Looking for another tasty way to enjoy hummus? You found it! This zesty sun-dried tomato basil hummus pasta is super creamy, quick and easy to make, and it’s healthy vegan comfort food the whole family will love!
Sun-dried tomato basil hummus pasta is a savory, creamy, high-protein, simple vegan meal that you can enjoy for lunch or dinner! The pasta sauce is made from hummus that’s flavored with fresh basil, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes, it’s absolutely delicious and so easy to make! This recipe is also great for meal prepping because it tastes great hot or cold.
How to Make Hummus Pasta
First, you’re going to make the homemade sun-dried tomato basil hummus (Photos 1 & 2). In a food processor, combine canned chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, lemon juice, water, salt, and black pepper and blend until smooth and creamy.
Next, saute the diced onion in a large pan until it’s translucent. While the onions are cooking, boil water in a large pot to cook the pasta. When the onions are soft, add fresh spinach, hummus, and reserved pasta water and stir to combine (Photos 3 & 4).
Add the hot pasta to the pan with the sauce and stir it until every noodle is coated with the hummus sauce (Photos 5 & 6). Garnish with more fresh basil and slices of sun-dried tomatoes if you like.
Can You Use Store-Bought Hummus?
Sure! You don’t have to make homemade hummus. If you want to make a similar flavor profile to this recipe, I recommend that you buy plain, garlic-flavored, or sun-dried tomato (may be hard to find) hummus. Then you can follow the recipe directions to mix 1 1/2 cups of the premade hummus, sauteed onions, pasta water, and spinach with the hot noodles. You can add a couple of soaked sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil if you like.
What Type of Sun-Dried Tomatoes Should You Use?
You can use sun-dried tomatoes that are dry or packed in oil for this recipe. If you use dry sun-dried tomatoes, you’ll need to soak them in water for 30 minutes to rehydrate them before using them to make hummus. If you use oil-based tomatoes, you’ll need to drain the excess oil.
How Long Does it Last in the Refrigerator?
Vegan hummus pasta will last between 3-5 days if stored properly in an airtight container in the fridge. Learn more about storing hummus and pasta, here.
Can You Freeze it?
Yes, you can freeze leftover pasta for 3-4 months in a freezer-safe container. When you’re ready to reheat it, take the container out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost for 24 hours. Then you can reheat it in the microwave or in a pan on the stove. If it’s dry, you may need to add 2-3 tbsp of water to the pasta to help loosen the sauce.
Ways to Adapt This Recipe
Hummus is such a versatile ingredient, you can use it to make so many tasty meals! If you don’t want to make pasta, you could also use the hummus to make:
- Hummus Quesadillas: Skip the pasta altogether and use the sun-dried tomato basil hummus as the filling in high-protein vegan quesadillas.
- Add Roasted Vegetables: Roast 8 ounces of mushrooms and mix them in with the pasta to make a hearty mushroom hummus pasta.
- Hummus Pasta Salad: After you make the hummus pasta, you can pop it into the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. Enjoy this recipe cold instead of hot for a tasty twist on creamy pasta salad.
- Add Raw Vegetables: Use this sun-dried tomato hummus pasta sauce (instead of lemon tahini sauce) to make this raw veggie salad. It’s a delicious side dish or main course!
- Add Vegan Sausage: You could add slices of vegan Italian sausage (I like Field Roast sausages) to the pasta to make it an even more substantial meal.
Substitutions & FAQ
- Hummus Flavor Options: You could also use plain, garlic, caramelized onion, or roasted red pepper hummus instead of sun-dried tomato hummus.
- Chickpea Substitution: If you don’t have chickpeas, you can use cooked great northern beans to make the hummus.
- Sun-Dried Tomato Substitutions: Roasted red peppers can be used instead of sun-dried tomatoes.
- Spinach Substitutions: Thinly sliced kale or swiss chard can be used instead of spinach.
- Can You Use Frozen Spinach? Yes, you can use 2-3 ounces of frozen spinach instead of fresh spinach. Add the frozen spinach when the recipe says to add the fresh spinach, but give it a few extra minutes to defrost.
- What to do With the Tomato Water? After you soak the sun-dried tomatoes, don’t discard the water because it’s loaded with tomato flavor! You can remove the tomatoes and then use the water as the liquid needed for the hummus or add it to the water to boil the noodles to drive home that tomato flavor.
- Gluten-Free: This recipe is naturally gluten-free because I used gluten-free chickpea noodles.
Success Tips
- If you use dry sun-dried tomatoes, you need to soak them in warm water for 30 minutes so they’ll be soft and easy to blend. If you use sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drain the excess oil before adding the tomatoes to the hummus mixture.
- Make sure to reserve 1 cup of the hot pasta water when you’re boiling the noodles because you’ll need it to thin the hummus pasta sauce.
- I often double or triple the hummus recipe and then portion it out and freeze it to use for future easy meals. Hummus freezes perfectly and it’s a great time saver for a quick dinner!
- Store the leftover pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days or you can freeze it for a future meal.
More Healthy Pasta Sauce Recipes You’ll Love!
15-Minute Creamy Vegan Alfredo Sauce
Savory Vegan Pumpkin Pasta Sauce
Vegan Avocado Pistachio Pesto Sauce
Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Hummus Pasta
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Large Pot
- Large Pan
Ingredients
Hummus
- 1 1/2 cups chickpeas* drained
- 5 medium dry sun-dried tomatoes soaked
- 5 large fresh basil leaves
- 1 small garlic clove minced
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp himalayan pink sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
- 1 tbsp water**
Pasta
- 8 oz gluten-free noodles
- 3-4 tbsp low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 handfuls fresh baby spinach leaves
- 1 1/2 cups hummus
- 1 cup hot pasta water
Instructions
- If you use dry sun-dried tomatoes, you need to soak them in warm water in a small bowl for 30 minutes or until they're soft. Once the tomatoes are soft, remove them from the bowl but don't discard the water. See the Notes below for ways you can use the leftover tomato water.
- Add the drained can of chickpeas, 5 sun-dried tomatoes, 5 large basil leaves, 1 small garlic clove, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 3 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tbsp water to a food processor. Blend on high until the hummus is smooth and creamy.
- In a large pan, saute the diced onion in 3-4 tbsp vegetable broth until the onions are translucent, about 8-10 minutes.
- While the onions are cooking, boil water in a large pot and cook the noodles. When the noodles are done cooking, carefully reserve 1 cup of the hot pasta water and drain the rest.
- Add 1 1/2 cups of hummus, 3/4 cup of the reserved pasta water (add more if necessary), and 4 big handfuls of fresh spinach to the pan with the onions. Mix it well to combine the hummus with the water to create the hummus sauce. It will look like a lot of spinach but it will wilt and shrink down after a few minutes.
- Add the cooked noodles to the pan with the hummus sauce and mix it all together so the sauce coats every noodle. If the sauce is too thick, add the last 1/4 cup of the hot pasta water to thin the sauce. You can eat the pasta like this or you can garnish it with extra fresh basil and more thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes.
Notes
- If you use dry sun-dried tomatoes, you need to soak them in warm water for 30 minutes so they'll be soft and easy to blend. If you use sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drain the excess oil before adding the tomatoes to the hummus mixture.
- Make sure to reserve 1 cup of the hot pasta water when you're boiling the noodles because you'll need it to thin the hummus sauce.
- I often double or triple the hummus recipe and then portion it out and freeze it to use for future easy meals. Hummus freezes perfectly and it's a great time saver for a quick dinner!
- Store the leftover pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days or you can freeze it for a future meal.
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