta bake that will definitely impress some guests if you had to serve it at a dinner party.
It also serves at least 8 people so it definitely feeds a crowd. If you’re wanting to serve it with some sides then a good vegan salad like a vegan Greek salad or a vegan chickpea salad would be wonderful on the side. Some vegan garlic bread would be great too. And of course lots of good red wine.
Make Ahead
Another thing that makes this a really good choice for a dinner party is that you can make it in advance. So you can get it all ready in the dish, cover it in foil and put it in the fridge and then 20 minutes before you need to serve it, put it in the oven to bake.
So you could literally make it the night before. Perfect for a stress-free dinner party. All you’d have to do on the night is make the salad, pop this in the oven and open the wine.
Now that sounds like the way to socialize!
Storing and Freezing
Leftovers keep really well in the fridge for 4-5 days and can be reheated in the microwave.
It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months if you’d like to freeze it.
More Vegan Pasta Recipes
- Vegan Pesto Pasta
- Cheesy Garlic Vegan Alfredo
- Vegan Cannelloni
- Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Stuffed Shells
- Vegan Lasagna
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Pasta Bake
Ingredients
For the Pasta:
- 16 ounces Penne Pasta (450g) Dry Weight
For the Bolognese Sauce:
- 1 Medium Onion White, Yellow or Brown, Chopped
- 1 teaspoon Crushed Garlic
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 5 cups White Button Mushrooms (480g) Sliced
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- ½ cup Tomato Paste (130g)
- 15 ounce Can Brown Lentils (1 can) or 1 and ½ cups cooked brown lentils
- 28 ounces Canned Chopped Tomato (800g)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
- Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Cashew Cream:
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g)
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- ½ cup Water (120ml)
- ½ teaspoon Salt
For the White Sauce:
- 3 Tablespoons Vegan Butter
- 2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
- 14 ounces Coconut Milk (400ml) Full Fat, Canned, Unsweetened
- ⅓ cup Vegetable Stock (80ml) or Broth
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast (15g)
- Sea Salt to taste
Instructions
- Put the pasta on to cook while you prepare the vegetables for the bolognese sauce. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, cover it (to prevent it from drying out) and set aside.
- Prepare your bolognese sauce. Add the onion and garlic to a pot with the olive oil and fry until softened. Then add in the sliced mushrooms and soy sauce. Cover the pot for a minute and allow the mushrooms to release their water. Then remove the lid from the pot and let the water from the mushrooms cook off a little. Add in the tomato paste, lentils and chopped tomato. Bring to a simmer. Add the sugar to balance out the flavors and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Prepare your cashew cream. Add the cashews, lemon juice, water and salt to the blender jug and blend until smooth.
- Add the cashew cream to your bolognese sauce and mix it in. Then add your pasta and mix it all in together.
- Now prepare your white sauce. Add the vegan butter to a saucepan and let it melt and start to sizzle just a little. Add in the flour and stir it quickly, then add in the coconut milk and vegetable stock and whisk it very quickly to get rid of the lumps. Then switch to a wooden spoon and keep stirring while you bring it to the boil. Once it boils keep stirring for about another 4 minutes until thickened. Then remove from heat and add in the black pepper, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast and sea salt.
- Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C).
- Place the pasta and bolognese mix into a rectangular oven-safe dish and smooth down.
- Pour the white sauce over the top and smooth down.
- Bake uncovered for 20 minutes until golden on top.
Notes
- The cashews – we didn’t soak the cashews first since we didn’t find it necessary in our Vitamix. However, if you think your blender may struggle with it, then add the cashews to a bowl, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle and leave them to soak for 15 minutes to soften. Then drain and rinse.
- Make ahead. If you want to make this in advance then complete all the steps except for baking it in the oven. Keep the dish covered in the fridge and when you’re ready, pop it in the oven to bake. You may need a few extra minutes baking time to account for the dish being cold to begin with.
- Storing and freezing. Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for 4-5 days. It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
Well this worked out really well, the sauce was mega cheesy and even browned properly on top. I guess the béchamel with the coconut milk has plenty of fat content to brown. I switched the recipe up a bit, instead of lentils used a load of finely diced veg (celery, green pepper, leek, aubergine and courgette), added some finely diced fresh chillies and used wholewheat pasta. But the key elements that make this recipe yummy – the cashew nut sauce and the coconut milk béchamel (first on me and it’s killa) are 100% from this recipe (well I only had English mustard but that worked fine). So yes do give this recipe a spin you won’t regret it, in fact the tastiest vegan pasta bake I’ve ever had!
Thanks so much Jo! So glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe would convert anyone to a plant-based diet. The flavor melds are wonderful and the consistency and appearance seem authentically “cheesy.” The second time I made this I used 2 – 8” x 8” dishes so I could bake one to serve immediately and freeze the other. The dish was frozen a few weeks, I thawed it in the refrigerator for 2 days (poor planning on my part!) and used convection bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. It was just as good if not better than the one I baked soon after making. This is a recipe is worth the various steps and extra time to make, especially when it can be made in advance and frozen. Thanks you so much!
Thanks so much Priscilla!
Can I sub oat milk for coconut milk in the white sauce?
Yes sure!
Made this tonight absolutely gorgeous! So indulgent. Added spinach because who doesn’t want more greens in their life! Made full batch and froze a bunch for hubbies lunches … thumbs up from both of us. Will def make this again. Thank you!!
Wonderful! Thanks so much Sarah!
Love this recipe and everything else #lovingitvegan. Replaced the lentils with some frozen peas because that’s all I had and turned out brilliantly!
Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Christopher and so glad you are enjoying the recipes. 🙂
Can I use almond milk instead of coconut milk? Thanks.
Yes that will be fine, but the sauce may be thinner, since almond milk is a thinner consistency than coconut milk.
Made this and it is now one of my favorites. Extremely creamy and very comforting . Delicious!
Thanks so much Pam!
This was pretty tasty! I don’t think I would use coconut milk for the top cheese sauce next time as I could definitely taste the coconut. Maybe a cashew or oat milk instead.
Thanks for sharing Jean!
I can’t wait to try this! I suspect the sauce might separate if it is frozen but I am wondereing if anyone has tried freezing before baking.
Hi Priscilla, I think you could do that! You can definitely refrigerate it overnight before baking, I haven’t tried freezing it in advance of baking but I think it would work, since all the individual aspects of this dish are freezer friendly so I don’t really see why not! Allow some extra time for baking to account for that.
Thank you, Alison! Your recipe is fabulous. I have been searching for a vegan crowd pleaser and this is it. I am going to divide the recipe into one portion to bake and a second to freeze. I will let you know how it works. Thanks again for the recipe and for the quick response.
Gorgeous and indulgent. What a good idea
Thanks Zoe!
The cheesiest plant based pasta bake I’ve ever made. Can’t tell the difference from real cheese. Truly mouth watering
Yay! Thanks for the great review!
This was delicious! We did a few changes, had some beyond meat crumble to replace the lentils and didn’t have tomato sauce so we just used a whole can of tomato paste and some veg broth. It was SO RICH AND CREAMY!! that white sauce is amazingg!! Added some spinach and yum! Will make again. THANK YOU 🙂
Awesome Jen! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, what could we use instead of cashews? My daughter has a nut allergy and all of the creamy vegan recipes seem to involve cashews!
Thanks
The cashew cream is optional, you can make this pasta bake with just the tomato sauce and pasta and with the white sauce topping which is totally delicious as is.
What lentils can we use?
It’s a can of lentils in this recipe. If you want to use dried lentils, then you would cook them first and use 1 and 1/2 cups (which is around 3/4 cup uncooked). 🙂
I never leave comments on recipes but it was so amazingly indulgent that I must tell the world. I made half the recipe for 3 people and we demolished the whole thing. The cashews makes the sauce so creamy and the white sauce with the nutritional yeast tastes deliciously cheesy. Perfect 10/10.
Thank you so much Emily!