Are you ready for a new way to enjoy pumpkin this season?
This creamy pumpkin pasta sauce is addictive. I was inspired to create it after a trip to Whole Foods, where I was tempted by a jar of “Creamy Tuscany Pumpkin Sauce.” After looking at the ingredient list, I was disappointed to find heavy cream as one of the first few ingredients, so I figured I should come home and try to make a delicious creamy pasta sauce on my own.
I had already created this Vegan Pumpkin & Sage Pasta Sauce a few years ago, but what I loved about this Tuscan version is that it includes tomatoes in the mix. The resulting sauce feels a bit more like a traditional marinara sauce, but with an almost dairy-like creaminess from the addition of pumpkin and coconut milk. (If you don’t like the taste of coconut, don’t worry; you can’t taste it AT ALL.)
This recipe is a fun Fall-inspired twist, with a hint of cinnamon and sage, and sticks to pasta much better than plain old marinara sauce. I don’t even need a sprinkling of cheese on top! (Though, you’re welcome to do so.) I hope you’ll enjoy this nutrient-rich sauce just as much as we have. My family all wanted to lick our bowls clean!
Vegan Tuscan Pumpkin Pasta Sauce
Makes 2 1/2 cups sauce
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup strained tomatoes (tomato puree)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup water
1 tesapoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons pure maple syrup
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon fresh minced sage, plus extra for garnish
Directions:
Pour the olive oil into a large pot over medium heat, and saute the onion until tender, about 10 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 more minute. Add in the tomato, pumpkin, water, salt, cinnamon, and maple syrup and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and stir in the coconut milk and minced sage.
Adjust any seasoning to taste and serve warm over your favorite pasta. (I’d recommend preparing a pound of pasta for this amount of sauce.)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion , chopped
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1 cup strained tomato (tomato puree)
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tesapoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 teaspoons pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon fresh minced sage , plus extra for garnish
- Pour the olive oil into a large pot over medium heat, and saute the onion until tender, about 10 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 more minute.
- Add in the tomato, pumpkin, water, salt, cinnamon, and maple syrup and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and stir in the coconut milk and minced sage.
- Adjust any seasoning to taste and serve warm over your favorite pasta. (I'd recommend preparing a pound of pasta for this amount of sauce.)
Per Serving: Calories: 133, Fat: 9g, Carbohydrates: 12g, Fiber: 2g, Protein: 1g
Note: For a Paleo-friendly dish, serve this sauce over cooked spaghetti squash, or spiralized “noodles” made of zucchini, carrots, or sweet potato.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite Fall-inspired dish to make for dinner?
Jess @ Crunchy Hot Mama
Yum! This sounds delicious!! I love all things pumpkin and this is brilliant…and isn’t a sweet 😉 I will definitely be making this soon for my family.
Thanks for sharing!
Laura ~ RYG
Agreed! I saw that same jar of pumpkin sauce at Whole Foods, but it was way too pricey for me!!!! Thrilled by the idea of making my own. My mother actually ended up though buying several bottles because she has no scruples, is retired and doesn’t need to worry about $$ and it was good!
Jacqueline
How much do you think you would need if you used dried sage? Will definitely make this week! 🙂
Carmen
I didn’t have fresh sage either and just used 1/2 teaspoon of dry. It is beyond delicious!!
GE
Why the maple syrup? Can we have any foods left natural or unseeetened. It’s bad enough store bought. I’d like to try it without.
Megan Gilmore
You’re welcome to try it without! The store-bought version that I was trying to mimic called for honey, and I find that a bit of sweetness helps to perfectly balance the acidity of tomatoes. But that’s just my taste buds… you might feel differently so taste as you go!
Karen
i completely agree with you Megan, just a touch of sweetness does help the bitterness!!! love your recipes!
donna
Tomato puree ? would that be tomato paste?
Megan Gilmore
No, it’s not concentrated like tomato paste. The product I buy is called “strained tomatoes”– it’s pureed tomato with the seeds taken out.
Iga
Where do you buy it?
Megan Gilmore
I bought mine at Whole Foods.
Sandra
Made only the sauce tonight will make pasta tomorrow and meal will be done.
It tastes awesome!!
I made the Argula potatoe soup and it was to die for, I am sharing my lunch with a co-worker and she is in love with the soup.
Thsnks fir this recipes!!
Holly
Megan this recipe sounds delicious, can’t wait to try it. For the coconut milk, do you use the “cream” or the liquid?
Megan Gilmore
It was warm enough in my kitchen that they were actually mixed, but if they were separated I would just use the cream.
Holly
Thank you!
Gloria
Thanks for your wonderful receipts I am a vegetarian trying to avoid shop products my only problem is some of the spices are hard to come by in Jamaica but managing. Excited to try this pumpkin sauce
Donna
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Question: my husband is not supposed to have night shades so need to delete the tomatoes. Any other suggestions of what I can use besides tom paste?
Megan Gilmore
You might enjoy my other pumpkin pasta recipe here: https://detoxinista.com/2012/11/creamy-pumpkin-sage-pasta-vegan/
Mirjam
Dear Megan, I think we don’t have pumpkin puree to buy ready to use in my country. Do you think fresh made pumpkin puree will work as well? Thank you, also for all your great recipies!
Nicole
Thank you so much for all the vegan recipes. I first started following your blog five or so years ago, when I was vegetarian. Since becoming vegan, I’m still finding I can do about 99% of your recipes…Btw, I make a soup that also uses tomatoes, pumpkin puree, and coconut milk as the base (with water and vegetable broth to thin it out). It is a winning combination of flavors and texture. Will definitely be trying your recipe over spaghetti squash.
Megan Gilmore
Funny you should mention that, because I just tried turning this into a soup, too! The flavors are so delicious, I just wanted to eat it with a spoon. 🙂 Glad to hear you’re enjoying the recipes!
Bette
Hi Megan, I am so glad to see your recipe for this sauce. I seen the sauce at Bed bath and beyond and wanted to try it but as you I didn’t like the cream in the ingredients, I was thinking about doing my own creation but I see it has been done already for me. Can’t wait to make it. Will post to let you know how it turns out.
Katy
This is so delicious! My husband typically will lump something like this into the half of the week’s cooking that I will eat but he LOVED this. Looking forward to making more batches for the freezer. Love it.
Robyn
I just made this and OMG it was delicious! I am cooking for 1 so decided to make extra sauce so I didn’t waste ingredients and plan on either freezing the leftovers or eating as soup cuz it’s just that addicting! I pretty much doubled everything but the maple syrup- I only used the 4 tsp and it was perfect for my taste. I had to omit the onion because I’m allergic but it still had tons of flavor! I will definitely be making this again.
Robyn
PS- I tried to give this 5 stars but it would only let me click on 4. 🙁
Jess @ Crunchy Hot Mama
This was fantastic!! I ended up using a can of tomato paste and filling the rest of the 1 cup with water to thin it out. I may have added more water in the end to make it creamier as well. So glad you are sharing savory pumpkin recipes!!!
Thank you 🙂
Zoe Lau
This is beautiful! 🙂 I can’t help but stare at the pictures! I’ve come back multiple times and every time I’m in awe of how pretty it is! I’m definitely going to try it sometime soon! I’m not a huge pumpkin fan but this convinces me 🙂 Love this 🙂 Thanks for this simple recipe!
Cyrilla
I added a bit of chilli powder to this recipe and it was awesome!! I cooked some black bean noodles along with it… so delicious 🙂
eddie
Can you reccomend a good gluten free pasta?
Jo
Omg this was amazing! I made it using gluten free brown rice spaghetti, so good!!!!!!!!
Brianna
I was really skeptical at first and even when I was making this, I couldn’t imagine it tasting like a savory dish. Honestly, I was totally prepared to try it, not like it, and then make myself something else for dinner. But guess what?! It’s delicious! The combination of pumpkin and tomato works really well together. It’s a big bonus that the sauce takes basically 15 minutes to make. I am looking forward to leftovers! Also, I used soy milk instead of coconut, since that’s what I had on hand.
LB
me, too. And I was lazy and substituted onion powder (3/4 tsp) , garlic powder (1/8 tsp), dried sage (1/4 tsp) and left out the oil (nothing left to saute!. It was delish – and hubby wanted to know why he couldn’t eat the rest of the pot worth off the spoon!
Clarisa
Just made this and me and my husband love it. We are not even vegan. I tossed the sauce with some wholewheat spaghetti. This is so creamy and has great fall flavor without the cheese. It’s a great change from just regular tomato sauce.
Kelly
just made this…. absolutely delicious!!!
Carmen
This is just scrumptious! Eating it right now over spaghetti squash. I didn’t have strained tomatoes on hand so i used a jarred spaghetti sauce i had in the fridge (just organic tomatoes, basil, oregano) and it is amazing! I bought your second cookbook earlier this week and everything I’ve made has been so delicious!!
Angel de Goede
This is a brilliant recipe, thank you! we made it tonight and both of us immensely enjoyed it!!
instead of water, added chicken bone broth, extra garlic. Also included CHICKEn, spinach, and mushrooms. USED GF Tinkyada (ALL OF THEIR PASTAS ARE AWESOME) Can def see this dish becoming a regular comfort MEAL FOR US :).
sohani patel
I love really love pasta and this looks so delicious. I think I’ll make this tonight 🙂 i hope like my family spacial my bf i’m so exited for this pasta
cHLOE
Simple, fast and delicious. I ate it with zucchini noodles and sprinkled some nutritional yeast to give a nice cheesy taste. SO GOOD!!!!
Chloe Chabot-Denis
Fast, easy and delicious. Try it with zucchini noodles and sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. SO GOOD!!!
Arrow
SONOMA GOURMET butternut squash pasta sauce is sold in Safeway /Albertsons and is VEGAN.
Kristin
I have been making this sauce over the course of a year and it impresses each time. Last time we had it over tortelloni. Thanks for the super easy and delicious recipe!
Lauren
Is it possible to make this without tomatoes? My daughter is very sensitive to them and I want to be able to put some type of sauce on pasta for her. Thanks!
Ale
Thank you for such a delicious recipe! I love the touch of cinnamon. I used only 1 tsp of maple syrup and homemade tomato sauce instead of tomato purée + water. Scrumptious!
Sharon
This is amazing! We ate it with homemade vegan mushroom ravioli, and it was incredible! Megan – Do you know if it freezes well? I’d love to make 3-4 huge batches and keep them in my freezer so they are as easy as store-bought marinara.
katie
I feel like I wait all summer to make this sauce come autumn!! So, so, so, so, SO delicious. I top with a bit of crushed red pepper because I’m a spice fiend, but the sauce really does offer up a world of flavor on its own!