As much as I love a big bowl of pasta, it’s not really the best thing on a hot summer night when you want something lighter. That’s when I created this sweet potato pasta with chickpeas and spinach. Over the past couple of weeks I have been experimenting with different veggies as substitutes for pasta.
Zucchini is a popular one that pairs really well with pesto or pasta sauce. For sweet potato noodles, I went with Asian/Thai inspired flavors and loved how it turned out!
In case you need more convincing to try this dish, let’s take a quick look at how subbing a vegetable for pasta can add not only flavor but numerous healthy benefits.
- One cup of white pasta has 330 calories, while one cup of sweet potato pasta has only 114!
- Pasta has little to no Vitamin A, while one cup of sweet potato pasta provides over 300% of the RDA.
- Both white pasta and sweet potatoes actually have a similar amount of fiber – around 4 grams.
- Traditional pasta does have more protein, but you can make up the difference with the addition of ground meat, tempeh, or chickpeas as a topping.
- Vegetable “pasta” is a great alternative for those with gluten-intolerance who can’t tolerate most traditional pastas.
Other Asian-Inspired Recipes You’ll Love
- Asian Noodle Bowl with Basil Soy Dressing {Vegan}
- Tempeh and Broccoli Stir Fry
- Deconstructed Sushi Bowl
- Cauliflower Fried Rice with Tofu
- Teriyaki Tempeh Bowl
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Spicy Sweet Potato Pasta with Chickpeas and Spinach
Ingredients
- 3 sweet potatoes peeled
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 2 cups spinach leaves
- 1/2 bell pepper cut in thin strips
- 2/3 cup chickpeas cooked
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon sriracha
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon coriander
Instructions
- Use a spiralizer/spiral slicer to make the sweet potato noodles. I used 3 potatoes to make about 2 1/2 cups of sweet potato pasta.
- Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the sweet potatoes and stir gently. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Add the spinach, chickpeas, bell pepper and garlic. Cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the spinach is wilted and the garlic is aromatic.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the ginger, sriracha, vinegar, paprika and coriander.
- Serve warm or cold with additional sriracha.
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Made this for lunch today and it was amazing! It literally took just a few minutes to prep and prepare.. my boyfriend and I polished off the whole recipe. Next time I would double to have leftovers! This came out perfectly and will be added to my regular rotation!
So happy to hear it Jenna!
Just looking at the colors is pretty tempting…I love it that you used ginger! 🙂
This looks so good… I love sweet potato noodles, never thought of adding chickepeas or spinach!
You should totally try it! Spinach and chickpeas are delicious with the sweet potato. 🙂
I wish I had a spiralizer! It would save me so much time with shaving vegetables into noodles. I’ve never made noodles with sweet potatoes before but I’d love to try. Yum!
I’ve tried making sweet potato noodles with my spiralizer and I think I cooked them too long, they came out super soggy and fell apart, haha. Cooking them for only about 5 minutes like in your recipe will probably be much better!
Oh no! You should totally try making sweet potato noodles again. Their short cooking time also means that dinner prep is super quick!
I love all the spices in this sweet potato noodle dish! I need to make this soon!
These are some of my favorite flavors all in one bowl! I haven’t tried to make sweet potato noodles, but it shouldn’t be difficult since some of them are HUGE! One of these days I’m going to upgrade to a fancier spiralizer. Until then I’ll use the zucchini noodle maker and my julienne peeler 🙂
I need to try spiralizing sweet potato – I am stuck on zucchini because it’s so good! This is a beautiful dish!
I love this! I just started using my spiralizer for sweet potatoes a few weeks ago. I used to only do zucchini and yellow squash, but sweet potatoes are amazing!