It turns out that it’s no big deal to make homemade vegan pasta. No eggs? No problem. You can apparently even make pasta with just flour and water alone, but I fancied things up with a splash of olive oil to replace the richness of the eggs and a spoonful of turmeric for color.
I made these noodles to serve in my zippy noodle curry, but they would certainly stand up well to other sauces. They are a bit less sturdy than the egg noodles, so I would advise letting them dry out for a little while before you cook them so they don’t end up mushy. We draped towels over all the kitchen cabinets and hung noodles everywhere while I was cooking dinner, and that seemed like plenty of drying time.
You can vary this recipe, of course, to change the flavor or color of the pasta. I’m thinking of making pink pasta by adding some of my beet powder, and of course we love spinach pasta (you can blend the 2 c. spinach as I did in that recipe with your liquid ingredients, reducing the water in the recipe below by about 3 Tbsp.).
Homemade Vegan Pasta: Mix 2 c. flour (Italian “00” is primo, but all-purpose will certainly do the trick) with 1 tsp. turmeric and 1/4 tsp. salt in a mixer/food processor/bowl, then add 1/2 c. water and 2 Tb. olive oil while stirring or mixing on low speed. The dough should come together in a ball; if it is too sticky or dry, add more flour or water one spoonful at a time. Turn out onto a cutting board and knead until smooth. Cover and let rest 15 minutes.
Cut dough into 4-6 pieces and flatten each into a rough rectangle. Set your pasta roller to the widest setting and roll the dough through, then fold in half or thirds and roll again to continue kneading the dough. Do this a few times, then stop folding and start thinning out the dough by running it through the machine on progressively thinner settings. When your pasta is suitably thin, repeat with remaining dough. Fold the dough several times and slice into noodles like in these photos. (If the pasta seems at all sticky, flour it lightly for this step.) Pull apart and hang your noodles to dry for a while on the back of a chair or a kitchen cabinet door. Cook in a boiling pot of salted water for a few minutes, tasting as you go (cooking time will depend on the thickness of your pasta).
Emmy Cooks 
Pass the fork, please.
Here you go!
Great Minds Think Alike? We just posted a fresh pasta on our blog too!
Loving your blog btw.
Thanks so much–yours too! I am now officially watching for your ravioli filling recipe. Mmm, goat cheese. :)
Very impressive! Given my resistance to wheat products, I’ve actually never made pasta – this makes it sound doable! Awesome, Emmy!
I know that you can use other flours, but I haven’t tried that–I hope you’ll post about it if you do!
Oh Emmy, I absolutely adore you! Thank you so much for this recipe! I am going to forward a link to Carolyn on my blog so we can make pasta together this week (I need her, she has the pasta roller!) I’m going to tweak it and try to make it with whole grain flour – I will let you know about the results! I may even add some ground legumes! And to think I pay 5 bucks a package for organic whole wheat lasagna noodles! No more!
Nice! Pasta-making is always better with a friend. I am looking forward to you healthy-ing up the recipe for me, I’ll probably make it your way from then on! (And I agree, once you know how simple it is to make your own pasta, it’s hard to keep paying so much for it.)
I will try and post something by Saturday! I love bloggie friendships!
I like the idea of coloring the pasta with turmeric. Was there a strong turmeric flavor? It gets my imagination going to think about pasta flavors and sauce pairings. Like this pasta with curry. Or beet pasta with goat cheese!
Well, you know how you’re supposed to rotate your ground spices every six months? Embarrassingly, my turmeric is much older than that. So really, no turmeric taste to speak of! Your results may vary. :) Beet pasta with goat cheese, yes!
Yeah, I can get kind of bad about rotating spices too. There is this tiny market around the corner from me that sells super small little ziploc baggies of spices. The look like drugs! But I never have to worry about have a cup of mustard seeds when I only needed a 1/4 teaspoon!
I was reading this thing in one of those supermarket tabloids about how Thandie Newton mixes a little turmeric into her moisturizer every day. Apparently it’s an anti-inflammatory and doesn’t actually make you look jaundiced!
Then I saw this about a turmeric face mask you can make:
http://www.crunchybetty.com/beauty-secrets-from-around-the-world-turmeric
Good way to use it up!
Did you try with semolina flour as well? I’ve not yet tried making eggless pasta, but for tagliatelle I use semolina flour (00 for ravioli) and I know that handmade eggless pasta in Puglia is madd with semolina.
Madd=made
No, I have never used semolina flour for pasta. I think that would help to make it sturdier, do you think that’s right? That’s a good idea–funny how those Italian nonnas mush have known what they were doing. :) Thanks for the history & cooking lesson! I tend to just use what I have on hand, but I will put semolina on my shopping list and try it next time. You are saying that you use semolina flour (100%?) for your egg noodles as well, right? I see some experimentation in my future.
Italian nonne did know what they were doing most of the time, but to a great extent the local cuisine is also determined by what was available locally. In southern Italy durum wheat is available from which semolina flour is made (actually called semola in Italian) because durum wheat grows well in a warm climate.
You are right: pasta from semolina flour is sturdier. 00 flour makes lighter and smoother pasta, perfect if you’d like to make something delicate. Fresh pasta from semolina flour is sturdier and coarser, and thus the sauce clings better to it.
I used to use a mixture (around 50/50) as ‘alround’, but lately I’ve been using more 100% 00 for ravioli and 100% semolina for noodles. Which is not to say that ravioli from 100% semolina or noodles from 100% will be bad if that’s what you have on hand.
Another variable to experiment with is substituting part of the eggs with egg yolks (for richer pasta, up to 100% egg yolks) or with water (for lighter pasta, down to no eggs at all).
Not to mention adding other ingredients such as salt, olive oil, etc.
I certainly can’t say I’ve tried everything, so more experimentation in my future as well!
Wow, this makes it sound so easy! I might have to invest in a pasta roller…
Pingback: Fresh Pasta for Vegans | Chilli Garlic Sauce
Thank you so much for this recipe, we use it all the time for our vegan lasagne and it’s yummy! Always works a treat.