Lemon Pepper Pasta with Asparagus

One of the easiest pasta you can make is 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. 

We love quick and easy vegan meals. We even made a list of more than 45 recipes you can make within 15 minutes. 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. 

⇒ Get our FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN now! or check out all vegan meal plan recipes here! ⇐

What is lemon pepper pasta?

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

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

• refreshing,
• tangy, and
• light.

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

What veggies go great with this pasta sauce?

We vote for GREEN VEGGIES!!!

Our absolutely favorite veggie 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, and even no bitter taste at all.

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

Different veggies will need to be prepared differently to add. In this recipe we show you in detail only how to prep and pre-cook asparagus. 

How to make lemon pepper sauce?

Take a frying pan or a saucepan and heat it to medium heat. Add butter and wait until they melt (photo #1). Now, add the minced or finely chopped garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until they soften and get a light yellowish color (photo#2). Add the veggie of your choice (in our case, pre-cooked asparagus – see details below), the lemon juice, the salt and the black pepper (photo #3) and cook until veggies are soft. Finally, add pre-cooked pasta and toss and turn (photo #4). It is ready to be served! As an option you can sprinkle it with nutritional yeast or parmesan (vegan or not). Enjoy!

How to prepare and pre-cook asparagus?

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!

How to tell if asparagus is bad?

• 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.

Preparing and pre-cooking asparagus

1. Rinse them.
2. Snap them. Where they break, they break. (See 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 to bite-sized pieces about 2 inches long (2-3 cm). 
5. Pre-cook them. 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. 

FAQ and Substitutions

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 butter 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 left-overs you can keep it 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.  

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

This recipe is WFPB-friendly if you omit the olive oil or butter and sautee in water or veggie broth.

We eat gluten-free (read more about it here) therefore, we use gluten-free pasta. The sauce itself is gluten-free. If it is also important to you to eat gluten-free, you can choose from so many different 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. Endless possibilities right?

⇒ Get our FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN now! or check out all vegan meal plan recipes here! ⇐

More pasta recipes

You can browse through our Vegan and Gluten-free Dinner Recipes or our Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out

• Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese
• Eggplant Meatballs with Spaghetti
• Hidden Vegetable Pasta Sauce
• 15-min Spinach Pasta Sauce
• Vegan Lasagna