Butternut Squash Pasta with Crispy Kale and Chickpeas
This Butternut Squash Pasta with Crispy Kale and Chickpeas is the ultimate cozy-meets-creamy dinner. It’s budget friendly and uses the sheet pan components for both the sauce and to top the pasta. It’s one of those meals that tastes like it took more time and energy than it did, coming together in less than an hour. This recipe is part of my November 2025 Budget Grocery Series.
Butternut Squash Pasta with Crispy Kale and Chickpeas ingredient notes:
Cashews: Raw cashews are soaked and blended for the creamy dairy-free sauce base. The longer they soak, the smoothie and easier they blend so aim for at least 20 minutes, 30 if even better!
Butternut Squash: Butternut squash adds cozy fall flavor and natural sweetness to every bite of this pasta. When roasted, it becomes caramelized and buttery soft, blending beautifully into the creamy cashew sauce. Color means flavor so taking the time to deeply roast the squash is the only way to get a richer less squash-y flavor.
Chickpeas: To keep it vegetarian, the source of protein here is chickpeas. Roasting them on the same sheet pan as the squash makes them crisp on the outside and perfectly seasoned. They add extra fiber to both the sauce and the pasta topping.
Tuscan or Curly Kale: Lightly roasting the kale gives it a little crunch and takes away any bitterness. It’s perfect for a textural element on top of the pasta and adds a nice pop of color to the bowl.
Butternut Squash Pasta with Crispy Kale and Chickpeas
4
servings30
minutes35
minutesThis Butternut Squash Pasta with Crispy Kale and Chickpeas is the ultimate cozy-meets-creamy dinner. It’s budget friendly and uses the sheet pan components for both the sauce and to top the pasta. It’s one of those meals that tastes like it took more time and energy than it did, coming together in less than an hour. This recipe is part of my November 2025 Budget Grocery Series.
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Ingredients
- For the Cashew Sauce
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 cup low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 ⅓cup reserved roasted sheet pan (recipe below)
- For the Sheet Pan
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes or 20 ounces precut squash about 4 cups
15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups tuscan or curly shredded kale (about 6 ounces)
- For Serving
12 to 16 ounces brown rice penne (or pasta of choice)
red pepper flakes, to garnish (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place the cashews in a large heatproof glass jar or medium bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak and soften for at least 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, chickpeas, garlic cloves, oil, thyme, rosemary, salt, and black pepper and mix well. Transfer to the prepared sheet pan and spread in an even layer.
- Bake until the squash is fork-tender, 20 to 24 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente according to the package directions. Drain and set aside (toss with a drizzle of olive oil to prevent sticking).
- When the squash is done, remove the sheet pan from the oven, add the shredded kale and a pinch of salt, and mix gently to combine. Return to the oven and bake until the squash and kale are lightly crisp, about 5 more minutes. Set aside the garlic cloves and 1 ⅓ cups of the cooked squash (Note: This is nearly all the squash, that’s okay! You want about ½ cup remaining).
- Drain the soaking cashews in a colander. In a blender or food processor, combine the soaked cashews, reserved garlic cloves and squash, the broth, and the nutritional yeast, and blend on high speed until completely smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add additional broth or water 1 tablespoon at a time until smooth and pourable. Taste and add salt to taste (1/2 teaspoon to 1½ teaspoons recommended). Pour the sauce over the spaghetti and mix until evenly coated.
- Spoon the spaghetti into four bowls and evenly divide the remaining sheet pan components on top (the remaining squash, chickpeas, and kale) and top with a pinch of red pepper flakes (if desired)
Notes
- Store it: Refrigerate the sheet pan and pasta in separate sealed containers for up to 3 days.
- Reheat it: To reheat the sheet pan, return to a small sheet pan and bake at 350ºF until warm and slightly crisp, about 10 minutes. Microwave the pasta until warm, about 2 minutes, or return to a small saucepan and heat over medium-low until warm, about 10 minutes.
- Add an additional protein source like shredded rotisserie chicken or shredded chicken breast. Cooked ground chicken would also work to add to the sauce and pasta.
- If you use precut squash, ensure the pieces are 1/2-inch or less to keep the bake time low.
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Loved this meal – super cozy! A couple things I’d do differently next time I make it: 1. Cook the squash on its own baking sheet, separate from the chickpeas, so that when it comes time to separate out some squash for blending into the sauce, it’s simpler – no sorting through the chickpeas/squash . For efficiency, I pulled the squash for the sauce at the same time I added the kale to a (separate) sheet pan – that way I could blend the sauce while the veggies finished roasting. I had cubed the squash small enough that they were soft enough to blend after the 20 min. I did the kale on its own smaller sheet pan to ensure they baked evenly and got crispy. But if doing the squash/chickpeas separately next time, I’d likely just add the kale to the chickpea pan. 2. Stir the sauce into the noodles first, and then add the veg. The roasted squash pieces got kind of mushed into the pasta/sauce when I just stirred it all together at the same time. Either that, or reserve some of the veg for adding when plating, to keep some texture.
With some of the leftovers, I’m planning to put it in a casserole dish and add some toasted breadcrumbs on top before putting it in the oven to reheat and make the bread crumbs golden. I think the extra crispy bits on top will add a little something! Plus I love a little crunchy noodle corner 🙂
Any thoughts on substitutions for someone who is allergic to cashews? I’m not vegan, or even vegetarian, Google just recommended this recipe to me because it know I LOVE all of the ingredients in the title 😂
I have this same question!
I’m using prepared hummus in place of the soaked cashews, mostly because I refuse to pay $9 for a bag of cashews from Trader Joe’s 😂
Thank-you Jen for that suggestion. I’m also allergic to cashews. And dairy gives me bad effects. I’ll try prepared hummus.
I also have a nut allergy! I subbed the soaked cashews for 1/3 cup full fat Greek yogurt and it was excellent.
Every recipe I make of yours sincerely blows me away! Thanks for another great recipe Jenn!
This was sooo good and perfect for fall
Made this last night and loved it! I would probably add more garlic next time, because I love garlic. It’s a bit clunky to pull out the squash at the end of roasting for the sauce, so I’d probably season things separately next time and keep them separated on the pan.
Wow this was delicious! I added some chicken sausage at the end for extra protein and it was perfect. This is the third one of your recipes I’ve made and I’m super impressed with each one!
Are you supposed to pick out the roasted squash from the chickpeas when blending the sauce? Or does the 1 & 1/3 cup refer to a combo of the squash & chickpeas since they were combined on the pan?
Also wondering the same about if the chickpeas go into the sauce at all. Mine did not look like the photos and something felt off, but I reread it multiple times where it said squash not squash mixture or something like that.