This Garlic Lemon Butter Primavera Pasta will make you change the way that you look at vegetarian pasta. It has a nice subtle lemon taste, it has a creamy buttery taste and a fresh light flavor. It’s simply delicious for something vegetarian.

What’s the first thing that runs in your mind when you see a vegetarian pasta in the menu, or when someone offers it to you?  I have I admit I was not a fan of vegetarian pasta myself until I started enjoying meatless dishes. I understand why we all love meat pasta, they are delicious, flavorful and filling and maybe because meat pasta is one of the first basic pasta that most of us learn to enjoy. 

What is Pasta Primavera?

Pasta Primavera is a type of pasta dish that consist of pasta and fresh vegetables. It’s more like a vegetarian pasta with highlights being on the vegetables. It is usually characterized by a light refreshing flavor from herbs and spices rather than heavy tomato or cream based sauce. Different assortment of vegetables can be mix and match, the like of bell peppers, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, squash, carrot, asparagus are just among them, but you can play around and use the vegetables that you like. The same goes with the type of pasta noodles, you can use spaghetti, fettuccine or any big shell pasta noodles.

How To Make Your Pasta Looks Appetizing

I used to think  that vegetarian pasta are boring and lifeless. It doesn’t look as attractive as the meaty cream based or colorful tomato based version which makes it appealing. I particularly feast with my eyes even before I eat the food, I’m a sucker for a good food presentation.  The dish will have to be attractive and appetizing for me to even give it a try. I guess that normal, right? Do you also feel that an attractive dish has a more convincing power to lure you to eat it? This is true is almost every dish, this is why most restaurant and even more the fine dining restaurant exert so much effort in presentation. The first 3 seconds “wow” factor affects how we look at the dish, our first reaction as soon as the food touches the tables says a lot on how do the initial judgement of the food. But for me, although presentation counts a lot,  the dish should not only look attractive, it should also taste good. These 2 are the main considerations when I make my meatless dishes. I want I let people know that meatless dishes are not boring, and that it can taste good or even better than other meat dishes. It can be flavorful, it can be filling, it can be delicious. Although colorful pasta sauce play a huge role in making the pasta looks more appetizing, with this dish I learned that even a simple pasta like this can taste great. Use colorful vegetables to  compensate for the natural look and color of the pasta, add your favorite herbs and spices, and last but not the least, load it up with generous serving of your favorite cheese. 

In today’s Meatless Monday, let’s do pasta for a change. When you do meatless dishes, you have explore variations in food. We like dishes that goes with rice but I think to make our meatless Monday fun we have to expand our choices and we have to be open to trying new dishes. This pasta is a good start for that, something slightly different but good.

What Vegetables to Use For Pasta Primavera? 

This Garlic Lemon Butter Primavera Pasta in one easy pasta to make. Don’t be restricted with the vegetable choices in the recipe, instead use the recipe as a guide. You can replace the vegetables with any vegetables that you prefer. Open your fridge and make use of  the vegetables that you have, there is no right or wrong combination when it comes to this pasta. As I had mentioned above, bell peppers, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, squash, carrot, asparagus, young corn are just few among the many vegetables that you can mix and match for this recipe.

How to Make Pasta Primavera Sauce

This is one thing that you are going to love about this pasta. Pasta Primavera sauce doesn’t require a large of time to make and that’s because this kind of pasta do not use huge amount of sauce at all. The flavor of the pasta comes from just mixing softened butter, lemon, garlic and spices. The sauce is thicken by adding a generous amount of parmesan cheese. It looks simple, and maybe some people will think it’s boring and lifeless but wait until you have a taste of it. The combination of lemon, garlic, butter and spices made up for the absence of heavy tomato based  or cream based sauce. I especially like the lemon taste in the pasta as it makes the pasta taste lighter and fresher. 

Key Thing To Remember

I feel that I have to mention this as a reminder because I myself kept on forgetting this when I get caught up in the moment of chopping the vegetables. Make sure to cut the vegetables in almost the same size to each other so that they cook at the same time. Bear in mind that the vegetables when added with the pasta will only have 2-3 minutes time to cook, and having the vegetables cut in different sizes will end up having uneven cooking. Some will still be uncook while the others all already soft.

Don’t be deceived on how simple this dish looks, but I am telling you it really taste good and delicious too. You will be surprised when you try it, you will want more. I hope you will give it a go, and if you do, please leave me a note. I always like getting feedback from you.

Ingredients:

• 125g Spaghetti Noodles (can also be substituted with fettuccine or any medium-large size shell pasta)
• 40g Bell Pepper – cut into small pieces
• 70g Zucchini – cut into small pieces
• 50g Broccoli Florets – cut into small pieces 
• 50g Asparagus – hard end trimmed
• 75g Carrots – diced
• 3/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 cup softened Salted Butter 
• 1 clove Garlic – minced
• 3/4 teaspoon Chili Flakes
• 1/8 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil 
• 1/4 cup Cherry Tomato – cut in half
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Note: Ingredients measurements are not strict, use it as a guide and use vegetables that you like or simply double the measurements to make a larger batch.

Instructions:

1. Make Garlic Lemon Butter: Mix softened butter, minced garlic, lemon zest, salt, pepper, chili flakes and dried basil. Set aside.
2. Cook spaghetti noodles as per package instructions. 5 minutes before the end cooking time, drain most of the water and leave only about 1/4 cup in the pan. The amount of  water should just be enough to cook the vegetables. Add the vegetables to the pasta and cook until all vegetables are done. About 2-3 minutes depending on how soft or crunchy you like your vegetables. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon garlic butter, parmesan cheese and cherry tomato. If you prefer the cherry tomato soft and fully cooked, you can mix it with the rest of the vegetables. I find it nicer to have it slightly firm so I add it at the end.

Serves 2 – 3

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Question for you

What is Your Favorite Vegetarian Pasta?

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