Farmer’s Market Pasta! Vegan, summer veggie-loaded pasta with roasted garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and a big dollop of herby walnut pesto. THE BEST.
Farmers’ Market Pasta with Walnut Pesto
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My daughter and I made this for friends last night. We made the recipe as written, using our cherry tomatoes and basil, and store-bought shiitake mushrooms. It was really delicious and I appreciate that it was less expensive to make than pine nut pesto.
Thanks for the vegan recipe! 🙂
Kelly
Here we are, in the thick of summer, and the farmers’ market is buzzing.
Also buzzing: me, after eating a big bowl of (VEGAN) summer veggie-loaded pasta with roasted garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice… and a little (large) dollop of thick and herby walnut pesto that’s borderline creamy and 100% addictive.
This recipe is:
- EASY.
- Vegan!
- Good hot or cold.
- Great as leftovers.
- Meant to work with almost any produce you bring home from the farmers’ market or happen to get in your CSA. Whatever you’ve got… we can work with it.
Farmers’ Market Pasta
First up: we roast those veggies.
Okay, I get it – summer avoidance of the oven and everything. So do you need to roast them? No.
You could grill them, saute them, or just leave them juicy, fresh, and raw.
HOWEVER, the best part about roasting them is that it provides you with a nice opportunity to make a little foil pack for some roasted garlic, and the roasted garlic is kind of next level here, so please factor that into your decision making.
Walnut Pesto
I’ve been a big fan of walnut pesto since way back here, and these last few weeks as I’ve been gorging myself on this pasta, it was so good to revisit this old flame.
It’s like a regular pesto, except with walnuts, and it’s a little thicker and creamier due to a run around in the food processor.
Can you use pine nuts? Can you add Parmesan? Can you skip the garlic? The answer to almost everything is yes. This recipes loves us all.
Pile these all in a bowl together and eat it hot, eat it cold, eat it with the pesto mixed in or dolloped off to the side.
This is summer, people! The rules are happy and loose, and everything will be delicious. ♡
Watch How To Make Our Farmers’ Market Pasta:
Farmers’ Market Pasta with Walnut Pesto
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Farmer’s Market Pasta! Vegan, summer veggie-loaded pasta with roasted garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and a big dollop of herby walnut pesto. THE BEST.
Ingredients
Scale
Farmers’ Market Pasta:
- 8 ounces pasta (half of a box of farfalle, rigatoni, penne, whatever you like)
- 6 cups fresh, seasonal veggies (see notes)
- 3 cloves garlic
- a drizzle of olive oil
- salt to taste
Vegan Walnut Pesto:
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 1/2 cups tightly packed basil leaves (you can sub other greens if you don’t have enough basil)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 very small clove of garlic
- juice of 1 lemon (just use half if it’s really juicy)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Veggies: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Arrange the veggies on a rimmed baking pan. Toss with a little bit of olive oil and salt.
- And Roasted Garlic: Peel your garlic cloves. Place them in the center of a small piece of foil, drizzle with a little oil, and wrap it up. Place on the baking pan. Roast everything for 20-30 minutes (depends on what kind of veggies you’re using). When done, mash the roasted garlic so it makes a paste.
- Walnut Pesto: While the veggies roast, pulse pesto ingredients in a food processor.
- Pasta: Also while the veggies roast, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, toss with oil, and set aside.
- Toss: Toss your noodles with the roasted garlic and veggies. Serve with a scoop of the pesto. Eat it all hot or cold. YUM.
Notes
Veggies: I use about 2 cups cherry tomatoes, 2 cups chopped asparagus, and 2 cups sliced mushrooms. All from the farmers’ market! Certain veggies will obviously cook in more or less time, so play it by ear.
Pasta Doneness: I recommend a softer, more well-cooked noodle in this recipe!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: farmers market pasta, vegan pasta, vegan pesto
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy-ish recipes page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Healthy Lemon Main Dishes Pasta Quick and Easy Recipes Summer Vegan Vegetarian
July 22, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
This is definitely a meal that’s friendly on the metabolism and “healthy” for people looking to [lose weight] and get in a hearty meal fortified with “good solid nutrition.” Thanks again Lindsay for another successful [food blog], and inspiring people to stay on track with “eating right.” 🙂
P.S. Love how you have the string beans, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes paired together in the pan.
Homemade pesto is the best!! This pasta looks delicious!
Hey there , if I wanted to add some chicken , how would you suggest I cook it to add to the recipe ? Sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try!
Some grilled chicken would be awesome in this!
Jenna,
When you get a chance, try Mr. Yoshida’s marinade sauce with grilled chicken. Marinate it before grilling. You talk about some really good finger licking grilled chicken? Mr. Yoshida’s sauce is by far the BEST! 🙂
Wondering what you would use instead of mushrooms? (I have a family that cant stand them!)
Sliced Garlic, Bok Choy, and minced potatoes might make a great supplementation for Mushrooms. You just have to come up with a creative food idea to replace the Mushroom. Your thoughts on this? 🙂
Really any other veggie you like from the farmer’s market! It just replaced with more tomatoes or asparagus.
Hi! Could I use almonds instead of walnuts? How would it change the pesto?
Almonds will work just fine!
i LOVE this! Roasted garlic FTW always 🙂
i make a version of this pesto all the time; i use cooked kale stems to replace some of the basil coz, y’know, waste reduction 😀
This looks really good. I imagine the leftovers being DELICIOUS!
Will give this a try next week when it’s not as hot. I don’t want to use that oven now …
Omg, yummy!
Mariya | https://www.brunetteondemand.com
SO GOOD!! One of my new POY favs. The walnut pesto makes this. Two notes: 425 degrees seemed a little high since I was using baby broccoli and didn’t want to dry out the tops. I adjusted to 350 and just baked the tomatoes a little longer. Also, I’d put another 2 cups of veggies!! I feel like I wasn’t getting as much as I’d like in each forkful. With veggies, the more the merrier anyways!
Thanks, Terry!
made this last night with baby squash and tossed in some fresh corn – delish!
Glad you enjoyed it, Ellen!
this was so good! I used mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes, and some summer squash and it came out great. I should’ve roasted the garlic for a wee bit longer (I did 25 min and the veggies were perfect) to make them easier to mash. I also amended the pesto and used pine nuts and a bit more salt to create a brighter, creamier pesto!
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
I definitely want to try out this recipe! The pesto looks delicious, and I love all of the veggies!
https://alexagmarsh.blogspot.com
This is easy to make and delicious! I will definitely be making this one regularly!
My daughter and I made this for friends last night. We made the recipe as written, using our cherry tomatoes and basil, and store-bought shiitake mushrooms. It was really delicious and I appreciate that it was less expensive to make than pine nut pesto.
Thanks for the vegan recipe! 🙂
I love roasted vegetables and pasta!
I am going to try this.
I tried this recipe tonight and my mind is blown! It is SO good! This is definitely a keeper. I started growing basil this spring and we have so much of it. I loved that I could use a lot of it for the walnut pesto. For the vegetables I roasted cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and yellow onion. For the pasta I used a quinoa and brown rice pasta I got at Aldi and it was perfect.
I served the pasta with a radish, watercress, and lettuce salad.
I really want to make this. I don’t have access to basil except the little packages of fresh at the supermarket. What green stuff could I sub.
Spinach would be a great sub!
Made this tonight, it was wonderful. Used spinach as you recommended. Will definitely be making this again. Thank you so much for this recipe.
This was delicious! I used a mix of cherry tomatoes, summer squash, and carrots for the veggies. I subbed in almonds for the walnuts, because it’s what I had on hand. And I used the whole box of pasta because I sure do love pasta. The roasted garlic really does make this very special. It was a perfect Sunday night dinner and I can’t wait to eat leftovers for lunch this week.
I shortcut the heck out of this awesome recipe! I use pre-made pesto that I’ve frozen in ice cube trays. I cut up the veggies earlier in the day as well as wrapped the garlic. I even cooked the pasta (but saved a little of the pasta water) When I came home, I threw the veggies into the oven. I mixed the pesto with the noodles and a bit of the pasta water and set on a very low burner. Dinner was on the table in 20 minutes, and it was FAB!!!
This was yummy, thank you for posting!
Only problem was that I copied the vegetables in the photo and the mushrooms burned to a crisp of nothingness after 30 minutes lol.
I roasted 20 cloves of garlic in the foil though, and that turned out amazing!
Used kale and almonds for the pesto and it was delicious.
Love this! This looks SO Good!
You had me at pesto! I’m a huge fan of using walnuts to make pesto as it’s so much cheaper (and flavorful) than using pinenuts. Thank you for this delicious recipe!
What a great dinner! Quick, easy and incredibly delicious!
Simply delicious. The pesto and the roasted garlic are the stars of this dish. I added shredded roasted chicken thighs to round out the meal because my husband is a meatatarian. Apparently, it wasn’t necessary. My husband, the consummate meat lover, told me that he’d eat this without any meat in it. I couldn’t believe my ears! What more, it also won the approval of the tiny human! This will certainly be added onto the meal rotation.
For anyone looking to add chicken all I did was add about 4 chicken thighs onto the sheet pan with the veggies, and season them with olive oil and salt like the veggies. Thighs bake at 425F in a half hour so if you have any veggies on the pan that need longer than that I’d remove the chicken at the half hour mark. Once cooled, I shredded the thighs and tossed them in with the veggies and pasta. Shredding some rotisserie chicken would probably work just as well if you don’t want to have to worry about cooking times.
So happy to hear this, Therese! Sounds like it was a win for the whole family! 🙂
Looks delish! I plan to use almonds instead of walnuts and wanted to add Parmesan – how much Parmesan would you recommend?
We’d recommend adding about 1/4 cup. 🙂
Thank you! I’m excited to try it tomorrow!!
Made the farmers market pasta delicious. Cant wait to make it again with different winter veggies. It’s a great dish when your a pinch for time. I also used chickpea pasta as a substitute.
So glad to hear you enjoyed this, Scarlett!
O M G! I just made this for lunch and it is divine! I used the same ingredients you did (I flash froze asparagus this summer) but I used a little of the pasta cooking water instead of more oil. I tossed all with the pesto throughout. So so good. Love your vegan recipes!
Great use of the asparagus you saved from the summer, Dottie! Yummy!