This Creamy Miso Pasta with Tofu and Asparagus is the comfort food you need this spring! It’s wholesome and incredibly flavorful. The best plant-based dinner is ready in 20 minutes or less.
When I feel a little burned out from everyday cooking, I often turn to Japanese-style pasta for dinner. They are quick, simple and so flavorful, just like this Creamy Miso Pasta With Tofu and Asparagus.
Here, I paired the pasta with gloriously green asparagus with Japanese flavors, giving the dish a unique flair. It is a lovely nod to the warmer days ahead while still offering ultimate comfort.
Why You’ll Love This Creamy Miso Pasta
There are a lot of great things you’ll love about this wholesome pasta:
- Utilizes pantry-friendly ingredients like pasta, miso, and tofu.
- Fast and nutritious – The tofu provides satisfying plant-based protein and asparagus packs with nutrients and fiber. The whole meal comes together in 20 minutes.
- Easily adaptable – Since it’s springtime, I love using asparagus to highlight the seasonal green in my recipes. You can always improvise and use other vegetables such as fresh peas, snap peas, edamame, fava beans, broccoli, zucchini, and so on. If you like, feel free to toss in 1-2 more vegetables for extra texture.
What Makes The Pasta Creamy?
It’s not heavy cream or regular milk, but soy milk! In Japanese cooking, you’ll find soy milk being used as the secret ingredient to lend sweetness and creaminess to dishes like vegetarian ramen broth, hot pot, and pasta. It’s plant-based and makes a tasty choice for vegetarian or vegan recipes.
Flavoring the soy milk with miso and soy sauce can really wake things up. The result is pasta that is a little sweet, savory, and fresh-tasting, perfect for a springtime meal.
Turning Creamy Miso Sauce to “Soup Pasta”
We can also make a Japanese-style Soup Pasta (スープパスタ) with this recipe. The pasta is sitting on the soup, just about half to one inch deep, instead of being completely submerged in the soup.
The Soup Pasta variations include a cream base, tomato base, Japanese-style dashi base, seafood stock base, vegetable broth base, and so on. Think of it as spaghetti served in a small amount of savory soup.
Soup Pasta is usually served with both a spoon and a fork. It’s such a wonderful world of both soup and pasta!
If you want to try the Soup Pasta version of this recipe, just double the soy milk mixture and pasta water (see recipe below).
7 Key Ingredients You’ll Need (and Substitution)
- Fried tofu – I recommend using this fried tofu because it sustains its shape (no crumble!) and has more flavor than plain firm tofu.
- Asparagus – Be flexible and use any greens you have. Fresh peas, snap peas, edamame, fava beans, broccoli, and zucchini are wonderful.
- Spaghetti – I recommend spaghetti, but you can use any shape of pasta.
- Soymilk – In Japanese-style pasta, you see many variations of Tonyu Cream Pasta (豆乳クリームパスタ). Use cow’s milk only for a white cream base sauce made with bechamel sauce.
- Miso – Soy milk is mild, but adding miso boosts the flavors!
- Soy sauce – A hint of soy sauce adds umami and it’s a must for most Japanese-style pasta.
- Shichimi Togarashi – Give it a kick with a good sprinkling of Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese Seven Spice mix)!
Itadakimasu!
This Miso Pasta with Tofu and Asparagus is a minimalist recipe that I treasure on busy days. I hope you enjoy it too! And stay tuned for more spring-inspired recipes that will see you through the transition between seasons. If you like miso-infused pasta, readers love this easy miso butter pasta with tuna and cabbage.
Other Delicious Japanese-Style Pasta
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Creamy Miso Pasta with Tofu and Asparagus (Vegan)
Ingredients
For the Soy Milk Sauce
For the Pasta
- 1 deep-fried firm tofu cutlet (atsuage) (6.5 oz, 184 g)
- 4 oz asparagus spears
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) (optional)
For Cooking the Spaghetti
- 1½ Tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 7 oz spaghetti
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Miso Soy Milk Sauce/Soup
- In a measuring cup, combine ½ cup unsweetened soy milk, 2 tsp miso, and 1 tsp soy sauce, and mix it all together. If you want to make it into a “soup pasta“ (see my blog post), double the amount of these ingredients.
To Prepare the Pasta Ingredients
- Wrap 1 deep-fried firm tofu cutlet (atsuage) with a paper towel and remove any moisture. Cut the tofu into small cubes (so it‘s easier to eat).
- Trim off the ends of 4 oz asparagus spears and cut the asparagus diagonally into thin slices.
To Cook the Spaghetti
- Start boiling 4 quarts (16 cups, 3.8 L) water in a large pot (I used a 4.5 QT Dutch oven). Once boiling, add 1½ Tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and 7 oz spaghetti.
- Stir to make sure spaghetti doesn’t stick to each other. Tip: I usually reduce the cooking time by 1 minute if I have to continue cooking the pasta afterward. Drain if you finish cooking the spaghetti first, but you should be able to cook the rest of the ingredients in 10 minutes while spaghetti is being cooked.
To Cook the Creamy Miso Pasta
- Heat 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the tofu cubes and sauté until they are coated with oil and warmed through.
- Add the asparagus and season with ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Add the soy milk mixture to the pan and lower the heat to medium low (to avoid curdling).
- Reserve 4 Tbsp (¼ cup, 60 ml) of pasta water and add to the frying pan. If you are making the “soup pasta,“ then add 4 Tbsp more pasta water here.
- By this time, your spaghetti should be done (otherwise, turn off the heat and wait for the spaghetti to finish cooking). Pick up the noodles with a pair of tongs (or you can quickly drain in the sink) and add to the pan. Increase the heat to medium and toss the spaghetti to mix all together.
- Taste and add salt if needed. The reserved pasta water I added has enough salt, so I do not add additional salt here. Serve the pasta to individual dishes. Sprinkle with shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) if you like a kick of spice. Enjoy!
Hi Nami! I’ve been following your recipes for a couple of years now but didn’t make them as often as I could as a lot of the ingredients aren’t easy to get in Germany. I recently moved to Japan however and have been cooking daily with your recipes. Thank you so much, this one was a surprise and already one of my favourites! I’m not vegetarian but it’s difficult omitting fish or meat in Japanese daily cooking. Thank you! 🙂 Best wishes from Kyoto
Hi Cathy! Nami and all of us at JOC are so glad to hear that you’ve been enjoying the recipes and everything else that we share. It means so much to us.
We hope you enjoy more recipes and life in Kyoto!🤗
Omg its soooo goood. Did not have that mix of spices so just added at the end pepper, chilli flakes and ginger powder. Thank you for such amazing recipe.
Hi Sara! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed this Pasta!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
Greetings from Singapore! Love this recipe, Namiko. Thank you so much. I omitted the tofu and replaced the asparagus with some string beans. Also added some pan seared scallops. Went down really well with the fambam tonight. Here’s a photo of the dish. Oh yes, have a great family vacation. I noticed how much your kids have grown! Stay safe!
Hi Ca Tun! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing the photo with us. That looks delicious! So happy to hear you enjoyed this dish.
Thank you also for your kind words. We had a great time in Chicago and our family absolutely loved the trip. The kids are growing up so fast and we are trying to spend more time together and travel as much as possible before they leave for college in a few years. 🙂
Easy and delicious!
Hi Mandy! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed this dish! Happy Cooking!
Great recipe! Used french beans instead of asparagus. Used red miso. Couldn’t find fried tofu, so cubed pressed/firm tofu, and pan fried it. Overall result was savoury and delicious. Thanks, Nami-san!
Hi Reise! Awesome! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!🙂
Thanks for the ideas
Hi Michael, Thank you very much for your kind feedback! We hope you enjoy Japanese-style pasta!
This is definitely a keeper that we are adding to our weeknight go-to rotation. It had a pleasantly unexpected nutty undertone to it, and the asparagus gave it just the right amount of crunch.
I pan-fried some extra firm tofu I had on hand and used unflavored almond milk since I didn’t have soy.
Thanks, Nami!
Hi Bee, Thank you very much for trying this recipe and sharing your cooking experience and tip with us! We are glad to hear you enjoyed this dish!
This has so quickly become my favorite meal. I don’t have soy milk in my house so I use uht milk semi skimed. I use green beans in place of asparagus as its much more cost effective. I also add a little dashi to the spaghetti after its drained. Also chilli oil and crushed garlic are amazing garnishes!! 😍😭💖💖💖
Hi Katelyn, We are so happy to hear this dish has become your favorite meal! Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
Hi Nami, this recipe was great! I substituted asparagus with green peas, fried firm tofu with just firm tofu, and soy milk with regular whole milk. It was so yummy, my bf who is a known meat lover didn’t mind eating a vegetarian meal at all lol! He even asked for me to make it again soon.
There was one thing I noticed on the ingredient list though. When I tried to weigh out 7oz of spaghetti, it came out closer to 200g instead of the 100g. Maybe a typo?
Anyways, thank you for you recipes!
Hi Joyce!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Yes! It should be 200g, and we had fixed it!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for sharing your cooking experience!
We are glad to hear you and your boyfriend enjoy the dish.🙂
I love that I can find vegan options for some delicious dishes on your site! This was excellent. I only had extra firm tofu, so I air fried it and added after the sauce was going. Great flavors. I seasoned the tofu in fryer with spices and sprayed oil on it, it was great.
Hi Susan,
Thank you very much for your kind feedback!
We are glad to hear you enjoy vegan recipes from our website.
Air fried tofu must be good! Thank you for sharing your cooking experience with us!
This recipe is magic.
…alright, I’ll explain. We’ve had increasing difficulty with pasta dishes at my place because dairy is bad for my partner’s digestive system and tomato (or anything too acidic) tends to give them acid reflux. So many pasta sauces/recipes use either tomato or cheese (or both!), and we’d been having trouble finding any other options.
Enter this recipe. I have a tendency to cut these things down to bare essentials (I apologize for butchering your hard work!), so it basically went:
– Sauce ingredients (miso/soy milk/soy sauce)
– Frozen vegetables from a packet (defrosted before adding to pan)
– Meat-filled tortellini pasta, also from a packet
– Olive oil
Mixed up sauce, cooked vegetables a little in oil, added sauce, added pasta, mixed for a couple minutes, served.
Worked great. Lactose problems: gone. Acidity issues: gone. Buying pasta sauce at the store: gone, and it’s probably cheaper that way.
Magic, I tell you. Turned out first time, solved all our longstanding issues with pasta sauce, my partner loved it (I did too for that matter), and we had everything I needed just laying around the house.
I’ll have to look into some of the other pasta recipes later, but for now I’m just very grateful to have this one. To tell you the truth it’s been kind of a rough day, and finishing it off on this note has been really good for me.
…honestly, getting into cooking pretty much entirely from this site has, too. I’ve never really enjoyed food all that much, even restaurant stuff, and the sole exception to that has tended to be Japanese food; I distinctly remember going to a teppenyaki place when I was younger and being immediately surprised at how good things could taste. Guess it’s just how my palate is, or maybe there are other cooking traditions that would accomplish something similar for me.
Either way, I’m now coming up on exciting milestones like having used up first buys of condiments and needing more (evidence that it’s moved from “experimental” to “yeah, I can regularly prepare meals with this”), and having actual cooking instincts that work, and I really doubt I could have done it without everyone here’s help.
I know I went into a rant about this on the baked tonkatsu page, too, but I really can’t thank you guys enough. It’s really, honestly made a big difference in my life to be able to cook this stuff…or at least my lazy, half store-bought version of it! I’ll have to make sure to do it properly sometime to pay it proper respects.
Hi DC,
We couldn’t be happier to hear how much joy and excitement Nami’s recipes has brought to you!
You might like other Japanese style Pasta!
Please visit Japanese Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus https://www.justonecookbook.com/easy-wafu-pasta-shrimp-asparagus/
You can also search for other Japanese style Pasta here;
https://www.justonecookbook.com/#search/q=pasta&_siq_page=1&_siq_sort=relevance
We hope you enjoy them too!😊
We only have vanilla soy milk in our pantry… would that taste weird if we used that instead of unsweetened?
Hi Maria! That is kind of strange for the savory dish that does not require vanilla or sugar… Sorry!!!
If I want to double the recipe, will doubling the sauce result in too much liquid in the pan?
Hi Audrey! You’re making for 4? Do you think you can fit 4 servings of pasta and ingredients in your pan? Maybe use two pans if your pan is very small? It’s nice to be able to toss the ingredients so you can properly cook and season the pasta. 🙂
Well I have only firm tofu and skim milk, but I’m trying it anyway!
Hope you enjoy the recipe, Catherine! 🙂
I’ve been cooking pasta recipes once a week so this will be my choice for this next week. 🙂 Any recommendation on the type of miso (sorry if I missed this in the recipe)? I originally thought white miso sounded good for this but maybe I’ll use awase miso.
Just want to update that I tried the recipe and I loved it! I used white miso this time so that it would have a milder creamy flavor. Since I couldn’t find fried tofu at my stores, and didn’t want to take extra time to fry some, I bought “smoky tempeh strips” and they worked really well! Mushrooms were a nice addition to. This was a very quick and easy recipe to make. I just love asparagus and pasta! I’m sure I’ll make it many times again.
Hi Lion! I apologize I’m behind to respond to comments (as usual). I didn’t specify because it can be any type of miso but maybe I’ll mention that next to the ingredient.
I’m happy to hear you liked the recipe! Thanks so much for trying this. I like your sub and mushroom addition! Delicious. 🙂