This Saffron Creamy Vegan Pasta is an Italian risottata-style pasta cooked in broth and takes just 15 minutes to make! Vegan butter and parmesan, minced onion, vegetable broth and saffron give this dish a floral meets savoury flavour.
Saffron Vegan Creamy Pasta Ingredients
- Spaghetti or thin pasta of choice like spaghettini (thick pastas will not enough using the risottata method)
- Vegetable stock
- Saffron
- Vegan butter
- Small onion (you can use yellow or red)
- Black pepper
- Vegan parmesan
- Olive oil
- Salt to taste
What is a Pasta Risottata
Ever hear of pasta risottata? It’s an Italian method of cooking pasta like a risotto. This means the pasta risottata is cooked directly in the pan by gradually adding broth and continuing to stir until the liquid is absorbed by the starch.
It’s a lovely way to get a flavourful creamy pasta, since the noodles actually fuse better with the sauce. The risottata technique is a great option when the sauce is technically not a sauce, but an emulsion. In our Saffron Vegan Creamy Pasta we rely on a vegan butter emulsion. The starch, butter, and broth mix to create a nice creamy texture.
It’s important to use a thin pasta when making a risotto style pasta. Thick noodles will not cook sufficiently in this method. use spaghetti or spaghettini. Ensure that you boil the pasta in the classic salted water for 2-5 minutes to make the pasta less hard, before completing the pasta risottata in the pan.
What Does Saffron Taste Like?
Saffron is a floral and fragrant with a slightly sweet, luxurious taste. It’s a somewhat pricey spice since each flower produces only three threads of saffron. The plant the flowers grown on blooms for only one week each year. Plus, saffron must be harvested by hand in the mid-morning when the flowers are still closed in order to protect the delicate stigmas inside.
So, it makes sense that saffron will cost about $10 to $13 per gram!
To ensure that your saffron is high quality, make sure it smells of sweet hay and is all red with no yellow stamens. I used quality saffron from Afghanistan that I purchased at a specialty organic food shop in Toronto’s Kensington market! Afghan saffron was rated the best in the world for the third consecutive year by International Taste and Quality Institute based in Brussels.
But you can also find high quality saffron online!
If you’re looking to purchase a quality saffron online I suggest Zaffrus Premium Grade A+ All Red Saffron Threads.
Making Saffron Vegan Creamy Pasta
- In a large heat sauté the onion in the vegan butter on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring until the onion is translucent.
- In the meantime cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, just long enough so that it is still a bit too al dente to eat, but you are able to bend the noodles.
- Drain spaghetti and add it to the pan with the onion. Stir often to season as much as possible.
- Add a ladle or two of vegetable stock and cook over high heat until the stock is absorbed (continually tasting to see if the pasta is cooked to al dente). Add in the saffron and stir.
- Once spaghetti is cooked stop adding more stock. Add grated vegan parmesan cheese and stir. Salt to taste.
- Serve hot with ground black pepper and more vegan parmesan on top, with a drizzle of fine quality olive oil (optional).
Vegan Saffron Pasta
Ingredients
Vegan Saffron Pasta
- 1 package spaghetti or thin pasta of choice like spaghettini
- 2-4 cups vegetable stock
- 1/2 tsp saffron
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- black pepper to taste
- 3/4 Tbsp vegan parmesan grated
- vegan parmesan grated (to seve)
- olive oil optional (to serve)
- salt to taste
Instructions
Vegan Saffron Pasta
- In a large heat sauté the onion in the vegan butter on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring until the onion is translucent.
- In the meantime cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, just long enough so that it is still a bit too al dente to eat, but you are able to bend the noodles.
- Drain spaghetti and add it to the pan with the onion. Stir often to season as much as possible.
- Add a ladle or two of vegetable stock and cook over high heat until the stock is absorbed (continually tasting to see if the pasta is cooked to al dente). Add in the saffron and stir.
- Once spaghetti is cooked stop adding more stock. Add grated vegan parmesan cheese and stir. Salt to taste.
- Serve hot with ground black pepper and more vegan parmesan on top, with a drizzle of fine quality olive oil (optional).
Looking for more elevated vegan pasta dishes? Try my Creamy Vegan Truffle Pasta.
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