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Vegan Butternut Squash Pasta with Veggie Sausage & Sage

4.75 from 20 reader reviews
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4
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Ingredients

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup fresh sage leaves
  • sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
  • 2 vegan veggie sausages, diced into small pieces
  • 1 lb (454 grams) dry rigatoni pasta
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ cups diced butternut/honeynut squash
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ⅓ cup walnut halves (see recipe notes)
  • ⅓ cup raw cashews
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus. more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon light miso

Instructions

  • Set a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Pour in the olive oil and swirl it around. Once the oil is hot, add the sage leaves and fry until crispy, about 10 seconds. Remove the sage leaves to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and sprinkle with salt. Set aside.
  • To the skillet, add the diced veggie sausages. Stir and sauté until sausage pieces are cooked through and a bit brown on the edges. Remove to a plate and set aside.
  • In a separate pot, cook your rigatoni pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water before draining the pasta and setting it aside.
  • To the skillet, add the diced onion. Sauté the onion until very soft and translucent, about 6-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the diced butternut squash and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir it up. Add the walnuts, cashews, and vegetable stock. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer, covered, until the squash is tender and breaking apart, about 12-15 minutes.
  • Transfer everything in the skillet (squash, nuts, stock and all) to an upright blender. To the blender, add the miso and lemon juice. Blend on high until creamy and completely smooth. Check the sauce for seasoning and adjust if necessary (more salt, pepper, lemon etc).
  • Combine the cooked veggie sausage, cooked pasta, and butternut squash sauce in the deep skillet over low heat. Keep stirring until everything is hot. If you find that the sauce needs to be loosened up slightly, add splashes of the reserved pasta cooking water. Check the pasta for seasoning (more salt, lemon etc) and adjust if necessary.
  • Serve the pasta hot with fried sage leaves on top!

Equipment

Recipe Notes

  • Beyond Meat’s Hot Italian sausages are my favourite here because the level of spice works perfectly with the slightly sweet squash sauce. It also crumbles nicely in the pan. I really do recommend them over other brands with this recipe in particular.
  • After receiving some feedback and having the recipe re-tested, it's worth mentioning that the walnuts in the sauce may taste a touch bitter/strong for some folks. If you're hesitant and suspect it might be too much for you, I would omit the walnuts and instead, increase the amount of raw cashews to ⅔ cup.
  • In my photos, I placed the cooked veggie sausage bits on top of the pasta because the presentation is a bit prettier. For practicality’s sake, I instruct you to just stir it in with the pasta and sauce. You can take this in whichever direction works best for you!
  • 1 large Honeynut squash will conveniently give you the right amount of squash here! If it's available at your local grocery store, pre-chopped butternut squash makes this recipe go even faster
This creamy vegan butternut squash pasta is extra hearty with juicy bits of browned veggie sausage and fried sage leaves on top. The luscious blender sauce comes together with simple ingredients.