This easy Mediterranean One-Pot Pasta is packed with flavor, healthy vegetables, convenient canned foods, and can go from pantry to table in less than 30 minutes. Everyone will love this healthy pasta loaded with canned artichokes, olives, and fire roasted tomatoes, and simmered in a creamy herb-spiked vegetable broth.
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A One-Pot Pasta for a Busy Weeknight Dinner
Busy weeknights get the best of all of us.
Luckily, busy weeknights do not mean we can’t get a healthy dinner on the table fast. It just takes a little creativity – and a well stocked pantry.
Of course I adore having fresh produce in my fridge, and in a perfect world, I’d have a magically restocked fridge every few days.
Since that isn’t a reality, I make sure I have canned vegetables ready to go.
Nutrition recommendations call for 42 cups of fruit and 53 cups of vegetables for a family of 4 each week – that’s a lot of produce coming in to the house! Families who cook with canned foods are more likely to meet this requirements, and have been shown to have diets higher in 17 essential nutrients, including potassium, calcium, and fiber. Plus, cans provide year-round access to seasonal fruits and vegetables and keep food fresh and flavorful without the need for preservatives and additives.
Canned foods help in getting a healthy dinner on the table a little bit faster.
A well stocked pantry can help get you through the week with creative meals you can feel good about serving to your family.
Canned artichokes, olives, and tomatoes are some of my favorite items to always have on hand.
How to Make Mediterranean One Pot Pasta
This dish couldn’t be easier to prepare. I like to add some fresh herbs and a chopped onion, to boost the Mediterranean flavors — but if you don’t have those things on hand, don’t stress! Just substitute some dried thyme and garlic or onion powder. You’ll also need:
- 1 8-ounce package of gluten-free pasta:Â this works best with a corn/quinoa or a chickpea/lentil blend. I tested this a few times with brown rice pasta and it simply does not work with the one pot method. If you have brown rice pasta, I recommend cooking it separate and then mixing it with the vegetables post cooking.
- 1 can Vegetable Broth: This is key for adding tons of flavor!
- 1 can Artichoke Hearts: These are one of my favorite canned foods to have on hand! Super convenient, delicious, and they definitely elevate any meal!
- 1 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes: Another flavor booster!
- 1 can Olives: Everyone’s favorite!
- 1/2 Red Onion: I add the onion for a burst of color and to flavor the broth.
- Season with Fresh Thyme, Cumin, and Salt & Pepper: Simple seasonings work best in this recipe! You can also use dried oregano or Italian seasoning.
Once you have the ingredients ready, add everything to a pot of boiling water, and you’re set to go!
Tips for Making the Perfect One Pot Pasta
One-pot pastas are great meals for busy nights — once you have everything together in the pot, you’ll need to stir the pot occasionally to keep the pasta from sticking together or sticking to the bottom of the pan.
This dish is a great quick meal, and you’ll want to serve it as soon as it’s ready. The pasta will release starch into the water, making a creamy seasoned sauce. My son adores his pasta cooked this way!
However, if you leave gluten free pasta in the hot broth for too long before serving, it will continue to cook and get mushy. I like to finish cooking it, and then immediately put it on plates. This keeps it from continuing to cook in the hot pot and allows the broth to cool, even if the family isn’t yet sitting at the table.
As the broth and water cook down into a sauce, watch your pasta carefully. You can add water to thin the sauce, or sometimes I even use a ladle to remove some of the starchy water and thin the sauce with water if I think it has gotten too thick. This depends on the type of pasta you buy.
Experiment! If you make this dish, share it with us — Use #CansGetyouCooking to show what healthy dishes you are making for your family using canned foods, and be sure to check out Cans Get you Cooking for more delicious meals made with canned foods!
Other Healthy Pasta Recipes:
- Butternut Turkey Baked Spaghetti, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Creamy Tomato One Pot Pasta, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Vegan One Pot Pasta, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, by Sunkissed Kitchen
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Mediterranean One Pot Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 8 ounce gluten free pasta corn/quinoa or chickpea/lentil*
- 3 cups water boiling
- 1 can vegetable broth
- 1 can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 can artichoke hearts drained
- 1 cup black olives
- 1/2 purple onion sliced
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme sub 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- parmesan to serve, optional
- basil to serve, optional
Instructions
- Bring 3 cups to boil in a large pot. Add pasta, vegetable broth, onions, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, thyme, and cumin.
- Allow the pasta to come back to a boil over high heat, and stir the pasta and it begins to cook.
- Keep the pasta at a boil, but reduce the heat a little as it continues to cook. Occasionally stir with tongs to keep the pasta from sticking together or sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- As the water reduces and becomes a sauce, watch for the pasta to become cooked. If the pasta needs more cooking time, you can thin the sauce by adding more hot water, 1/2 cup at a time.
- Once the sauce as reduced, you can season with salt and pepper.
- Once the pasta has cooked, remove from pot and add to plates quickly to keep pasta from overcooking in the broth.
- Garnish with fresh herbs or parmesan cheese, and serve immediately.
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Nutrition
I’m not gluten free so if I used regular pasta would this work?
Yes, this works well with regular white pasta!
How much vegetable broth is within a can? I could only buy a large container!
Hi Olivia! A can is about 15 ounces, so 2 cups would be fine!
I was really confused by the addition of cumin, but went ahead and added it anyway. I felt it way too overpowering for the dish and not at all a harmonious addition to the Mediterranean flavors.
I’ve had others feel the same way! My mom always added cumin to Italian dishes when I was a kid and I just really love it. I will add a note saying it’s optional!
This looks great! I can’t wait to try it!! I am not a fan of artichokes. Is there something that you would suggest to replace them? Thank you❤️
Definitely omit them! Add some extra olives, or some roasted red peppers. I am not sure what else would be a more direct sub — maybe asparagus?
This dish is quite delicious! I doubled the recipe to have leftovers. Do I need to drain the sauce after the first night? In other words, will the pasta continue to break down in the liquid? Thanks!
Hi Wendy, Thanks for letting me know you tried and loved this pasta! Yes, I would imagine you would want to drain the liquid. At least most of it. Keep it separate and add a few spoonfuls back in when you reheat it.
Thanks for your reply! I will do that. Hopefully it’s not too late!
What size can of tomatoes?
Has anyone used the banza chickpea pasta. Do the instant pot times change?
I use Chickpea pasta in my one pot pastas and it actually works better than other pastas — less starch, so the broth ends up a lighter sauce. Just watch the pasta closely because it doens’t take long to cook!
Can I use chicken bone broth and add some chicken into it no skin no fat chicken I’m a diabetic and I’ve tried to keep my sugar low
To be honest, I am not familiar with how many carbs are appropriate in a diabetic’s meal plan. If you eat pasta, but need protein added, I am sure your adjustments would be fine with how the dish turns out! Good luck 🙂
Try zucchini ‘noodles’ instead of pasta for a delicious low-carb dish. Cut back on water, though.
Yum! I am a big zoodles fan.
I’ve made this so many times now that I really feel I owe it a good review! Love this recipe. It is so versatile and tasty. I throw in whatever green veg I have, too. Great for camping, too. I love the cumin – adds a hearty, earthy flavour.
Thank you so much for letting me know you love this! Have you tried the other one with the creamy tomato sauce? https://sunkissedkitchen.com/vegan-one-pot-pasta/
Made this for dinner last night. Loved it! Added zucchini and mushrooms, used 1T Italian herb blend instead of thyme (we didn’t have any on hand) and added 2T garlic. It was amazing!
I am very confused by this recipe. Do you add the water, pasta and all of the other ingredients together at the same time?
Yes, you do! It’s a dump and pour recipe.
This had so much flavor it was great. I did substitute kalamata olives for the black olives. I also fire roasted my own tomatoes. So good.
What size are all these cans? Tomatoes, artichokes, olives, etc. it is very difficult to reproduce a recipe when not given all the information.. Also you show garlic in the pictures of ingredients but it is not listed in the recipe. Do you use it?.
What about the red onion? You seem to use it but it isn’t listed in ingredients. How much are you supposed to use?
I made this as written but omitted the cumin and ADDED sun dried tomatoes….so delicious!
I wish the receipe had exact measurements for the broth – I had no idea a can of broth existed so I figured a container was the same thing. Ruined the recipe :/ But now I know.
Yummy! I converted this to an instant pot recipe. I did use regular pasta. And the store was out of good (kalamata) olives, so I did add some chickpeas. I also had to use short pasta for the IP. Dump it all in, high pressure for 4 I, quick release, and supper is done!
That was supposed to be 4 minutes!