Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta
This Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta brings together mushrooms, onions, a whole bulb of roasted garlic and baby spinach in a vegan cream cheese sauce. The vegetables cook in the oven while you boil the pasta separately. Save some pasta water before draining: it helps bring the sauce together at the end.
A note on vegan cream cheese: brands behave differently in the oven, and some melt right into the vegetables. If you’re unsure how yours holds up when baked, I recommend adding it after baking. Stir it into the hot vegetables with the mashed roasted garlic, then add a little reserved pasta water as needed.
Give the garlic the time it needs. Several readers have found that a whole bulb takes longer than the original 30–40 minute estimate. Check that the cloves are soft enough to mash before combining everything; if they are still firm, keep roasting them. Start the pasta when the garlic is nearly ready.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta
- Rich and Flavorful: The mushrooms, onions, and cream cheese create a rich and creamy experience, while the garlic adds a depth of flavor.
- Versatile: This recipe can be easily modified. Add different herbs, spices, or vegetables to suit your taste.
- Simple Yet Sophisticated: Easy to prepare, this dish has a depth of flavor that belies its simplicity.
- Comforting: Perfect for a relaxing evening, this dish is like a warm hug in a bowl.
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta: Your canvas. From the robustness of penne to the delicacy of spaghetti, each type offers a different texture and surface for the sauce.
- Mushrooms: They bring an umami-rich, meaty texture. Portobellos offer a robust flavor, while button mushrooms give a milder taste.
- Onions: Add a sweet and savory dimension, enhancing the overall richness of the dish.
- Fresh Baby Spinach: Not just for color, spinach adds a subtle, earthy flavor and is packed with nutrients.
- Whole Garlic Bulb: Roasting transforms garlic into a sweet, less pungent version of itself, adding a complex layer to the dish.
- Vegan Cream Cheese: Use a plain, unsweetened variety. Only bake it with the vegetables if you already know your brand works well in the oven; otherwise, stir it in after baking while the vegetables are still hot.
- Olive Oil & Seasonings: Quality olive oil can elevate the dish, and the right balance of salt and pepper can highlight the main ingredients.
Before You Start
- Leave room to mix: Use a large rimmed baking tray to contain the vegetable juices. If there is not enough room to toss the pasta and spinach comfortably, use the drained pasta pot for the final mixing.
- Check the garlic separately: It is ready when the cloves yield easily and can be mashed. If the mushrooms and onions are tender first, transfer them to the pasta pot and keep roasting the garlic until soft. Let the bulb cool enough to handle before squeezing it.
- Save the pasta water: Cook the pasta according to its packet instructions when the vegetables and garlic are nearly ready. Reserve some cooking water before draining.
How to Make Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta
- Roast the vegetables: Season the mushrooms and sliced onions with thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil. Add the garlic, cut side up, and cover the tray with foil. Begin checking after 30–40 minutes, but allow longer if the garlic or onions are still firm. If you are unsure about your vegan cream cheese, keep it out of the oven and add it later.
- Cook the pasta: Follow the packet instructions and reserve some pasta water before draining.
- Make the sauce: Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze out the soft cloves and mash them. Stir them into the hot mushrooms and onions with the vegan cream cheese if you held it back. Add reserved pasta water a little at a time only if the sauce needs loosening.
- Finish in a roomy pot: Toss the pasta with the sauce and add the baby spinach in handfuls, letting it wilt before adding more. Use the drained pasta pot if the tray feels crowded.
- Serve: Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. Add fresh herbs or vegan Parmesan if you like, then serve warm.
Additional Tips:
- Leftovers: This pasta reheats well, making it perfect for meal prep.
- Sauce consistency: Mushrooms release liquid as they cook. Stir the cream cheese into the vegetable juices first, then add reserved pasta water only if needed. The sauce should coat the pasta rather than leave it sitting in liquid.
- Herb Choices: Basil, parsley, or thyme each offer a unique twist to the dish.
Vegetable Variations: Try adding sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, or artichokes.
Need dinner inspiration? Let Dr. Vegan serve up plant-based deliciousness!
Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta
Pasta with mushrooms, onions, roasted garlic and baby spinach in a vegan cream cheese sauce. Cook the pasta separately and save some cooking water to loosen the sauce. Whole garlic bulbs may need longer than the listed cooking time; check that the cloves are soft enough to mash.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat Oven: Set your oven to 180°C (356°F).
Prepare Mushrooms and Onions:
- Place the sliced mushrooms and onions on a large rimmed baking tray to contain the vegetable juices.
- Sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat evenly.
Add Cream Cheese and Garlic:
- If you know your vegan cream cheese works well when baked, dot it around the mushrooms and onions. If you are unsure, leave it out for now and stir it into the hot vegetables after baking. Vegan cream cheeses vary, and some melt right into the vegetables in the oven.
- Place the whole garlic bulb, cut side up, on the baking sheet.
- Drizzle the garlic with a bit of olive oil.
Bake:
- Cover the baking sheet with aluminium foil.
- Begin checking after 30–40 minutes. The mushrooms and onions should be tender, and the garlic cloves should yield easily and be soft enough to mash. A whole garlic bulb can take longer. If the vegetables are ready first, transfer them to the pasta pot and continue roasting the garlic until soft.
Cook the Pasta:
- When the garlic and vegetables are nearly ready, cook the pasta according to its packet instructions. Reserve some pasta cooking water before draining.
Combine Everything:
- Let the garlic cool just enough to handle, then squeeze the soft cloves into a bowl and mash them. Stir the mashed garlic into the hot mushrooms and onions, along with the vegan cream cheese if you held it back.
- Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce. Use the drained pasta pot if the tray is too crowded. Add the baby spinach in handfuls, letting each handful wilt into the hot pasta before adding more.
- Stir well and add reserved pasta water a little at a time only if needed to loosen the sauce. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
Serve and Enjoy:
- Serve the warm dish and enjoy each delicious bite!
Notes
Vegan cream cheese: Brands behave differently in the oven, and some melt into the vegetables. If you are unsure how yours bakes, I recommend stirring it into the hot vegetables after baking, together with the mashed garlic. Add reserved pasta water only as needed.
Cooking time: The listed 40-minute cook time and 55-minute total are estimates. Several readers have needed longer for a whole garlic bulb. Check for soft, mashable cloves and tender onions; allow extra time if needed.
Mixing: Use the drained pasta pot if the tray is too full. Add spinach in handfuls so it can wilt before you add more.
Sauce: Stir the cream cheese into the vegetable juices before adding any pasta water. Add water gradually only if the sauce needs loosening.
The dish can be customized with additional herbs. Add a splash of water when reheating if the sauce has thickened.
Loved it! Used garlic cream cheese and it was delicious!
So glad you loved it Karen! Thanks for sharing your variation😊
This was very good but sadly my garlic didn’t roast properly with the other items. I had to roast it separately. I put it in for the full 40 minutes too
Great recipe. I loved that the flavors were minimal and on point. I eyeballed the spinach, mushroom, and onion to my pan and put two small garlic bulbs to roast everything was perfect. Exact timing I put of 40 min to roast. To the comments about needing longer time I think it just might be their oven. Placing this in the recipe book!
So happy it worked well for you Rose! Bulb size and ovens can both affect the roasting time. Lovely to hear it is going in your recipe book😊
Sorry the garlic needed longer Wiz! Whole bulbs can take longer than the vegetables, so roasting it separately until the cloves are soft enough to mash is a good approach. Glad you enjoyed the pasta in the end😊
Excellent combo of flavors. Super easy instructions. It’s a keeper!
So glad it is a keeper Jodi! Thanks for the lovely feedback😊
I’m in the middle of making this for a second time. As others have said, it doesn’t cook through with the instructions given. I don’t know what the solution is just yet, but so far, turning up the temperature had limited success. I’m now trying to bake it without foil and I’ll add moisture after if required. Also, there’s no physical way to add 200g of spinach. I weighed 100g and it’s more than I need. I’m so confused by this recipe, but I will perfect it for myself because I like the result when it’s tinkered with.
Thank you for the honest feedback Bonnie, and sorry it was frustrating! The garlic can need extra time until the cloves are soft enough to mash. For the spinach, use the drained pasta pot and add it in handfuls, letting each one wilt before adding more. Stir the cream cheese into the vegetable juices first and only add pasta water if the sauce needs it. The current instructions explain these points more clearly.
I was so excited to try and it didn’t disappoint. This recipe will def be in heavy rotation!
Thanks!!
Thank you for this beautiful tasty recipe. I have made it few times. Wonderful. A question for someone who can’t eat spinach what can be the substitute?
Maybe baby kale or Swiss chard
Thanks Suu! Those are helpful ideas. Give the greens time to soften before mixing them through😊
Peas, kale, broccoli florets
Thanks for sharing those ideas Karen! Cook the broccoli or kale until tender before adding it to the pasta😊
I’m using Cavolo Nero kale! And at the end, small sprigs of broccoli!
That sounds lovely Cat! Give the kale and broccoli enough time to become tender before mixing them in😊
The dish was great but I found the cook times to be off. I followed the recipe exact but after 40 minutes the dish was still watery, didn’t look roasted. I took the foil off, turned temp to 400F and cooked for 20 more minutes. I also cooked the garlic separately wrapped in foil and had to open up the foil after 40 min and cook another 20 minutes. I wonder if the cook time was off because I used a glass baking dish? In the end, loved the meal and will make it again. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the finished meal Carla, and sorry the timing was frustrating! Pan size and material, crowding and garlic size can all affect it. Keep the garlic roasting until soft enough to mash, and stir the cream cheese into the vegetable juices before adding any pasta water. The current notes explain allowing extra time if needed.
So glad you enjoy it Rikki! You could leave the spinach out, or try finely chopped kale with the tough stems removed. Kale needs a little longer to soften, so cook it until tender before mixing everything together😊
Love this recipe when I made adjustments. This will be put in our recipe box. However, I had to make some adjustments. The mushrooms, onion, cream cheese and garlic did not bake a shown in the video. After cooking per recipe, the mushrooms were floating in fluid and the garlic was not done. Ended up removing the foil and garlic. Increasing the oven to 400 and cooked 55 minutes total. Garlic wrapped in foil by itself and cooked total 55 minutes. Note that the first 40 minutes was at 350. When it was all finished and done this was an absolutely delicious dish! I will make this again but I will make adjustments to the baking. Bake the garlic separate, and cook the mushroom mix a different way that doesn’t boil the ingredients.
Thank you for sharing those details Lynn! Sorry the original timing did not work well. Giving the garlic extra time separately is a good solution, and the current notes explain checking for soft cloves and adding pasta water only if needed. So glad you enjoyed the finished dish😊
Do you use vegan cream cheese being that it is a vegan dish? I would like to know what brand you use. Thank you.
Most of the time I use Simply V 🙂
Simply V has been discontinued. Any other suggestions?
Hi Pia! Any plain, unsweetened vegan cream cheese is worth trying. Since brands behave differently in the oven, I would stir it into the hot vegetables after roasting if you are unsure how it bakes😊
Yummy but the garlic took a lot longer to roast than the rest of the veggies.
Yes, always does. But an important step!
As a diabetic, I used wholemeal pasta. And half the quantity. Just doubled most of the other ingredients.
Absolutely delicious!
So glad you enjoyed your version, Charles! Thanks for sharing how you adjusted it to your taste 😊
Glad you enjoyed it Melody! Whole garlic bulbs can take longer, so keep roasting the garlic separately if the other vegetables are ready first. The cloves should be soft enough to mash😊
It’s good! Next time I’ll double the mushrooms and garlic.
So glad you enjoyed it Stephanie! More mushrooms sounds like a lovely variation😊
I made this tonight and it was delicious. I must admit though I didn’t follow the quantities only the ingredients and cooking time so ended up with more than double what we can eat in one sitting. So my question is, does it freeze ok?
So glad you enjoyed it Dai! You can try freezing portions, but the pasta will soften and some vegan cream cheeses can separate. I would test a small portion first, then reheat gently with a splash of water and a good stir😊
I will definitely be saving this recipe! It was very easy to put together and it came out so creamy!
So happy you enjoyed it Mindy! Thank you😊
Family liked it a lot. Maybe I put too much spinach cause it was very messy to mix.
So glad your family enjoyed it Isa! Try mixing everything in the drained pasta pot and adding the spinach in handfuls, letting each one wilt before adding more. It is much easier with a little extra room😊
I used a glass lasagna pan, covered with parchment paper that I held down with 3 elastic bands.
Still need to bake everything for an extra 10 minutes and I made sure the garlic was sitting on the glass, in the middle of the mixture.
I found the amount of spinach listed was too much, it needed reserved pasta water and more cream cheese to make it creamy, – as the author suggested it might. I look forward to making it again with some adjustments. Overall – a good recipe! 😋
So glad you enjoyed it Camile! One thing for next time: please avoid ordinary elastic bands in the oven, as they can melt. Use oven-safe foil or a suitable lid, and mix in the spinach in handfuls using a roomy pot😊
I have a diabetic and need the carb count, please?
Hi Paula! This recipe does not currently have a verified carbohydrate breakdown, so I do not want to give you a guessed number. The total will depend especially on the pasta and cream cheese brands and how you divide the portions. Using the exact package values for your batch will give a more useful estimate.
DELICIOUS! I did need to add 1 Cup of pasta water mixed with stock (used chicken but could easily use veggie). The garlic was NOT cooked through with everything else tho, but I pulled it out and stuck it into my toaster oven. I will be making this again. Recommend a VERY large pan (good to have high sides for easy mixing). Thanks for sharing! I did use spinach but next time I will use KALE, which I prefer. I also recommend chopping up the mushrooms into bite sized pieces, mine were a bit too big but overall this dish is fabulous!!!
So glad you liked it!!😊
Loved this recipe. My husband, who gets tired of my pasta recipes, loved it too. He ate the leftovers and asked me to make it again. Admittedly, I didnt roast the garlic, but followed all other directions and it came out perfect. It was delicious and will be making this on repeat.
Love that it got a request for a repeat Holly! So happy you both enjoyed it😊
I went completely off piste with this recipe. I tried cooking the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the way the recipe states but they never fully cooked so…..the next time I made it I microwaved the onion first, then the garlic and finally the mushrooms. When they were cooked to my liking I added the cream cheese and cooked it for another 30 seconds. The pasta was stirred in at the last moment. Perfect. The whole dish was ready to eat in the time it took the pasta to cook.
Thanks for sharing your adaptation Carol! Sorry the original roasting time did not work well for you. So glad you found a method you enjoy😊
Super delicious and easy to tweak for our needs. Perfect flavour as it is, but sometimes I add some truffle flavoured olive oil.
We added some more vegetables and some frozen veggie ‘chicken’ so naturally it needed a bit longer in the oven.
Your truffle oil twist sounds lovely Hanne! Happy the recipe is easy to adapt for your kitchen😊
I did this mostly as instructed. It did end up a little dry. I added sliced red bell pepper to the pan. After everything was stirred in, I added Italian cheese blend to the top and put it back in the oven and broiled it. This was yummy! Also after 45 minutes, the garlic was still not softened enough. I popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds, problem solved!
Glad you enjoyed it Marsha! A little reserved pasta water added at the end can help if it feels dry. Thanks for sharing how you adapted it😊
Nagyon finom lett ma készítettem el . A sütőt az utolsó 10 percben 200 fokra emeltem így a foghagyma igazán megsült . Illetve a krémsajt laktóz mentest használtam , mivel nem eszek tej származékot és így kicsit csalós volt számomra . + petrezselymet is szórtam rá . Köszönöm Ahmad .
Nagyon örülök, hogy ízlett, Márta! Köszönöm, hogy megosztottad a tapasztalataidat. Egy apró pontosítás: a laktózmentes krémsajt még tartalmazhat tejet, ezért teljesen tejmentes változathoz növényi alapú krémsajtot válassz 😊
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Awesome. More information addressing ” Nutrition” other than calorie count, would be helpful.
Thank you for the feedback! A fuller nutrition breakdown would be useful. The exact numbers depend on the pasta, cream cheese and portions used, so I wouldn’t want to give you an uncalculated estimate here.
This is a keeper. I cooked the mushrooms and garlic at 400° for an hour. Then saved pasta water to add to cheese when it comes out of the oven. Everything else is same. Thank you, Suzanne
So glad it’s a keeper, Suzanne! Reserved pasta water is really useful for getting the sauce to the consistency you like. Thanks for sharing 😊
Can I use homemade vegan cottage cheese instead of cream cheese?
Hi Wendy! It could work, depending on how your homemade vegan cottage cheese is made. I’d blend it smooth first, then stir it into the cooked vegetables at the end rather than baking it for the full time. Add pasta water gradually and taste for salt and tang. It’s an untested swap, so the texture may be different 😊
Looks great, what can I substitute for the cream cheese which I cannot tolerate? thanks
Hi Lucy! A plain, unsweetened plant-based cooking cream made from ingredients you tolerate could work instead. Stir it into the roasted mushrooms at the end, starting with a smaller amount because it’s thinner than cream cheese. Add pasta water only as needed, then taste for salt and a little lemon if it needs tang 😊
Looking forward to making this
Hope you enjoy it, Chase! Happy cooking 😊
I peeled the garlic and sliced it. Other than that… and using two different pasta colours… it was the same and it was beautiful!! Many thanks 🤩
You’re very welcome, Chris! So happy your version turned out well 😊
love it! easy and delicious! I added a bit of chicken stock for flavor and less cream cheese.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for giving the recipe a try😊
Delicious!
Thank you Susan! Glad you enjoyed it😊