Creamy Lemon Pasta with Spring Vegetables | One Pot One Portion
This spring vegetable pasta is similar is style to a carbonara, with a silky cheese sauce, but uses fresh and bright asparagus, broccoli and peas in place of salty cured meats. Lots of lemon zest is also added to this and the result is a beautifully bright and light pasta, perfect for enjoying at lunch or dinner while the sun shines.
Hello readers! I'm Eleanor..
If you like this recipe, make sure to follow me on my socials for more!
About this dish
This is a beautifully fresh and light pasta dish that celebrates spring vegetables and flavours. The technique is inspired by a carbonara, using eggs and hard cheese mixed with pasta water to create a silky sauce, but instead of using guanciale or pancetta, I've kept this vegetarian and instead blanch spring vegetables in the pasta water and adding lemon zest to the egg mixture.
I've made a similar recipe before- my Creamy Green Linguine- and its one of the most popular recipes, with over 12 million views across social media. The method for this asparagus and pea pasta is similar, adding the vegetables to the pasta while it cooks, then stirring through the egg and pecorino once cooked, allowing it to emulsify with the pasta water to create the sauce.
The flavour of this dish is predominately lemon, with beautiful bright freshness from the vegetables too. I've used asparagus, broccoli and petite pois because they all retain a nice bite after blanching. The end result is a gorgeous creamy lemon pasta.
If you like this recipe you might also like my other ONE POT ONE PORTION PASTA RECIPES like my Creamy Lemon Orzo, my Ground Turkey, Pea & Asparagus Pasta or my Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino.
Why you want to make this recipe
15 Minute Meal
This recipe only takes about 15 minutes. This is a 15 minute one-pan meal that is cooked on the hob so is super quick and easy. The vegetables cook in the pasta water then all that's left to do is stir through the egg and pecorino mixture to create a silky emulsified sauce.
Bright & Light
This is the perfect spring lunch or dinner recipe because it's beautifully fresh, focussing on seasonal vegetables and flavours.
One Pot Recipe
As with all of my recipes, this is a one pot dish or one pan dish, which makes every meal time easier and more enjoyable. Cooking for one is hard so only having one dish at the end of the meal keeps this feeling easy and accessible-because it is!
Single-Serve
Again, as always, this recipe is for single-serve tacos so you can make this just for yourself! The perfect dinner for one. Though it would be very easy to scale up to serve multiple people if needed.
Top Tips
Getting a silky carbonara sauce
- My top tip for getting the perfect silky sauce is to ensure that you're adding enough pasta water to the egg and cheese mixture. You add the water while hot, which tempers the eggs (gently cooking them without scrambling them), then add them back to the pan keeping the heat very low to gently let the sauce emulsify and create the perfect silky texture to coat the pasta.
- Cook the pasta for less time than you think. This is because the pasta will continue to cook once the egg mixture is added back to the pan, and you want the end result to still be nice and al dente.
- Reserve more pasta water than you think! You can always add more if you need it, but if you don't keep enough then you might be left with a stiff sauce, and no one wants that! The pasta will also absorb more water as it cools, so you want it to be looser than you think just before you serve it.
Ingredients and Tools
Orecchiette
- Orecchiette means 'little ears' which you can see in the shape of this pasta. The gentle concave means this pasta shape scoops up the beautiful silky sauce and chopping the vegetables into small pieces means they get scooped up in the crevices too.
Asparagus
- One of my favourite seasonal spring vegetables, I usually pan fry or roast my asparagus but here it's quickly blanched so its tender but still with a slight bite.
Broccoli
- Use regular or tenderstem broccoli, chopped into very small florets to create a similar size to the pasta shape.
Petite Pois
- Frozen peas are always in my freezer and when cooked for just a couple of minutes they retain a lovely bite and add a burst of freshness to the pasta.
Eggs
- The egg mixed with the hard cheese is what creates the sauce for this pasta. Adding pasta water to the mixture allows the egg to temper, reducing the likelihood that it will scramble when added to the hot pasta.
Pecorino
- You could use parmesan or pecorino but I prefer pecorino because it's slightly saltier, which I think works well in this particular dish because of the absence of any guanciale/pancetta (which would typically add salt). Use parmesan if it's all you have though!
Lemon
- The main flavour of this dish is lemon which keeps it super bright and fresh even though this style of sauce is typically associated with a richer dish like carbonara.
Step by Step Instructions
Boil the pasta: add the orecchiette to a pan of well-salted water and place over a medium high heat so the water is boiling. Boil for around 8 minutes.
Make the egg & cheese mixture: meanwhile mix the egg, cheese and lemon zest in a separate bowl until well combined. Add lots of black pepper and mix again.
Blanche the vegetables: when the pasta has had 8 minutes, add the broccoli, peas and asparagus and cook for another 2 minutes.
Mix together: Reserve at least 100ml of pasta water then drain the pasta and add back to the pan. Mix 50ml pasta water with the egg and cheese and stir to combine, then add this mixture to the pasta in the pan, on a very low heat. Stir continuously until the sauce is silky and has thickened up slightly (add more pasta water if it gets too thick). Serve up and top with a little drizzle of good quality olive oil.
Variations, Substitutions or Modifications
Gluten Free:
To make this recipe gluten-free all you need to do is use your favourite gluten-free pasta. You want to use a short pasta like orecchiette but if you can't find that then use rigatoni, fusilli or penne.
Vegetarian:
This recipe is already vegetarian!
FAQs
What vegetables can I add?
- I've used spring green vegetables in this pasta but you could use the same technique and use lots of different vegetables too. Add leafy greens like spinach or chard, or other vegetables like courgettes or mushrooms which you could pan fry before cooking the pasta, before adding back to the pan at the end.
Can I make a double portion?
- You can easily double up this single-serve recipe just by doubling the ingredients.
Ingredients
To Serve One, You Need:
- 100g Orecchiette
- 50g Asparagus, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 50g Broccoli, cut into very small florets
- 50g Frozen Peas
- 1 Egg
- 45g Grated Pecorino
- Zest of 1/2 Lemon
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt
- Black Pepper
Instructions
- Add the orecchiette to a pan of well-salted water and place over a medium high heat so the water is boiling.
- Boil for around 8 minutes. Meanwhile mix the egg, cheese and lemon zest in a separate bowl until well combined. Add lots of black pepper and mix again.
- When the pasta has had 8 minutes, add the broccoli, peas and asparagus and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Reserve at least 100ml of pasta water then drain the pasta and add back to the pan.
- Mix 50ml pasta water with the egg and cheese and stir to combine, then add this mixture to the pasta in the pan, on a very low heat.
- Stir continuously until the sauce is silky and has thickened up slightly (add more pasta water if it gets too thick).
- Serve up and top with a little drizzle of good quality olive oil.
More Recipes like this!
Chilli Cheese Masala Scrambled Eggs | One Pot One Portion
Chicken Salad Tostadas | One Pot One Portion
Like this recipe?
If you like this recipe, you'll love my cookbook! Full of delicious meals for all types of occasions, there's something for everyone
Meal Plans & More...
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly meal plans, for one! I select 5 one pot one portion recipes that use similar ingredients and include your shopping list plus recipe notes, ingredient swaps and tips and tricks for using up leftovers. Take a look at the first one here...
Ginger Chicken Rice Bowl
Usually I would consider a brothy meal that you eat with a bowl and a spoon a form of comfort food, however, the flavours in this dish are so fresh and vibrant that it has to go in this chapter. I love the fiery freshness of ginger and it’s the predominant flavour in this rich chicken broth. The finished dish isn’t a soup as such, but there is just enough broth to make every mouthful deliciously juicy. It also takes minimal time to make so it’s a useful recipe to have on hand for days when you’re short of time.
Curried Chicken Skewers with Satay Slaw
I have an affinity for crunchy slaws, as I think they provide more interest, more texture and are more filling than many other salads. However, I’m not partial to excessive quantities of mayonnaise. Here I opt for coconut milk instead, which delivers the same creaminess in a less monotonous way. The fresh coriander and bite of roasted peanuts keep this slaw lively and interesting and are perfect with the lightly charred curried chicken skewers. This would also be great sandwiched between a burger bun, or on a soft flatbread.
Creamy Green Linguine
In a way, this linguine changed my life. It was the first recipe in the series to take off on social media, bringing new people and new opportunities into my life. It’s an exceptionally simple recipe that uses the same water to cook both the pasta and the vegetables, which you then use to create a velvety, carbonara-esque sauce with the cheese and egg. I’ve retested this and tweaked it since its original conception and, though I can’t promise it will change your life, I can promise it will be delicious.
Vegetable Pancake with a Chilli Crisp Egg
This vegetable pancake has its origin in Korea (where they’re known as yachaejeon) and is the perfect dish to use up odds and ends of any vegetables you have lying around. Cabbage, spring onions, carrots and courgettes work really well and provide a nice balance of moisture and crunch, but peppers, potatoes, mushrooms or leafy greens are good alternatives. Depending on the vegetables you use, you may need more or less water to make the light batter so adjust as necessary.
Prawn & Mango Salad
The perfect fresh, but still flavourful, summer salad! This is a beautiful fragrant salad with a creamy, zingy coconut milk dressing. With just a little bit of chopping and a minute of whisking, you’ve got a gorgeous summer lunch, perfect for working from home, taking lunch to the office or a sunny meal in the garden this weekend.
Some big praise!
Take a look at what some of my happy customers have to say about "One Pot, One Portion"!
"One Pot One Portion is, to borrow from The Parent Trap “a brilliant beyond brilliant idea”…I know many feel that it’s too much bother to cook ‘just’ for themselves — a sad admission, I feel — and to those people, and many others besides, I say: get this book and prove yourself liberatingly wrong!…Thank goodness for books! And thank goodness for Eleanor Wilkinson, a young talent to lift the spirits…There are so many people who could benefit from this book…this book is a boon and a blessing"
"A genius approach to bringing joy to every meal, Eleanor gets that good food is the best form of self-love."
I buy a lot of cook books and this is genuinely one of the best l've ever bought. I've tried 6 or 7 recipes so far and they're all winners. I'm well used to scaling recipes down to one portion, but not having to calculate measurements as l go along feels like a little luxury. One of the best things about the book is that all the recipes are actually cooked in one pot - in a lot of other so-called books you still have to make your side dish in a separate pot. With these recipes, even if they include rice or pasta, it's all cooked together. No mountains of washing up! Highly recommended.
I have been following Eleanor on IG for a while and have made several of her dishes before the cookbook came out. I was thrilled to see so many new things to try and have already made about 6 of them. Her recipes are approachable, the dishes are delicious, and they make me feel like I can cook! Highly recommend.
If you love eating good home cooked food but can't be bothered to cook just for yourself, then this is the book for you. Using ingredients that are easy to find, then mixing, cooking and eating from the same pan or dish means a minimum of washing up. Every recipe I have tried so far has been delicious and have all turned out well which isn't always the case with many cookery books. Definitely recommend!
Following Eleanor on Instagram and seeing her recipes come to life is one thing but then having them in my own kitchen is quite another. Not only are the recipes easy to follow and delicious she also help you not to waste food. This book is like having all your favourite foods in one place with the added bonus of an old friend showing you the ropes. Congratulations Eleanor when can I pre-order the next one?
Bought this for my sister who cooks for one. She absolutely loved it finding it inspiring! So many great recipes to motivate and keep you cooking when it's just you eating!
Follow Eleanor on socials and knew I NEEDED this book immediately! SO glad I paid extra and had it shipped from the UK (to US). Eleanor's voice is loud and clear in every recipe. The pictures are beautiful, the instructions are perfectly clear, and I want to make EVERYTHING. I cannot recommend this book enough!
This is perfect, as far as influencer chefs go, I find this book refreshing in what has become a cohort of lauded influencers who really aren't doing much more than the bog standard meals most people make anyway, or making googled recipes and adding their own "flair". This book is different as it's your normal fare you'd likely make yourself, given a little bit of a twist to speed up the process / use less utensils / ingredients / food waste, in really creative and tasty ways, all perfectly portioned for one.
Great present! Bought this for my sister who cooks for one. She absolutely loved it finding it inspiring! So many great recipes to motivate and keep you cooking when it's just you eating!
Great present! Bought this for my sister who cooks for one. She absolutely loved it finding it inspiring! So many great recipes to motivate and keep you cooking when it's just you
Follow Eleanor on socials and knew I NEEDED this book immediately! SO glad I paid extra and had it shipped from the UK (to US). Eleanor's voice is loud and clear in every recipe. The pictures are beautiful, the instructions are perfectly clear, and I want to make EVERYTHING. I cannot recommend this book enough!
This recipe book is stunning and fulfils its role brilliantly in catering for individuals who want to eat delicious meals, but don't want to prepare family sized portions or devote their entire evening to cooking. Who'd believe you could make an entire roast for one person and only use one pan in the process! She is a genius and I couldn't recommend this book any more highly.
One of the best things about the book is that all the recipes are actually cooked in one pot - in a lot of other so-called books you still have to make your side dish in a separate pot. With these recipes, even if they include rice or pasta, it's all cooked together. No mountains of washing up!
This is the book I've been waiting for! I (very happily!) live alone, love to cook and read cookery books, but every recipe is for two people or more. This gorgeous book contains recipes perfectly proportioned for one person (and I'm always a very hungry one person!) which ensures more variety, less food waste, and pure, gluttonous joy.
It's so nice to finally have a recipe book that I can go to if I want a quick easy meal with minimal cleaning up required! Everything l've tried so far is delicious. And I salivate at the thought of everything in there!
Totally reignited my cooking mojo which had been MIA for a while. I'm going to buy my daughter a copy to take back to Uni too as everything is simple and delicious - perfect for a student!
Best cookbook for somebody single!
The fact I know I won't have loads to wash up really feels motivating and l've earmarked so many of the recipes already.
This book is like having all your favourite foods in one place with the added bonus of an old friend showing you the ropes. Congratulations Eleanor when can I pre-order the next one?