Quick & easy vegan avocado pasta (great for baby led weaning)

This vegan avocado pasta dish is a quick and healthy baby led weaning option, which works well for the whole family. It’s a really easy dish to add to your dairy free weaning repertoire, and a welcome change from tomato based pasta sauces – much less mess! 

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Vegan avocado pasta – a dairy free alternative to tomato pasta sauce that is gentler on sensitive skin

Many of us fall into the habit of always serving pasta with tomato based sauces. And it’s easy to see why – tomato sauces are easy to batch cook and often contain a big dose of veg. Two very important factors when baby led weaning or cooking for toddlers!

However, tomatoes are quite acidic and for babies with eczema and sensitive skin this can lead to soreness around the mouth. For those with food allergies, this is particularly challenging as it is hard to distinguish this kind of contact irritation from an allergic reaction. For babies with active eczema this can be so uncomfortable that it puts them off the food altogether. So, it’s really helpful to have some non-tomato based options available.

When dairy is not an option, then healthy alternatives to tomato based sauces can be difficult to think up. That’s where this vegan avocado pasta comes in! Although it’s dairy free, it is still creamy and tasty – and contributes to your 5 a day!

Vegan avocado pasta is a great way to include healthy fats when weaning

Avocado is one of the best dairy free sources of healthy fats. It is really important to include plenty of sources of healthy fats when weaning, as these ’good’ fats are an essential source of energy and calories for babies and toddlers. 

For my children, this was particularly important as I needed to support their weight gain. Many other babies and children with cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) will also struggle with slow weight gain, so it’s helpful to have a few dishes like this which you can regularly serve to boost calories in a healthy way.

What ingredients are needed to make vegan avocado pasta?

This dish requires just 5 nutrition packed ingredients:

• Pasta of your choice (gluten free if required). Changing up the pasta you use is an easy way to add some variation. For example, I often use Orgran buckwheat spirals – which are gluten free – for this meal.
• Avocado! As well being a source of healthy fats, avocados are a source of potassium, folate, Vitamin E and fibre.
• Nutritional yeast, which is a great source of vitamins and minerals, especially B12
• Vegan cream cheese. There are a number of dairy and soy free options available now, such as Oatly, Violife or Nush
• Squeeze of lemon juice

Which dietary requirements is this avocado pasta suitable for?

This recipe is dairy free, egg free, soy free, and suitable for vegans.

All the ingredients in this recipe are nut-free, but you do need to choose a vegan cream cheese which doesn’t contain nuts. Violife make a tasty nut free cream cheese. 

To make the avocado pasta gluten free, choose gluten free pasta. Orgran and Doves Farm both do a good selection using ingredients such as buckwheat, corn and rice. You will also need to ensure that you use a vegan cream cheese which is gluten free, such as Nush or Violife.  

Whatever your dietary requirements, always double check ingredients as they can (and do) change without warning. 

How to serve vegan avocado pasta for baby led weaning

Some types of pasta are better than others for younger babies, as they’re easier to grip and they hold the sauce better. I would start with something like pasta twirls (fusilli) or penne tubes.  I also found that babies can have a pretty good go at eating spaghetti by grabbing fistfuls!

For spoon feeding (or offering a pre-loaded spoon), smaller varieties of pasta like orzo can be used – or larger varieties chopped up, or even mashed. 

SOME MORe ways to use AVOCADO when WEANING >>

• Use in smoothies, for example this dairy free mango & avocado smoothie (I highly recommend nom nom pouches* as a fun and easy way to serve smoothies to little ones). 
• Mash with a few drops of lemon juice on toast fingers or oat cakes (add in a little olive oil and sprinkle of ground flax seed for an extra healthy fats boost!)
• Strawberry and avocado ices 
• Chocolate avocado ice lollies
• Baby friendly chocolate mousse made out of avocado and bananas

Looking for more dairy free midweek dinner ideas? 

Then check out my meal plan which includes 4 weeks worth of midweek family dinner inspiration!/