Easy Lemon Pepper Pasta with Asparagus

One of the easiest pasta you can make is this lemon pepper pasta. It is laughingly simple and quick to make. You only need 5 ingredients and 15 minutes. We love to enjoy this refreshing pasta recipe with some green veggies. Our favorite version is this asparagus lemon pasta. 

Do you like quick and easy vegan meals that you can make in 15 minutes? How about 45 delicious recipes you can make within 15 minutes? We sure. The most popular among them is our easy vegan alfredo sauce recipe. Not surprisingly. It is the most delicious and creamy garlicky alfredo sauce I have ever tasted. Give it a try if you have 15 minutes! Or maybe just after this equally easy and tasty lemony pasta sauce. 

What to expect from this recipe?

It is, what it is: a quick, easy, and refreshing pasta sauce that you can make using only a couple of ingredients, like butter, lemon juice, black pepper, and garlic. Because you always need some garlic. Am I right?

It is a delicious basic sauce recipe that goes great with a lot of vegetables. If you don’t want a tomato-based or cream-based pasta sauce, this is the recipe you want to try. I’ll tell you why. Because this lemon pepper sauce is

• refreshing,
• buttery,
• tangy, but not too lemony flavor
• light.

Need I say more? You can never find an easier sauce recipe than this. 

Ingredients

This pasta dish uses very simple ingredients you probably have in your pantry like:

• Pasta -> we used penne, but you can choose any other type of pasta
• Butter -> we used dairy-free
• Garlic
• Fresh lemon juice -> freshly squeezed if possible
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Asparagus -> see below for more suggestions
• Optional: Lemon zest, vegan Parmesan cheese, or nutritional yeast
• Red pepper flakes -> only if you like spicy things

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

Preparing the ingredients

• Pre-cook asparagus. We show you the steps below.
• Pre-cook pasta according to package instructions. No need to have reserved pasta water since it is a buttery sauce and not a creamy luscious sauce. It kind of coats the pasta invisible.
• Peel and mince garlic cloves.
• Juice the lemon.

Preparing and precooking asparagus

1. Rinse them.
2. Snap them. Where they break, they break. (See the below picture for reference.) You can’t really snap them at the wrong place. They break where the asparagus gets woody and hard. Discard the bottom or use them in veggie stock.
3. Peel the ends if needed. If the end of the asparagus is still thick after snapping, you can peel the bottom inch or two with a vegetable peeler.
4. Cut them. We prefer to cut them into bite-sized pieces about 2 inches long (2-3 cm). 
5. Pre-cook them. Take a large pot and cook them in salted water for a couple of minutes! It has to be almost done as you will cook it further in the frying pan. You can test it with a fork. It is tender enough if the fork easily passes through. It is too cooked if you can squish it with your fingers. Drain and use it in your pasta dish.

Making the lemon pepper pasta sauce

1. Take a frying pan or large skillet and heat it to medium heat. Add butter and wait until it melts.
2. Add minced or finely chopped garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until they soften and get a light yellowish color.
3. Add pre-cooked asparagus, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper, and cook until asparagus is tender.
4. Finally, add pre-cooked pasta and toss and stir. It is ready to be served! As an option, you can sprinkle it with nutritional yeast or parmesan (vegan or not). Enjoy!

What to serve with it?

I know lemon is supposed to go great with seafood like salmon or shrimp as well as chicken breasts so you may think of making it as a side dish for them. But since we are a vegan blog we vote for GREEN VEGGIES!!! instead. And lots of them. So this lemon pepper pasta can become a light spring or summer lunch you can whip up in 15 minutes.

I think you can tell that our absolutely favorite vegetable to add to this dish is asparagus. It has an earthy and mildly bitter aftertaste which is perfectly balanced by the lemon and the black pepper. If you manage to score some really fresh and young ones, they taste very light and green.

If you don’t have asparagus, what else can you add? 

• Brussels sprouts 
• broccoli or broccolini 
• green beans
• leafy greens like spinach or kale
• artichoke
• zucchini
• green peas
• fresh herbs (I can totally picture it with basil, rosemary, or even sage)

Different veggies will need to be prepared differently. In this recipe, we show you in detail only how to prep and precook asparagus. 

FAQ and substitutions

How to tell if asparagus is bad?

The most important thing to know is that the best asparagus is vibrant green, fresh, and young. So, when you see some in the local market or in stores, grab them quickly and eat them in the next 3-4 days. If you have old asparagus, you have to discard a large portion of the stalk, or will be too fibrous to eat. Not so yummy!

• If the spears are slimy, it means they probably stored them wrong and they started to rot.
• If the stalks are wrinkly, it means they are too dry. Even if you cook them, they will feel fibrous. I would rather use them for veggie stock.
• If the whole smells bad, then you are better off throwing them in the trash.

How to store asparagus?

Sadly, they won’t hold long in the fridge. Especially if you store them bundled up or within a plastic wrap.

I have a little trick to keep them from drying:

If it is the end of the season or the asparagus are already woody and wrinkly, after preparing them as per the below steps I usually drop them in a pan of cold water. I store them in the water and in the fridge. I found that if I don’t store them in water, then they snap closer to the spear, so I lose a larger portion of the stalk. In this way, the drying stops, but you have to use them within 2 more days tops.

Can I use white asparagus?

Yes, of course. Although you need to prepare white asparagus a little differently than the green ones. First, wash them. Snap them or cut off at least 2 cm (1-2 inches) from the bottom. Peel them about 2 cm (1-2 inches) of the new bottom. They tend to be thicker, so you need to pre-cook them longer. Boil the asparagus in the water for 10 min (very thick asparagus for 12-15 min).

Can I add roasted asparagus to this pasta sauce?

Absolutely, you can roast asparagus or any other veggies separately. Add them right before serving and after you mixed the lemon pepper sauce with the pasta. 

What pasta should you choose?

Tagliatelle, pappardelle, fusilli, fettuccine, spaghetti… really whichever type you fancy or have at home. 

How to store it?

It is really a quick and light sauce, so it is not suitable for batch cooking. If you have any leftovers you can keep them in the fridge for 1-2 days. A quick note though that the longer you store the pasta, the more sauce it will absorb. It means that on day 2, your pasta might be much drier. 

Can you freeze it? 

We don’t really recommend freezing.  

Allergen info

This Asparagus Lemon Pepper Pasta recipe is vegan, so meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. 

• Vegan – All ingredients are supposed to be vegan. The only thing to look out for is pasta since certain brands may contain eggs. Your best bet is durum wheat pasta.
• Nut-free – As far as I know, none of the ingredients should include any nuts. To be on the safe side, check for cross-contamination issues in any products you buy including pasta and butter.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – If you want to skip the butter or any type of oil then this sauce will be hard to make compliant.
• Gluten-free – The only ingredient you need to watch is pasta. Choose from so many different gluten-free alternatives like this quinoa spaghetti or a more protein-packed edamame spaghetti or chia flour pasta. Not to mention zucchini noodles for a low-carb alternative.
• Soy-free – All ingredients should be free from any soy products.

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UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in May 2020. More tips, info, and FAQs have been added and it was republished in July 2022.