Sweet Potato Pasta
on Apr 17, 2023, Updated May 17, 2024
This delicious sweet potato pasta is made with a decadent homemade creamy parmesan sauce. A one pot dinner that is sure to be a family favorite!
One of my favorite dinners right now is one-pot meals. They are easy, delicious, and minimal cleanup.
This ultra creamy penne recipe in a parmesan cream sauce may just be your new favorite dinner.
Every bite tastes like a rich comfort food pasta, with hearty chunks of sweet potatoes for added flavor.
Ingredients to make sweet potato pasta
- penne pasta
- olive oil
- garlic
- onion
- vegetable broth
- sweet potato
- spinach
- heavy whipping cream
- parmesan cheese
- spices: salt, pepper, sage, thyme
How to make sweet potato pasta
In a large pot or dutch oven, add the olive oil, diced sweet potato, garlic, and onion.
Saute on medium high heat for 8-10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes start to soften.
Add the penne pasta, sage, thyme, and vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
Boil the sweet potato pasta for 10-11 minutes, stirring often (turn down the heat if the boil is too strong).
Turn the heat down to low and add the freshly grated parmesan cheese, heavy whipping cream, and salt and pepper to taste (I used ½ teaspoon each).
Continue stirring the pasta until sauce starts to thicken (3-6 minutes).
Add the spinach and wilt for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Serve garnished with additional parmesan cheese!
I’m a pasta lover through and through, and this one pot sweet potato and spinach pasta is one of my favorites!
Want to wow your friends and family?
Make up a pot of this pasta and watch as everyone devours it!
But you don’t have to wait until fall to make this recipe, I make it year round!
This pasta and my sweet potato hash are two of the best ways to eat sweet potatoes.
I hesitate to say when something is the best recipe I’ve ever made (because there are several that are my favorite!), but this one pot pasta is possibly the greatest dish that I have ever made or tasted!
It has so much flavor in every bite.
This is honestly one of the best recipes I have ever made! As a grad student I like having quick meals that give leftovers, and this makes a lot of food in a short amount of time. Even reheated it’s delicious, can’t wait to make it again! – Molly
Ultra creamy, cheesy, and has a huge depth of flavor.
Such a good dish! I made it for my partner and he wouldn’t stop raving about…so much so he made some himself a couple of days later – Tess
This would be the perfect dish to serve your family and friends.
I used penne, sweet potato, spinach, fresh garlic and onion, and a homemade cream sauce to bring all of the flavors together.
On busy nights when I’m craving creamy, cheesy pasta, I turn to something easy to make and easy to cleanup.
Something delicious like this Creamy One Pot Sweet Potato and Spinach Pasta!
My husband RAVED about this pasta.
He told me we should sell the recipe to Olive Garden (it’s that good).
We had it leftover the next day and I swear it tasted even better.
Some pastas taste best fresh, but this just keeps getting more delicious as it sits and the noodles marinate in that delicious ultra creamy heavenly sauce!
p.s. have an instant pot? I altered this recipe to be made in the instant pot too!
Here is the recipe for instant pot creamy sweet potato pasta.
Looking for more tasty meatless meals?
Be sure to check out our roundup of the 25 best vegetarian recipes.
Are you making this recipe? I want to see! Don’t forget to tag me on instagram @buildyourbite and hashtag #buildyourbite with your recipe creations!
More pasta recipes you will love
- Easy Crockpot Baked Ziti
- 10 minute Cream Cheese Pasta
- Creamy Penne Pasta
- Million Dollar Baked Ziti
- Three Cheese Baked Ziti
- Veggie Lover’s Baked Rigatoni
- Vegetarian Bolognese
- Vegan Creamy Tomato Shells
- Mushroom Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta Bake
Be sure to pin this recipe for later and follow Build Your Bite on Pinterest for all the latest delicious recipes!
Craving more vegetarian comfort food? Try this creamy vegetable soup!
Sweet Potato Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb penne pasta
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground sage
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1 large sweet potato, diced (around 2 cups worth)
- 2 1/2 cups fresh chopped spinach
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/4 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven, add the olive oil, diced sweet potato, garlic, and onion
- Saute on medium high heat for 8-10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes start to soften
- Add the penne pasta , sage, thyme, and vegetable broth and bring to a boil
- boil for 10-11 minutes, stirring often (turn down the heat if the boil is too strong)
- Turn the heat down to low and add the parmesan cheese, heavy whipping cream, and salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/2 teaspoon each)
- Continue stirring until sauce starts to thicken (3-6 minutes)
- Add spinach and wilt for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently
- Serve garnished with additional parmesan cheese, if desired
My husband has pancreatic cancer and I googled what foods are the best for him, and it came up sweet potato and spinach. He loves pasta and your recipe came up with sweet potato and spinach. I would recommend the recipe to anyone it was really nice and full of flavour.
I love the recipe, but I really dislike this site. When you look at it on a phone all that pops up are ads throughout the entire recipe. Even when you click on the video to see how to cook the recipe, add pop up every 15 seconds. And don’t try to pause the video, otherwise it resets it to a Volvo at.
I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Ads are how we are able to provide free recipes on this website. The recipe creation, photography, marketing, and website fees are just a portion of what it costs to run a blog. If an ad interferes with the recipe itself please send me a screenshot! Have a great day.
Mine seemed to be very creamy. Not complaining, it was still delicious. I added Costco’s beef meatballs (about 16,) 6 bacon strips. but I reduced the pasta to about 9 oz and doubled the sweet potatoes cause I had two potatoes. The sweet potatoes made the dish much sweeter than with white potatoes.
Just made. My boys eat meat so I cooked chicken on the side and mixed in their’s. It was wonderful! Everyone loved it.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Joy, this pasta is amazing! So easy to make and absolutely delicious! I am over the moon that I found your site. As a lifelong vegetarian, it is a “joy” to find these well-designed, well-described recipes. THANK YOU!!!
You made my whole day Trish. Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment! 🙂
@Joy Shull,
My absolute pleasure! And now on to your Ramen Noodle Recipes with Variety! I love your “from scratch” recipe. So excited!!! Thank you!
Turned out very nicely. I cut recipe in half, and used egg noodles cause we didn’t have any penne. Delicious! Thanks for the super recipe.
We live on a litle 33 foot sailboat in the Caribbean. I’m always on the hunt for yummy, one pot (the less dishes the better esp in tiny spaces) recipes and this one is awesome! I attempted to make it a little healthier by adding less cream and less cheese than the recipe calls for and I have to say it still turned out absolutely delish!! I also added zucchini because we needed to use some up and sprinkled nutritional yeast on top at the end. .. so freaking YUMMY!! More one pot meals please!
That sounds like so much fun! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
This was excellent! I only had 8 oz. of pasta and frozen spinach on hand, but with a a cup less of stock and adding the spinach in earlier it worked out great. A very delicious addition to my family’s Meatless Monday rotation!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
We love this recipe, thank you for posting. We swap out the cream for plain Greek yoghurt and use a gluten free penne. Tastes so good!
glad to hear it Louis!
Hello! I haven’t eaten this yet, but I’m in the middle of making it, and I gotta say: your recipe is a bit off. I actually used multiple dishes, as I think it’s inevitable when you need to boil your pasta in a different pot. Other than that it’s smelling DELISHHHHHHHHH
I’ve made this recipe countless times and the liquid for this recipe is intended to be enough for the pasta to cook perfectly in 🙂