Oven-Baked Vegan Spaghetti Cups

Back in my endurance-athlete days—a long time ago, when I was running long distances—I used to eat a big, generous plate of spaghetti the night before a race.

There was a reason for all that pasta: spaghetti delivers the carbohydrates you need to fuel long stretches of aerobic exercise.

I won't bury you in the science, but here's the short version: your body breaks down the starch in pasta into glucose and stores some of it as glycogen, a complex carbohydrate stored mainly in your muscles and liver. Think of it as fuel set aside for when you need readily available energy.

During a marathon, your muscles break down that glycogen to help supply the energy that keeps you running.

Lots of races hold a big pasta party the night before, and I can tell you this: the pasta at those parties was always the best pasta in the world. Every race. Every time. I think it was partly the relief of finally finishing a long, grueling stretch of training, mixed with the excitement of knowing that the starting line was just hours away.

I've always had trouble measuring exactly how much pasta I'm eating. Somehow, big helpings—especially spaghetti—would "find their way" straight from the pot onto my plate, throwing off the calorie balance I was aiming for before a race.

So I found a simple, fun way to portion spaghetti that also happens to look a little festive and very appetizing: vegan spaghetti cups.

A Little About These Vegan Spaghetti Cups

The idea is simple: toss cooked spaghetti with a creamy, protein-rich sauce, then bake it in a muffin pan.

I used organic tricolor spaghetti from Harduf (an Israeli organic food brand). Full disclosure: they also helped make this recipe happen. You can swap in any pasta you like: spaghetti, penne, fusilli, even ptitim (Israeli pearl-shaped pasta). Have fun with it.

For the sauce, I used silken tofu seasoned with nutritional yeast and garlic. You can blend in cooked or raw beets, carrots, pumpkin, fresh or roasted tomatoes, or whatever vegetables you love. It'll be delicious.

You can also replace my sauce with tomato sauce, a cashew cream sauce, or any other pasta sauce you like.

Here's an older post of mine with 3 pasta sauces – you might find a new favorite

Nutritional yeast flakes give the sauce a deep, cheesy flavor. You can substitute the same amount of white miso.

Nutrition Information From Noam Bachar (an Israeli clinical dietitian and fitness trainer):

One vegan pasta cup out of 10, weighing 60 g (2.1 oz), contains:

• 88 calories
• 5 g protein
• 102 g carbohydrates
• 3 g fat

Vegan Pasta Cups

With a rich, creamy sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Yield 10 pasta cups

Ingredients

• 140 g (5 oz) Harduf organic tricolor pasta, dry about 300 g (10.6 oz) after cooking and draining
• 100 g (3.5 oz) silken tofu
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes 50 g (1.8 oz)
• 1 garlic clove
• 5 teaspoons olive oil 25 ml (about 5 teaspoons)

Instructions

1. Fill a pot with water, add a tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.

2. Add the Harduf tricolor spaghetti and cook until tender.

   

3. Drain the spaghetti, drizzle with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking, and set aside.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Make the Sauce

1. Blend the silken tofu, nutritional yeast flakes, garlic, and olive oil until completely smooth.

2. Taste and add salt if needed.

3. Pour the sauce into a deep bowl, add the spaghetti, and toss well until every strand is coated.

   

4. Twirl a fork to gather a bite-size bundle of spaghetti. Patience—don't eat it yet!

5. Transfer the bundle to a muffin-pan well.

6. Repeat until you've used all the pasta.

7. Sprinkle a little nutritional yeast over the top.

8. Bake for about 20–30 minutes, until golden.

9. The pasta cups will release easily from the pan only after they've cooled. A little more patience—you've got this.