Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

A vegetable-packed pasta dish with rich tomato flavours baked till slightly crispy with a crumbled tempeh topping. Sprinkled with lots of homemade almond parmesan, this vegan dinner is hearty, healthy and very easy to make for the family.

Pasta is not a common dish in my recipe archives, but it’s not because I don’t enjoy it, because I really do.  I often feel like there are more exciting things out there so I forget about good old pasta. And I feel very sorry to my Italian roots for saying that. I remember months spent in Italy when the question of the morning was “I wonder which pasta shape I’ll have for lunch and dinner today”. It’s totally normal to have pasta for lunch and dinner and there are different shapes depending on what you’re serving it with…

Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

Now, this recipe for Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble isn’t fussy on the shape or type of pasta. Smaller shapes like penne, fusilli, farfalle or even large macaroni work wonders. Use durum wheat, fresh pasta, gluten-free pasta, lentil pasta… whatever takes your fancy.

The sauce for this bake is very easy and comes together in about 15 minutes on the hob, using fresh vegetables, paprika, chickpeas and tomato passata (I love the Mr Organic passata). Add in some spinach and fresh basil before stirring in the pasta. Before the dish goes into the oven, top it with lovely and crisp pan-friend crumbled tempeh (which takes 5 minutes) and then lots of almond parmesan. Simply blitz up almonds to a fine crumble and stir in some nutritional yeast, salt and black pepper. The recipe for the parmesan makes more than you’ll need here, so you can enjoy it sprinkled over salads, soups, sandwiches and more pasta for a while longer.

Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

This Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble is really easy, family-friendly and perfect for meal-prep. Make up a big batch and enjoy warm or cold throughout the week or serve to guests for dinner. It is great for meat-eaters too as it is filling, wholesome and hearty.

If you are looking for more hearty mains, try my Roasted Red Pepper and Cauliflower Harissa Traybake, Tempeh Marinara with Rice or Roasted Aubergine and Tomato Pesto Pasta.

Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

• Servings: 2
• Time: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A vegetable-packed pasta dish with rich tomato flavours baked till slightly crispy with a crumbled tempeh topping. Sprinkled with lots of homemade almond parmesan, this vegan dinner is hearty, healthy and very easy to make for the family.

Ingredients

• ½ onion, small dice
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 red pepper, small dice
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 400g tomato passata
• 1 tin chickpeas, drained (240g)
• 2 tbsp tamari soy sauce
• 50g spinach
• 180g pasta
• 4 sprigs fresh basil, torn
• 100g tempeh
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 40g ground almonds (or blitz whole almonds to a fine meal)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Directions

1. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Fry for 5 minutes. Add in the carrot and pepper and fry for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Stir in the paprika and then pour in the tomato passata, chickpeas, tamari soy sauce and some salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions, then drain, saving some of the cooking water.
4. Meanwhile, crumble the tempeh with your hands. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan and add the tempeh, cooking until golden and crisp, about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
5. Stir together the ground almonds and nutritional yeast with some salt and black pepper. Keep leftovers in an airtight jar or container.
6. Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C. Add the pasta to the tomato sauce with the spinach, basil leaves, 2 tbsp of cooking water and stir until the greens wilts.
7. Pour the pasta into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle over the crumble tempeh and about 3 tbsp of the almond mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes until crisp on top.

Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble

I hope you will enjoy this Tomato and Chickpea Pasta Bake with Tempeh Crumble so let me know what you think in the comments. Tag me in your creations, too – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With baked pasta love x