This simple Lemon Pasta makes for a light and flavorful meal. Spaghetti noodles are tossed with freshly squeezed lemon, spinach, and fresh herbs. It's quick and easy, vegetarian, and simple to make vegan too!
There are times when you are about to make dinner when you open the fridge or pantry and empty shelves stare back at you.
What do you make on those nights?
For me, it's almost always one of my favorite pasta recipes.
If you have some spaghetti (or really any kind of pasta) on hand, a bit of parmesan cheese and fresh lemons - dinner is only a few minutes away.
Perfect when you have hungry hoards moaning that they need to be fed. But that never happens, right?
This Lemon Spaghetti is so much better (and healthier!) than resorting to takeout.
In a matter of minutes, you can have a delicious meal on your plate with hardly any effort. And you guys know I love easy- it's why I wrote a whole cookbook full of one-pot recipes!
While our shelves aren't exactly empty, we are trying to use up the contents of our fridge and some of the things in the pantry before we move homes at the end of the week.
So lemon pasta was what we had for dinner last night. I have to say the lemon spaghetti was absolutely delicious and was a hit with my husband, who requested lemon spaghetti for dinner again tonight!
This recipe is also completely vegan if you just leave off the parmesan cheese. It's perfectly delicious without it! (And if you love vegan cooking, be sure to grab my free vegan substitution cheat sheet here.)
You can add a bit of fresh cracked black pepper for added flavor too.
While you're here, be sure to grab our FREE 5-Day Meatless Meal Plan. It's packed with tasty recipes to make vegetarian cooking easy and delicious!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, optional
- ½ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- ¾ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon pepper, plus more to taste
- 1 pound spaghetti, dried
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup baby spinach leaves
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest, grated
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and season well with salt. Add the spaghetti and cook until tender.
- Drain the spaghetti, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
- Return the spaghetti to the pan and add the lemon sauce, lemon zest, parsley and spinach. Gradually add the reserved cooking liquid,¼ of a cup at a time, to moisten.
- Season the pasta with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Goodies for a pleas says
This sounds yummy. I have to give it a try 🙂 LG Tina
betty says
LEMON AND PARMESAN WORK WELL TOGETHER YUM! My recent post Diggies
john@heneedsfood says
This looks and sounds divine. I love ut!
delicieux says
Thanks John 😀 It's a favourite in our house with my fiance requesting me to make it weekly.
tafino says
I love spaguetti! In all the ways made, so simple, so fast, so delicious and this kind of food that with anything you have in the fridge allways convine well 🙂 and never did it with lemon, I will try for sure! Thanks for the idea!
Rosemary Grubb says
This looks like a lovely recipe, I had a wonderful Italian cookbook that went walk about and I miss it terribly. It had a lemon spaghetti recipe in it. That recipe added a small amount of chilli. It was delicious, the garlic, chilli and lemon coated the spaghetti very yum.My kitchen is about 30 years old, but I love my house and know it will be a couple of years or so before its changed so I don't worry about it. I am happy with the way I have organized it, I brought the area for the dining table into the kitchen with lots of shelves and a butchers trolley for a 2nd work space. The dining table is just outside the door on an enclosed verandah. Works very well.Your blog is great, I love your photos.
kankana says
That is our fav pasta sauce and I too learned it from Giada. Quick and easy and you can never go wrong with it 🙂
Marko says
I'm not good at cooking but I will try 🙂 My girlfriend will be happy... Thank you for sharing!
Eija says
Lovely Recipie . I was wondering what to cook for dinner and saw that your fiancé had posted this on the cooking forum at work. Nice fresh flavours and as a meal not too heavy and not too light. I used South Cape Parmesan which has a beautiful smoothe flavour and is creamier than the others.
Danijela says
Spaghetti and pasta can always save my day. I love lemon, so, this looks like a perfect combination to me. Thanks. Congrats on your new bigger kitchen. 🙂