One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta
An incredibly creamy, hearty pasta dish that you can make in just 20 minutes. Even the pasta gets cooked right in the pot!
Ever since I made that one pot pasta several weeks back, I’ve been on the hunt for more recipes like this – easy, effortless and sure to be a hit with the entire family. And this zucchini mushroom pasta is exactly that.
There is absolute no pre-cooking or sauteeing of any kind here. Simply throw everything into the pot, including the uncooked pasta and that is it.
The water will be completely soaked by the pasta and once the noodles are cooked through, you can toss in a little bit of heavy cream (or milk, if you’re watching your calories) for a thin, creamy pasta sauce. Easy peasy.
And don’t be too shocked when everyone just raves about how amazing this pasta is. Jason said this was the best pasta he’s ever had! I obviously didn’t tell him how easy it was. Hey, he did the dishes so it’s an even trade, right?
One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 1 pound cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 2 zucchini, thinly sliced and quartered
- ⅔ cup peas
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 sprigs thyme
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup grated Parmesan
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, combine spaghetti, mushrooms, zucchini, peas, garlic, thyme and 4 1/2 cups water; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked through and liquid has reduced, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in Parmesan and heavy cream.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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How much is a serving considered?
About 1-2 cups.
Huge failure for me. I like the recipe but the noodles were way to musty for me and the kids didn’t like the texture. I think next time I will just cook and drain the pasta separately then add cooked pasta to the rest
Made this tonight with gluten-free brown rice pasta. I know it would be better with regular pasta, but gluten-free worked for me. When I make one-pot pasta dishes with brown rice pasta, I bring everything else to a boil before I add the pasta, then I stir often and take it off the heat a bit before it’s done, as it gets mushier when it sits. Leftovers aren’t super great, but if I serve it right away it always works for me.
Love your One Pot Veggie & Pasta. Sounds absolutely delish! It opens up to all kinds of possibilities, especially with some of the other variations noted above. Personally, I would (1) skip the ‘shrooms (2) sub some other seasonal vegetables, and (3) sauté some chopped onions and several cloves of fresh garlic in some olive oil in the same pot first. (Like someone else mentioned, I would set the latter aside and add it again later with the dairy.)
BONUS TIP: If you want more flavor than plain old water, but don’t have any broth on hand or think many brands are too high in sodium for those with dietary restrictions, there is another way to spice it up. Add some tea. I have successfully swapped out cold and hot brewed tea for both water and broth. I have had great results in all sorts different dishes, soups, and stews too. It’s worked with black, green, oolong, and herbal blends. Some recipes work with cold brewed coffee too. If you enjoy the flavor as a beverage, chances are you will like it when used as a broth too. I simply recommend you choose something that will compliment the original flavor profile. Good luck & good taste!
I’m not seeing an amount of liquid to add to the pot with everything??? Am I blind? Probably just crazy
Please refer to step #1:
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, combine spaghetti, mushrooms, zucchini, peas, garlic, thyme and 4 1/2 cups water; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
This was wonderful! I was a little bit skeptical because the recipe seemed so simple, but it turned out delicious! I used whole wheat angel hair and finely shredded parm. Perfect!
I followed the directions to the t and it turned out really good but to me it doesn’t seem it has no flavor any ideas where I went wrong?
To all of the gluten free commenters – Brown rice pasta is notorious for clumping up and having a strong taste. I refuse to buy it anymore. I’ve actually found that Barilla brand gluten free pasta is FANTASTIC and not only cooks but also tastes very similar to its gluten filled counterpart.
Made this today; used wholegrain pasta, put the exact veggies but used unsweetened almond milk for the creamy part. It actually turned out very well! Athough the veggies cooked pretty quickly, I didn’t mind at all. The almond milk didn’t make it very creamy but with the addition of parmezan cheese it was great. So the people who do not want to use dairy milk, I can say the almond milk is not bad!
Thank you Chungah for this great recipe!
When I first looked at this recipe and read the comments, I noticed that some people had trouble using gluten free brown rice noodles. However, I didn’t experience these problems — maybe the pasta has improved over the years or maybe it’s just the brand?? Mine turned out looking exactly like Chungah’s in the photo. I made half a recipe since there’s only my husband and me to cook for and there’s just enough to for both of us to enjoy the leftovers for another meal. So, so happy that this didn’t require a lot of fussing — I love to cook but sometimes, we all need something easy! 🙂
This! This was super easy, super quick! I just made this for my fiancé and he loved it! So damn delicious! Thank you! Definitely making this again! Yum! <3
Just made this! Delicious and super easy.
One suggestion, I would wait till the very end to throw the peas in. Mine boiled down and “dissappeared” into the pasta as it cooked. Great recipe!
Made this last night and it turned out great! Makes enough for an army though. Will make again and probably find a way to reduce the amount of pasta.
The flavor of the dish was good, but I didn’t like the starchy texture of the noodles. This is due to cooking the water down and not draining the pasta. It left a starchy feel in my mouth.
I would do this again, but cook the noodles separately and make a nice parmesan bechamel sauce with the vegetables added in before serving. I like my sauce a bit more, saucy, so it doesn’t completely soak into the noodles. There is enough in the pot to have leftovers even though the first meal fed 3 adults and 3 kids. I expect the leftovers to be somewhat dry. The noodles will need refreshing to make them creamy again.
Overall though, this was a great way to use our summer zuchini harvest. Our zuchinis are huge, so I only used half of a large one and not 2 like the recipe says. I assume the 2 mentioned in the ingredients list are the usual grocery store size, which are tiny compared to garden fresh fruits. We got by with half of one, and it was plenty.
I’ve got 5 more large ones to use. I’ll try this again with the sauce spooned over the noodles.
About how many cups of zucchini do you think would equal two zucchini? Sorry but I have larger zucchini in my garden so I was just wondering the measurement?
About 2 cups per average zucchini.
I used a few spoonfuls of white pizza sauce from the jar instead of the cream and parmesan (well it had those ingredients). Definitely serve immediately. Even letting it sit for a little bit while I heated up some chicken was not good. I tried to rescue it by adding a bit more water (maybe 4 tbsp) but it ended up overcooking the pasta. I used Angel hair; next time will use something heartier.
Wellll mine was a disaster. However I am fairly sure its my fault. 4.5 cups of water did not look like nearly enough water, i added an extra cup. I added carrots and squash and set it to boil. By the time the noodles were cooked, the zuchinni and squash were complete mush. And of course there was too much liquid,my bad lol. When i tried to get some of tbe liquid out it mushed my veggies even more. In the end it tasted exactly like ramen noodles. Because of course adding the milk to it with too much water did not work, at all.
So, follow the recipe and you should be fine. Hoping to try this again, but will probably just cook it all seperate, as i ended up using more dishes than i would have if i would have started it in seperate pans to begin with. My first fail from this site, and all over an extra cup of water lol
Hi. Do you think you can prep and freeze ahead of time? Would it come out the same?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
This worked perfectly with whole wheat spaghetti! Thank you for such a wonderful recipe, this was delicious!!
Fed this meal to my missus. She said it was the most bland meal she ever had, and she was a on a cabbage diet once as a teenager :-S
I ended up putting a butt ton on cheese in it to make it a bit more tasty. Disappointing.
Better off trying the zucchini and mushroom separately admnd cooking the pasta on its own before throwing together with a separately made white sauce. The convenience of one pot does not make up for how lacking in flavour this dish is.
Juan , I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see with over 400 comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. However, I understand that we all have different taste preferences, and I really appreciate your honest feedback.