Creamy Mushroom Pasta (With Video!)

Creamy mushroom pasta with an easy mushroom white sauce, garlic, and no heavy cream. Ready in 30 minutes. Vegetarian.

this recipe

This easy, creamy mushroom pasta is one of our favorite weeknight recipes.

It’s quick, it’s simple, and it’s easy to adapt for whatever ingredients you have in the fridge! Just throw together your favorite pasta, an easy garlic mushroom pasta sauce, and any other proteins or veggies you have on hand (don’t worry – we’ll walk you through plenty of substitution ideas!)

Plus, y’know, any excuse to say “shrooooooooms!” in a singsongy voice over and over while I make dinner.

Let’s run through the ingredient checklist, shall we? Here’s how to make mushroom pasta:

• Pasta.
• Olive Oil.
• Garlic.
• Onion.
• THE SHROOMS.
• Lil’ bit of flour.
• Milk.
• Cheese.
• BOOM.
• DONEZO.

Riffs & Substitutions

The beauty of this creamy mushroom pasta is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be creamy mushroom pasta – you can substitute anything you have on hand to make it a complete dish!

• Out of parmesan cheese? Use cream cheese, goat cheese, shredded asiago or romano. You can use shredded mozzarella here if you like, but know that mozzarella will typically make this sauce much thicker and string-y-er (more like a mac and cheese).

• What mushrooms should I use? Use any mushrooms you like for this pasta: portobellos, button mushrooms, or cremini mushrooms are all good! (PS – More more info, check out this breakdown of mushroom types, flavors, and characteristics!)

• Add your favorite veggies. Add spinach, broccoli, butternut squash, corn, tomatoes, arugula, bell pepper, or any other seasonal veggies you have on hand. Toss quick-cooking veggies into the sauce right before serving; add heartier veggies in to sauté with the garlic and onion and adjust cook times as necessary.

• Add your favorite protein. Add some roasted or grilled chicken to your creamy mushroom sauce, or top your pasta with grilled or sautéed prawns, shrimp, or steak!

• Easy swaps. Use shallots or green onions instead of yellow onion if you like. You can leave the garlic and/or onion out if you need to, but you’ll lose some flavor: if you do this, we recommend adding some extra mushrooms and a pinch of herbs (thyme, rosemary, or sage) to round it out. And don’t forget to add salt!

• Nix the pasta. This cream sauce is great on spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles, or chicken.

• To make this pasta vegan, (or if you just want it without dairy!) swap our favorite Magic Cauliflower Cream Sauce for the milk and flour here. Use a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast in place of the parmesan (or omit it entirely!)

Adjusting the sauce

• Can I use heavy cream or half and half instead of milk? Yes! Keep in mind that swapping heavy cream for the milk in this recipe will create a much richer, alfredo style sauce. To make this switch, omit the flour (you won’t need it as a thickening agent since heavy cream will thicken quite well on its own when heated) and use just ¾ as much cream as you would milk to start (so, 1 ½ cups of cream or half and half for every 2 cups of milk called for – you can always add more later!)

• What about a mix of milk and heavy cream? If you’re short on milk or just want a slightly richer sauce, you can use a mix of milk, heavy cream, and/or half and half. We recommend reducing the amount of flour by half and using a 50-50 split (50% milk, 50% heavy cream) to keep things simple. If you’re using more than 50% heavy cream, omit the flour entirely (you don’t need it to thicken the sauce if you have that much cream!)

• To lighten up this sauce, swap the milk and flour for our favorite (vegan!) Magic Cauliflower Cream Sauce. You can also swap ½ cup of the milk for white wine, chicken broth, or reserved pasta water for a lighter sauce option.

VIDEO: HOW TO MAKE CREAMY MUSHROOM PASTA

One quick note: In the written recipe, we ask you to cook your mushrooms first and THEN add the garlic and onion. But in this video, you’ll notice we cooked the garlic and onion first! Both methods work just fine – but since we shot this video, we’ve found we prefer to cook the mushrooms first. Cooking the mushrooms first helps them brown better without having to compete for space with onion and garlic – giving them a slightly nicer texture! We’re in the process of recording a new how-to video for this recipe, so stay tuned!

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