The secret to pasta that tastes like it came straight from a fancy restaurant? Take the time to caramelize the onions.
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That slow cooking turns them sweet, rich, and packed with flavor that blends beautifully with garlicky chili oil.
It’s the kind of small step that makes a big difference—and once you taste it, you’ll understand why I never rush this part.
This vegan caramelized onion and chili oil pasta is bold, comforting, and just a little addictive. It’s weeknight-easy, yet impressive enough to serve to guests. And yes, it’s the dish that made even my onion-skeptic friends ask for seconds.
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Why You’ll Love This Vegan Caramelized Onion Pasta Recipe
- Restaurant Quality – You are going to absolutely love how this dish tastes like it came right out of the kitchen of your favorite Italian Asian fusion restaurant (is that a thing?)
- Meal Prep Friendly – this recipe only gets better as it sits and allows the flavors to merry together. It lasts up for 5 days in the fridge, so just go ahead and double the batch so you can have more leftovers
- Creamy – I love a good creamy vegan pasta, and this dish just hits all the right notes!
Ingredients for Caramelized Onion Pasta Recipe
Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
- Onions – We are using yellow onions for this recipe. They have a great flavor, hold up well for caramelizing, and aren’t expensive.
- Substitute:
- Garlic – we love using garlic for the base of the recipe as an aromatic, but we are leveling it up in this recipe for our garlic lovers and using the entire bulbs.
- Option: Just use 3-5 cloves if you want to use garlic but doing want a lot.
- Spaghetti – We are using a long noodle for this recipe to soak up are sauce and because our kids love to slurp up the noodles on a good creamy pasta.
- Substitute: You can use any desired noodles for this recipe, including whole wheat or gluten free
- Chili Crunch – this is a type of Chinese hot sauce made with fried chili pepper and other ingredients and then infused in oil. It makes for a great spicy/umami flavor that you aren’t going to get from other hot sauces.
- Substitute: We’d recommend some additional oil from the sun dried tomatoes and then mix together some red pepper flakes and sesame seeds
- Coconut Milk – most popular caramelized onion pastas call for heavy cream. In order to keep this vegan and still super creamy, we’re using full fat coconut milk
- Substitute: Other non-dairy milks will also work, but you may need to let it cook down longer and/or add in some cornstarch/arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce
- Sun Dried Tomatoes – just for a little something extra, we’re adding in some sun dried tomatoes. We use the ones that are in oil.
- Vegan Butter and Oil – The variation is to prevent the vegan butter from burning, but also still add richness while we are caramelizing our onions
- Soy sauce and balsamic vinegar -Adding in some umami flavors, but also these help to deglaze the pan right when we need too!
- Spices and Parsley – we’re using a combination of dried spices and fresh parsley in order to heighten this dish
- Add-ins – this dish in not particular protein heavy and just focuses on the pasta being a great meal. However, if you want to add in some other things, here’s a few suggestions: mushrooms, cauliflower or broccoli florets, carrots, chickpeas, tofu, chickpeas, or seitan.
We do not recommend other substitutes unless you are 100% aware of how it could alter the taste of the dish.
How to Make Caramelized Onion Pasta Recipe
- In a large skillet (preferably with high walls) over medium low heat, add 2 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoon vegan butter. Once butter is melted, add in your 5 thinly, evenly sliced onions. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Stir together until all the onions are well coated with the oil.
Let the onions cook for another 35-40 minutes, stirring every 4-5 minutes, careful to not burn the onions.
*If you notice they seem like they are burning, turn your heat lower and add more oil or a splash of vegetable stock if needed.
**Start your 12oz uncooked pasta after the onions are done, so it’s done around the same time as the sauce.
- Add in your bulb of minced garlic, ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, and 2 tablespoon chili crunch oil and stir together. Add in 1 teaspoon each oregano and basil, ½ teaspoon parsley, ¼ teaspoon each thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage, and garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir together again.
Add 2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar. Switch to a wooden spoon if not using and scrape the bottom of the pan.
- Add in a 13.5oz can of coconut milk and stir together well. Let cook for 3-4 minutes. Add cooked pasta and ¼ cup vegan parmesan and careful stir together, coating all of the pasta noodles with the sauce. Use the reserved pasta water a few tablespoons at a time if needed to thin out of make sure the sauce spreads evenly.
- Top with more vegan parmesan, chili crunch oil, and parsley if desired.
How to Store Onion Pasta Recipe
If you have leftovers, you’ll want to let them cool completely, then store in an air tight container. Place in the fridge to store for up to 5 days.
To reheat: Place in a microwave safe container and heat for 2-3 minutes or until warmed through. Alternatively, you can add a little stock to a pan on the stove over medium heat and heat on the stove.
Other must try pasta dishes:
More Recipes To Try
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Vegan Caramelized Onion Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon vegan butter
- 5 yellow onions, thinly, evenly slices
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 bulb garlic, minced (about 8-10 cloves)
- 12 oz uncooked spaghetti noodles, (340g) [+ reserve ½ cup pasta water for stretching/thinning sauce if needed at the end]
- ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, (50g)
- 2 tablespoon chili crunch oil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- ½ teaspoon parsley
- ¼ teaspoon thyme
- ¼ teaspoon rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon marjoram
- ¼ teaspoon sage
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste, start with ⅛ teaspoon each
- 2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 13.5 oz canned coconut milk (380g)
- ¼-1/2 cup vegan parmesan (25-50g)
- fresh parsley, chopped, optional
Instructions
- In a large skillet (preferably with high walls) over medium low heat, add 2 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoon vegan butter. Once butter is melted, add in your 5 thinly, evenly sliced onions. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Stir together until all the onions are well coated with the oil.Let the onions cook for another 35-40 minutes, stirring every 4-5 minutes, careful to not burn the onions.*If you notice they seem like they are burning, turn your heat lower and add more oil or a splash of vegetable stock if needed.**Start your 12oz uncooked pasta after the onions are done, so it’s done around the same time as the sauce.
- Add in your bulb of minced garlic, ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, and 2 tablespoon chili crunch oil and stir together. Add in 1 teaspoon each oregano and basil, ½ teaspoon parsley, ¼ teaspoon each thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage, and garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir together again.Add 2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar. Switch to a wooden spoon if not using and scrape the bottom of the pan.
- Add in a 13.5oz can of coconut milk and stir together well. Let cook for 3-4 minutes. Add cooked pasta and ¼ cup vegan parmesan and careful stir together, coating all of the pasta noodles with the sauce. Use the reserved pasta water a few tablespoons at a time if needed to thin out of make sure the sauce spreads evenly.
- Top with more vegan parmesan, chili crunch oil, and parsley if desired.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes! Use gluten free pasta, make sure you have a soy free butter, and for the coconut milk use whatever is safe for you, but creamy ones like oat work best. For the soy sauce – depending on what you can have, use coconut aminos, liquid aminos, tamari or a no soy soy sauce.
This vegan pasta recipe will last 3-5 days in the fridge. You can make a half batch if that is better for your needs.
You can freeze the sauce, but we would not recommend freezing the pasta with it. To freeze, store in a freezer safe, air tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
This recipe absolutely BLEW ME AWAY it has soooo much flavor. I think it is the best thing I’ve had in a really long time. The onions take a long time but it’s so so so worth it. I had to make a few small adjustments because I live in a small rural town and couldn’t find some of the ingredients. First one was the store bought vegan parm I had to omit but I sprinkled some homemade cashew parm on the top, secondly we didn’t have sun dried tomatoes at my store but I found sun dried tomatoes in paste form in a tube so I used that and it was great! I think if you follow the recipe exactly you’ll have the best result but mine was still amazing none the less! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes 🙂
Happy you enjoyed it so much, we hope you enjoy more!
Just “onions” – I wish I knew a sliced measurement…like 6 cups. Or the finished volume once carmelized. Seems integral to the balance of the ingredients. JS
Hi Cindy, There’s a big button at the top of the page that says “jump to recipe” that will take you right to the printable recipe. And then in the middle of the post there’s an image for people who like visual representation of ingredients and under that image we give explanations of the ingredients and any substitutions. It says before the list of ingredients “Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.”
It sounds like you just didn’t scroll or jump to the recipe for the measurements. Hope that helps
I love caramelized onions and am excited to try this, but also wondered if there’s an approx. measure of sliced onions (pre-cooking). The recipe card says 5 yellow onions; your picture has 4 onions of differing sizes. My problem is onion size. I have a few exceedingly large yellow onions, so I know even 4 (maybe even 3) of them would be too much, but if I knew I needed around 5c sliced onions, I would know when to stop. I don’t need an exact measure, but an estimate would help so much – thanks! (PS – the leftover onions will become French onion soup, but I want to try this first!)
Great observation! Onion size definitely varies.
• About 4–5 cups of sliced onions (pre-cooked) is a good estimate.
• You can always caramelize extras and freeze them—they’re gold in sandwiches and I love the soup idea!
I made this last night and it was excellent! Yum.
So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this and wow, it was incredible. What a great flavor, I felt like a chef! We used gluten-free noodles and I added tofu cubes. The kids said it was “fire!”
Ohh you know when you impress the kids it’s a win!
I just made this tonight. This was by far the best thing I’ve made in a long time!
Wow, thrilled to hear that!
This was delicious! My husband said after only a few bites that this is a repeat dish! I didn’t have any marjoram, so I used additional oregano in place, and left out the vegan parm as I didn’t have any on hand. It’s worth the time to caramelize the onions, and everything comes together so easily. Really delicious, and will definitely make it again.
So glad it was a hit!
Really quick I’m making this dish for myself tomorrow but I don’t know what crunch oil to buy I’m in houston please help this is the second dish I’ve made of yours so far I had the tacos Friday!! First time going straight clean eating I’m loving it.
There’s a bunch of different ones so just buy what you can find. Momofuku, Fly By Jing, Simply Asia – you should be able to find one of these!
I made it without the sun dried tomatoes, and just reduced some tomato sauce with the soy sauce and it was still pretty good! bet it would have been amazing with sun dried tomatoes
Glad you still enjoyed!