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This healthy pasta recipe features spiralized sweet potato noodles tossed in a fast, dairy-free roasted red pepper sauce. It makes a delicious plant-based weeknight meal, and it’s great for allergy-friendly homes as it’s nut-free and gluten-free, too.
Spiralized sweet potato noodles are one of my favorite healthy pasta substitutes, because they have a comforting flavor and texture, while also providing loads of nutrition in each bite. (I use this spiralizer at home– it’s my favorite!)
Sweet potatoes are a good source of vitamin A and magnesium, which are thought to help protect against the effects of stress and aging, and they’re also loaded with fiber to help leave you feeling satisfied.
This dairy-free roasted red pepper sauce gets its “creaminess” from additional sweet potato, which I simply steam while my red peppers are broiling in the oven.
The combination of sweet red peppers, creamy potatoes, and a touch of sauteed garlic makes this sauce slightly sweet, a little spicy, and ultra comforting.
You can add any other vegetables you like to this quick noodle stir fry. My family is partial to adding fresh or frozen peas when we have them on hand, and we’ve also added sauteed mushrooms and asparagus, when it’s in season.
Since you can taste this stir-fry as you go, it’s hard to go wrong. Just be sure to season these “noodles” generously with salt and pepper, since you’re not using a traditional pasta (which traditionally has plenty of salt already included.)
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Noodles
- 2 large sweet potatoes , peeled (save 1/2 potato for sauce)
- 1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil
- 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
- sea salt , to taste
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 cup steamed sweet potato (mashed)
- 1 roasted red pepper
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Slice one of the large sweet potatoes in half, and cut that half into chunks so that you can steam them for the sauce. You'll need roughly 1 1/2 cups of raw sweet potato chunks to produce 1 cup of mashed sweet potato for the sauce.
- Steam the sweet potato by placing the chunks into a small saucepan fitted with a steamer basket and an inch of water. Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot with a lid, and then lower the heat to let the potatoes steam until fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- While the potatoes are steaming, you can roast your own red peppers or use about 1/2 cup of jarred roasted red peppers.
- Use a spiralizer or vegetable peeler to create "noodles" out of the remaining sweet potatoes, then set them aside.
- To prepare the Red Pepper Sauce, warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and briefly saute the minced garlic, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer the cooked garlic to a blender, along with the steamed sweet potato chunks, roasted red pepper, water, basil, and salt. Blend until smooth.
- To prepare the sweet potato noodles, saute them in a touch of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add in the peas and sauce, and saute until the noodles are as tender as you'd like them to be. Adjust any seasoning to taste, and serve warm.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat, simply saute everything in a warm skillet again until piping hot.
Nutrition
Calories per serving: 378, Fat: 26g, Carbohydrates: 34, Fat: 26, Protein: 6g
Recipe Notes:
- Sweet potatoes come in two varieties– the classic orange color that people also call yams, and a type with white flesh. I think you can use these interchangeably, so feel free to use whichever type is easiest for you to locate. I used orange fleshed sweet potatoes for the noodles, and steamed white sweet potatoes for the sauce, because I already had those pre-steamed for my baby to eat, as well.
- Because this is an easy skillet meal, feel free to make any modifications you see fit, and just taste as you go. You could use zucchini noodles for a lower-carb noodle, and steamed cauliflower instead of the potatoes in the sauce, if you like. Just adjust the seasoning as you see fit!
- If you’re in a hurry, you can skip sauteing the garlic for the red pepper sauce, but it will have more of a spicy bite that way!
As always, please leave a comment below if you make any modifications, so we can all benefit from your experience.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite way to serve sweet potatoes?
I love this sauce – I added some fresh squeezed lime juice to add a bit of acidity and some louisiana hot sauce for kick.
Thank you for sharing!!!
I tried this sauce tonight and it was delicious. I had mine on steamed vegetables but had made chicken and rice for my partner and covered his in the sauce. He’s quite a fussy eater but he absolutely loved it. Thanks
Megan- I just made this and I love,love, love it! It’s going up on my blog with your link and a few changes I made.
I’ll make sure to add this to every link party I can find!
Fantastic recipe and THANK YOU so much for sharing the recipe.
Hugs,
Linda
The red pepper tip is great – I used to buy the pre-made ones in the jar, but this is so simple (fresh is always better!!). I made the red pepper sauce (swapped unsweetened coconut milk for almond milk etc.) and used the 2 cloves of raw garlic. To my surprise, the sauce was completely overwhelmed by the garlic. I had to add more coconut milk to balance out the harsh flavor – next time I will roast the garlic (with the red pepper!) or omit it entirely. Anyone else have the same issue with the raw garlic? Thank you for the recipe – it is what prompted me to finally purchase a Paderno spiralizer. Fun with food!!!!
Made this for supper tonight!!!! Absolutely delicious 🙂 I have the same spiralizer and can’t seem to get my noodles as nice- any tips?!
Hmm… I’m not sure I do anything special. With sweet potatoes, I feel like I have to use a lot of pressure towards the blades to get good noodles, and maybe the freshness of the potato would make a difference? Or perhaps it just takes lots of practice. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I found your Recipe for Sweet Potato Noodles with Roasted Red Pepper “Cream” Sauce yesterday. It sounded so good that I went ahead and fixed it even though I didn’t have all of the ingredients. I only had one sweet potato. No asparagus or mushrooms, but I used the sweet potato that I had for the cream sauce, which is excellent! I used my homemade coconut milk instead of nut milk. I just couldn’t stay out of it. For the noodles instead of sweet potatoes I used russets, that’s all I had. I substituted onions and frozen peas sautéed in homemade ghee, in place of asparagus and mushrooms. It turned out wonderful and I can’t wait to get more sweet potatoes so I can try it with them. Thank you so much for this recipe and I will be visiting your website again, I can’t wait to see what other goodies I get to make. Thanks again!
I love the idea of using sweet potatos as a pasta alternative. I’m on a 30 day detox, which I’m staying away from all grains, dairy, sugar, caffine, alcohol. The grains are the toughest for me. Do you know if Kelp noodles are considered a grain? Any other alternatives for “pasta”?
no kelp is not a grain
This was delicious! I used a cheese grater to save time.
I noticed that your sweet potato noodles were orange but only yams are orange. I hear that yams aren’t as healthy as sweet potatoes? Loved the recipe though! I used sweet potatoes and it was delicious, but not as colorful as the orange yams.
This has become one of our all-time favorite dishes! So delicious!! It has also inspired me to try out making all kinds of noodles with the spiralizer, and I am never going back to gluten pasta ever again. Everything just tastes so much better now. Thank you, Megan!