20 Clean-Eating Pasta Recipes (2024)

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Charring your chicken breasts for ten minutes adds that je ne sais quoi to a classic French dish. This version uses an entire bag of baby spinach.

You can use any variety of grain-free pasta, but we’re a big fan of the Cappello’s brand: fresh pasta that’s both gluten- and grain-free.

Instead of heavy cream, this luscious pasta starts with pureed cauliflower (with just a tad of milk and Parm mixed in). That totally counts as eating our veggies, right?

Half broccolini, half pasta = basically a leafy green salad, right? In all seriousness, this speedy recipe is so much more elegant than opening up a jar of marinara (but just as easy)

Fun fact: Sautéed trumpet mushrooms look like scallops but are much easier to cook (and a hell of a lot cheaper).

For creamier, tastier spaghetti carbonara, you need just one secret ingredient. Nope, it’s not butter or cream. It’s butternut squash. Feed this dinner to your kids and they’ll gobble it up—no need to tell them it’s oozing with hidden veggies.

We never thought we’d say this, but this handmade pasta is almost as easy as opening up a box of dried noodles. Plus, it’s 50 percent cauliflower, meaning it’s low-carb.

Thanks to Swiss chard, this dish is packed with nutrients that are vital in a vegan diet (vitamins C, A, K and B6, magnesium, iron and potassium). Best of all, it’s swirled with non-dairy whipped cream and practically melts in your mouth.

If we’re going to eat a giant plate of pasta, it might as well be filled with satisfying protein, too (and creamy avocado, because duh).

Instead of baking an entire casserole dish's worth of gemelli, swap out half the pasta with bite-size cauliflower florets. Clean eating is easy like that.

Whip it up with whatever vegetables you have in the fridge. Bonus: It’ll last for three days, and you don’t even have to re-heat to enjoy.

Hearty whole wheat pasta, roasted cauliflower and a creamy sauce with zero dairy.

Fruit in a plate of pasta? Apple cider-Dijon poppy seed dressing ties everything together, trust us.

A balanced meal: equal parts vegetables, protein and carbs. Best part? It’s all cooked up in one skillet.

Have you ever tossed your pasta with nutritional yeast? Its vegan, nutty-cheesy flavor adds unbeatable depth to your plate.

Half pasta, have zoodles = so darn brilliant.

Take it from a non-vegan: This recipe is even better than regular mac and cheese. There, we said it.

Some things are irrefutable. Case in point: There’s nothing as irresistible as an enormous stuffed shell. And with vegan cashew cheese filling, it’s OK to take seconds.

An unbelievably cheesy, creamy lightened-up dish that you can easily make ahead of time. Just pop it right in the oven before serving.

It's rich but totally virtuous, and the whole meal takes just 30 minutes to prepare. All you need to have on hand are a couple of ripe avos. (Cue singing angels.)

Food Editor

From 2017 to 2019 Heath Goldman held the role of Food Editor covering food, booze and some recipe development, too. Tough job, eh?