If you love soup, pasta, and specifically corn chowder, this is creamy summer corn pasta is going to be your next go to meal! You’ll want it weekly, guaranteed!
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My favorite pasta hack: adding leftover soup, especially bisque style soup, (like our golden soup) or dips (like our spinach artichoke dip) to pasta, thinning it out a bit and creating something new.
It’s a great way to stretch a meal and an even better way to use up leftovers. It keeps things fresh and simple.
And it’s exactly how this idea came about. As a long-time vegan and parent, I’m always looking for new meal ideas. I wanted pasta, but also wanted summer flavors, and the thought of mixing vegan corn chowder with a pasta sounded amazing.
This is perfect for summer busy nights or those days when you want comfort but not a lot of work.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love this Corn Chowder Pasta:
- Flavor – Between the freshness of corn and the spices of the dish mixed together, there’s layers of flavor in each bit
- Textures – By leaving some of the mixture whole and blending the rest for a creamy, bisque-like texture and then combining pasta, it’s got texture perfected in each bite
- Fast – All of this is ready in under 30 mins making it a great weeknight meal
Ingredients for vegan corn pasta:
Gather your ingredients!
Pasta
In the photos, we’re using a fusilli pasta. It’s short shape is great for bite size pieces and the twists and grooves of the pasta hold the creamy sauce perfectly.
Substitute: You could also do this with gluten free noodles if needed or pair with zucchini or sweet potato noodles for a whole foods approach.
Corn
Our main ingredient in this dish is corn. Fresh is always preferred, especially in the summer.
Tip: Try grilling or roasting the corn for a few minutes before to get some of that summer char on it for even more depth of flavor.
Substitute: Canned sweet corn works perfectly as well. You could also add some other vegetables in here like red bell pepper (or jalapenos if you wanna spice things up), shredded carrots, zucchini, spinach, or peas.
Coconut Milk
This adds a creaminess to the pasta that gives that hearty thickness to the sauce while also adding some natural sweetness. We’re using canned full fat coconut milk for this recipe.
Substitute: Anything thicker plant-based milk will also work, like soy or a creamy oat.
Miso
We’re using white miso for this dish for an umami and saltiness to the dish.
Substitute: You can swap this out with some mushroom stock or vegetable stock, a tablespoon of tahini with a splash of soy sauce also does the trick.
Other Ingredients
You’ll also need onions, garlic, and spices for this dish.
Protein
There’s no added protein to this dish, but you could add in some white beans (like cannellini or butter beans), vegan chicken strips or soy curls, as well as pan-seared tofu.
Other Vegan Pastas to Try!
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30 Minute Summer Corn Pasta
Ingredients
- 16 ounces bite-sized pasta (the photos use fusilli)
- 2 tablespoons plant-based butter
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 1 ½ cups corn kernels (about 3 cobs of corn)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons old bay seasoning
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried Chives
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, more or less to taste
- 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon white miso
- 1 Lime
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 16oz of pasta and only cook until al dente. Scoop out 1 cup of pasta water before draining noodles and set aside. Drain and toss noodles with a little oil if you have more than 5 minutes until your sauce is ready.
- In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoon plant-based butter over medium heat. Once melted, add in your 1 large diced onion, 1 ½ cups corn, and 3 cloves minced garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes until softened and translucent. Reduce heat to medium low and add in 2 teaspoon old bay seasoning, 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, ½ teaspoon each dried thyme, dried chives, and salt, and ¼ teaspoon each garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Stir together. Cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is fragrant. Turn the heat off.
- Remove about half the corn mixture to a heat-proof bowl or directly into your blender.
- To a blender add 1 cup coconut milk, 1 tablespoon white miso, ½ cup of the reserved pasta water, and the corn mixture you set aside. Blend until smooth and no chunks remain.
- Turn the heat back on medium low and pour half the sauce into your pot and using a wooden spoon scrap all the fond (the bits at the bottom of the pot) and stir together. Then, add the remaining sauce and stir.
- Add the cooked pasta noodles to the pot and cook just until heated through (about 3-4 minutes). Add more of the reserved pasta water at this time if you’d like a thinner sauce.
- Remove from heat and squeeze in the juice of 1 lime and stir together. Top with fresh chopped basil or chives and cracked black pepper to taste.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
For the gluten – you’ll want to pick a gluten free pasta.
For the soy – you’ll want to swap the miso with 2 tablespoons vegetable or mushroom stock and a splash of either tamari, coconut aminos or no soy soy sauce depending on your allergens. You will also want to choice a non-soy based plant-based butter option.
For the coconut – swap the coconut milk with a safe for you creamy plant-based milk like soy or a creamy oat milk. This may take longer to reduce.
Once completely cooled, store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, making this a great meal prep option.
We don’t recommend freezing this pasta.
We recommend in the recipe only cooking this until al dente because it’s going back into the sauce where it will finish cooking. Oftentimes, people overcook their noodles first so when it hits the heat again in the sauce it gets mushy. Try cooking the pasta 2 minutes shy of actual cook time in the package instructions.
Nice and savory
Happy you enjoyed it. What would you do different to give it 5 stars?
Looking forward to trying this but not sure if there is a good sub for the Old Bay seasoning. Would love to try it with this baby but pretty sure I need to order it. Just want to know if you can recommend anything else? Thanks!
the easiest thing is equal parts celery salt and paprika and then add in a pinch of cayenne. Other blends that could work if you can find the would be like a cajun/creole mix.
This was easy and delicious. What I liked was how for me it was both familiar (corn chowder-esque) and novel (I’d never had corn pasta). The taste was excellent.
I love that explanation!