Mexican Green Spaghetti tosses cooked spaghetti pasta (I used trofie, a twisted pasta shape) with a creamy poblano sauce made from roasted poblanos, Mexican crema, garlic, cilantro, and queso fresco.
Jump to RecipeJump to:
- 🤷♀️ What are poblano peppers?
- 🌶 What's a good substitute for poblano peppers?
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- 🔪 Recommended Equipment
- 📝 Instructions Overview
- 🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
- 📇 More Vegetable Pasta Dishes For You
- Mexican Green Spaghetti (Espagueti Verde)
- 🌱 Sign up for my emails, and get my 5 tips for easy vegetarian meals!
If you need dinner ready pronto, one of the best strategies is to have a sauce like this on hand already made. Other sauces I like to have hanging around my refrigerator are a Gribiche Sauce, Smoky Spicy Roasted Tomato Sauce and an Avocado Cream Sauce (for tacos!).
They can be tossed with pasta, grains, legumes or vegetables during the week for easy healthy lunches and dinners.
🤷♀️ What are poblano peppers?
This recipe calls for poblano peppers. If you're unfamiliar with them, they're a large dark green pepper, oblong, and heart-shaped. When eaten raw, they're spicy, IMO, even though I've read reports that call them mild.
They're typically roasted or grilled whole and peeled. But there are lots of recipes that call for them to be chopped and sautéed. The longer they're roasted, the milder they become.
In some parts of the world, including the United States, they are sometimes referred to as pasilla peppers.
In my experience, if you're at a Farmers market where they roast them on site, they're not very deeply roasted and will be pretty spicy. This happened to me in Santa Fe for a dinner I was making that night for a party, and had to add a LOT of cheese to balance the heat.
🌶 What's a good substitute for poblano peppers?
If you can't find poblanos (or pasilla chile peppers), you can substitute Anaheim or Hatch chile peppers. Anaheim peppers are slightly less spicy than poblanos. Hatch chiles have a big range of spiciness, but are typically spicier than their sister Anaheim pepper.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Flexible use. The sauce can be used for veggies dishes such as cauliflower and potatoes, or tossed with grains such as rice or farro.
- Super easy recipe. Most of the time is used to roast and peel the poblano peppers.
- Make ahead options. Make the sauce ahead to turn this recipe into one that can easily be made in less than 30 minutes.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Poblano peppers - pasilla, Anaheim and Hatch chile peppers are all good substitutes if you can't find poblano peppers.
- Pasta - I used trofie, but any pasta with folds or crevices to catch and hold the sauce will work great. Smooth pasta shapes are fine, but won't do the sauce as much justice.
- Cilantro - I haven't made it with alternate fresh herbs, but you can use parsley if you don't care for cilantro.
- Mexican crema - substitute sour cream if you can't find Mexican crema.
- Milk - either 2% or whole milk is fine.
- Garlic
- Bouillon cube - I use Better Than Bouillon, roasted vegetable paste.
- Queso fresco - this is a soft, fresh Mexican cheese. If you can't find it, you can use mozzarella (although it's not as tangy) or goat cheese (which is more tangy).
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Countertop blender
- Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot
- Fine mesh strainer
- Large skillet
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making this Mexican Green Spaghetti pasta dish are in the recipe card below, but here's a quick overview!
Step 1
Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
Step 2
Roast the peppers. Roast, stem, seed and peel the poblano peppers.
Step 3
Blend the peppers. Blend the roasted peppers with the cilantro, crema and milk in a countertop blender.
Step 4
Make the sauce. Combine the remaining ingredients except the queso fresco in a skillet and fold in the cooked pasta. Serve with crumbled queso fresco on top.
I have a whole jar of this now that I'm putting on roasted potatoes, farro tossed with roasted tomatoes, and I've even used it with queso fresco over a salad with a little white wine vinegar.
🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
Add either roast chicken or sautéed shrimp.
📇 More Vegetable Pasta Dishes For You
Another pasta dish that super easy and delicious is tossing cooked pasta with this sun dried tomato pesto that's also vegan. Just top the pasta with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (there are some very good Parmesan style cheeses now that are vegan), and serve with crusty bread.
Or if you want a slightly hardier pasta, make this romanesco pasta recipe. It's all tossed in a creamy cauliflower soup that's vegan. The pectin in cauliflower helps to make a creamy sauce without any dairy at all.
And if you grew up with chicken tetrazzini as a kid and loved it, I recommend checking out this vegetarian tetrazzini with cauliflower, kicked up with poblano peppers. I love it so much, I included a version of it in my cookbook!
Another approach to pasta is to mix spaghetti noodles with a pasta sauce, and then layer with cheese in a casserole, like this Baked Spaghetti Casserole.
Lastly, if you want something uber-simple, go with this classic spaghetti alla vodka.
Mexican Green Spaghetti (Espagueti Verde)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 poblano peppers
- 8 ounces uncooked pasta I used trofie
- ½ cup cilantro leaves rinsed and patted dry
- 1 cup Mexican crema
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube or 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Roasted Vegetables
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- ½ cup crumbled queso fresco
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the whole peppers on it. Broil until blackened, occasionally turning the peppers to blacken them on all sides. Place them in a plastic bag or zip-lok container for 10 minutes. Remove the blistered skins, stems and seeds. Transfer the peppers to a blender.
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. Remove from heat and strain.
- Add the cilantro, crema, and milk to the peppers in the blender and puree until smooth.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds. Stir in the poblano puree, the bouillon cube, salt, and black pepper. Fold in the pasta and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from heat.
- Toss with crumbled queso fresco.
Liz
Nice and easy. Thank you and have a Wonderful Day!
Sid
We love Mexican food here and this looks like a great addition to my repertoire of recipes.
SallyBR
Oh, this sauce would go well on ANYTHING if you ask me - I love poblanos with their well-behaved heat and unique flavor
you are right, having a few things made in the fridge waiting can be a life saver
Happy Reveal Day!
Balvinder
Oh heavens, that poblano sauce looks just dreamy! I have never made pasta with poblano sauce, going to pin!
Katie Zeller
I need to start exploring Mexican food.... This looks wonderful!
Anna
That sauce sounds amazing! I definitely must try it soon.
cheri
Hi Susan, oh I love poblano peppers, this really looks delicious. I bet my husband would not even realize there was no meat in this.
Rachael
This sounds great! 🙂
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
That is exactly my type of sauce, and my type of strategy. Great SRC choice!
Kevin | Keviniscooking
This is just supreme! Love the flavor sAND the photos, thanks!
Leigh
Such a gorgeous colour.
[email protected]
I love Leslie's blog and this creamy poblano sauce looks amazing. You're so right about needing to have sauces at the ready for a quick weeknight dinner. Now I'll have to master this one to add to my Italian red sauces in the freezer.
mjskitchen
Awesome dish!!! Green is my favorite color. 🙂