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Cream cheese pasta served on a red plate
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Cream cheese pasta with corn and spinach

Cream cheese pasta- a delicious vegetarian pasta recipe that's made with only 10 basic ingredients and gets ready in less than 20 minutes. If you are looking for quick and easy creamy pasta recipes that your whole family will enjoy then this easy cream cheese pasta recipe is a great option.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Diet Vegetarian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 730kcal
Author Vandana Chauhan

Equipment

  • 1 Large cooking pot to cook pasta
  • 1 large pan or skillet to make cream cheese pasta
  • 1 Whisk
  • Strainer to strain pasta

Ingredients

  • 400 gms uncooked pasta
  • 1.5 cups cream cheese
  • 1 cup chopped spinach fresh or frozen
  • 1 cup sweet corn kernels canned or frozen
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes adjust to taste
  • Ground black pepper to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Water to cook pasta

Instructions

  • Cook pasta al dente, as per the instructions given on its packet. Before draining, store 2 cups of pasta water.
  • Put cream cheese in a bowl, add pasta water (around ¼ cup at a time), and whisk until a smooth creamy mixture gets ready.
  • Heat oil in a pan. Add minced garlic and saute for about a minute.
  • Add corn kernels, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Saute until the corn gets cooked.
  • Next, add spinach and saute until the leaves get wilted.
  • Add cream cheese mix and cook while continuously stirring for around 2 minutes or until a nice smooth creamy sauce gets formed.
  • Finally, add cooked pasta and mix until everything gets combined. Add more pasta water, cream, or milk if the sauce is too thick.
  • Garnish with some freshly ground pepper and chili flakes. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

  1. Don't overcook the pasta otherwise, it will turn mushy spoiling the whole dish. Cook it al dente.
  2. For pasta water, take out the water just before straining. If you collect the water at an earlier stage there won't be enough starch in it. This starch helps in making a nice thick sauce.
  3. Instead of pasta water, you can also use cream and milk to mix with cream cheese for making the sauce.
  4. If you like even simpler pasta dishes, skip spinach and corn. Pasta in a simple cream cheese sauce with just some salt, pepper, garlic, and chili flakes also tastes awesome.
  5. For extra flavor, you can also add garlic powder and onion powder to this dish.
  6. To add more taste and texture, you can add cherry tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, green peas, green beans, carrots, spring onion, and other vegetables of your choice. 
  7. For extra rich and creamy pasta, you can use butter instead of olive oil.
  8. Cheese lovers may add more variety of grated cheese to the sauce.
  9. You can also use this dish to make cream cheese pasta bake.
  10. To make a gluten-free version of this dish, use gluten-free pasta. All the other ingredients used in it are gluten-free.
  11. More recipe tips and tricks are shared in the post above, please follow them to make this cream cheese pasta recipe.
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Nutrition

Calories: 730kcal | Carbohydrates: 86g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 94mg | Sodium: 370mg | Potassium: 449mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 2013IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 2mg