Creamy Gochujang Pasta {Ready in 15 Minutes}
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This gochujang pasta recipe is the ultimate budget-friendly fusion dinner. By blending spicy Korean gochujang paste with classic Italian-style pasta and cream, you get a luxury meal for pennies. It’s vegetarian, ready in 15 minutes & just perfect for busy weeknights. If you love the speed of my Creamy Rice with Garlic & Parmesan, I promise you will be obsessed with this creamy gochujang pasta.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Creamy Gochujang Pasta {Ready in 15 Minutes!}
- 🕦 Ready in: 12 minutes
- 🤝 Serves: 5
- 🍴 Calories: 580kcal
- 🧑🍳 Main ingredients: Gochujang paste, pasta, parmesan, single cream
- ✨ Summary: This creamy gochujang pasta is spicy, comforting & ready in 15 minutes. An easy Korean-Italian fusion dinner for busy weeknights.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Flavorful: The gochujang pasta sauce in this recipe brings heat, salt, acid, and sweetness to the dish, making it a complex flavor party in your mouth! It rivals the richness of my Delicious Marry Me Shrimp Pasta but with an Asian-fusion twist.
- Few Ingredients: Robust flavor is not the only thing going for my gochujang pasta recipe. You also only need a few ingredients, and most of them you can find in your pantry right now.
- Vegetarian: Many other Korean pasta recipes like to add things like shrimp, chicken, or pork belly to make something like a gochujang carbonara, however I like mine simple so I can taste all the gochujang goodness.
- Budget friendly: There are a lot of great things about this gochujang pasta, but it costing just £0.77 per serving is the best part. Like my One-Pan Mince Pasta, it proves you don’t need to spend a fortune to feed the whole family!
Got a craving for spicy? Here are a few other recipes with gochujang paste you may like: Gochujang Noodles, Turkey Mince Recipe with Rice (Gochujang Fried Rice) and Gochujang Turkey Noodles.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
The main ingredients that make this gochujang pasta recipe fantastic are the following:
- Gochujang Paste: The gochujang paste provides the most prominent flavour, helping turn the dish into a sweet, spicy recipe that packs a punch similar to the Best Miso Dressing Recipe.
- Parmesan: Parmesan cheese is a salty, cheesy, umami-packed flavour bomb that completes the rich gochujang pasta sauce.
- Single cream: A little single cream goes a long way here. When combined with pasta water and parmesan, we achieve the best gochujang cream pasta base that feels as luxurious as my Easy Ragu Bianco.
- Spaghetti: You can use your favourite pasta shape here. I like gochujang spaghetti as I think it really pairs well with the creamy gochujang pasta sauce. However, tagliatelle, fusilli, or rigatoni work just as well.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations/ Adaptations
- Gochujang substitutes: Can’t find any gochujang? No worries, you can substitute with miso + chili flakes. Or, in a real pinch, you can make a spicy Korean pasta dish using sriracha or Thai chili paste, but keep in mind they will make it taste a bit different.
- High protein: Unlike many gochujang recipes that rely on heavy pork belly, you can keep this gochujang pasta light by adding prawns, sliced Cast Iron Chicken Breast, or halloumi to bring the protein level up and feel satisfied longer.
- Add vegetables: Sometimes I add things like mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, and my Skillet Roasted Corn just to balance out the meal.
- Make it vegan/dairy free: To make this gochujang pasta without cream, you can substitute the single cream for coconut milk or oat milk. Then, substitute the parmesan cheese for a vegan parmesan.
How to make Creamy Gochujang Pasta
- Start by adding the spaghetti to heavily salted pasta water. Set your timer to 2 minutes minus the packet time. Then to a large/ deep pan, add the olive oil, chilli flakes and garlic. Gently fry on a (very) low heat for around 2 minutes (Image 1).
- Next, add the Gochujang paste into the pan to fry for a couple of minutes (Image 2).
3. Loosen the sauce with 2 ladles of pasta water and continue to cook over low heat (Image 3).
4. Once reduced, ensuring that the Gochujang sauce isn’t boiling (reduce/turn off the heat) (Image 4).
5. Then add the cream into the pan with the parmesan. Stir to form a creamy sauce, adding another ladle of pasta water (Image 5).
6. Add the undercooked spaghetti into the pan and stir to combine, gently heating as you stir. The pasta water should thicken into an emulsified cheesy sauce. Keep adding pasta water as necessary and once the pasta is fully cooked, serve immediately with an extra sprinkle of parmesan (Image 6).
Satisfy creamy pasta cravings with these other recipes; Creamy Tomato and Spinach One Pot Pasta, Hellmann’s Creamy Brussels Sprout Pasta Bake, Steak Pasta with Creamy Sauce,
Tips for best results
- Cook the pasta until al dente, as it will continue to cook when you add the gochujang pasta sauce.
- Make sure you reserve some pasta water before draining the cooked pasta. You can use this water to loosen the creamy Korean pasta sauce in case the mixture becomes too thick.
- Adjust the amount of Gochujang paste according to your preferred spice level and taste.
- You can add additional protein to your Korean fusion pasta recipe, e.g., chicken or fish (like this Delicious Air Fryer Cod), as both will go equally well.
Why Gochujang Works in Pasta
- Fermented depth: Just like tomato paste in a ragu, gochujang adds a deep umami base that instant sauces just can’t replicate.
- The cream balance: The spice in gochujang can be sharp, but when you emulsify it with dairy and starchy pasta water, it mellows into a lovely velvety sauce.
- Fusion science: Gochujang pasta works because it hits the same notes as a spicy vodka sauce, but with a funkier kick from the fermented soybeans.
What is Gochujang?
Gochujang, also known as Korean BBQ sauce, is a fundamental ingredient in Korean dishes. It’s a thick red paste made from chillies, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice, and salt.
Gochujang can be found as a paste or a sauce. The difference is that the paste is thicker and is normally cooked into dishes, while the sauce is thinner and used for dipping and drizzling over food, like the addictive sauce on my Quick & Easy Boom Boom Shrimp.
The paste is what I use in this dish. It has a complex flavor that includes sweet, spicy, acidic, and salty all at once – similar to my Easy Devilled Sausages. The paste is often added as a flavor base in things like soup, marinades, sauces, and in this case… gochujang pasta!
Where can I buy Gochujang?
Gochujang is becoming more widely used so you can find it in most large supermarkets. If your local supermarket fails to supply it, try visiting your local Asian or International food store.
Serving Suggestions
This gochujang pasta has over 20 grams of protein, but to ensure a balance of nutrients, I like to pair it with a side of vegetables.
Here are some sides that work well with this easy gochujang pasta:
- Roasted Tenderstem Broccoli
- Easy Din Tai Fung Cucumber Recipe
- Tonkatsu Inspired Pork & Cabbage Salad
- Air Fryer Green Beans
- Tender Pepper Steak Recipe
- Crispy Pan-Fried Firm Tofu
If you want to add more protein to this recipe try Thin Chicken Breasts, Crispy pan-fried firm tofu, or Poached Eggs in the Air Fryer.
Leftover Storage and Reheat Instructions
Refrigerator: Store your gochujang pasta in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezer: This dish freezes well for up to three months.
Reheat: Reheat by adding a tablespoon of water to the pasta and microwaving in 15-second bursts until the sauce is heated through.
FAQS
I love spaghetti with the creamy sauce, but you can use any type of pasta – for example, linguine, fettuccine, fusilli, and even orzo work well.
The level of spice depends on the brand and also which gochujang paste you buy. Always start by using a little in the sauce to try and spice up depending on your taste.
Gochujang has a robust flavor that is salty, sweet, acidic, and spicy. Overall, the flavor is quite unique and hard to compare to another flavor. But if I had to say, it is like a spicy miso.
This dish uses store-bought gochujang paste with garlic and parmesan cheese added for a vegetarian gochujang pasta.
Need something sweet for after? Try Overnight Weetabix Cheescake, Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Baked Oats, Chocolate Chip Microwave Cookies.
If you tried this Creamy Gochujang Pasta recipe, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a review & a star rating to let me know how you found it! I love hearing about your experiences – it motivates me to keep creating more and more recipes for you guys 💛 Let’s get cooking! – Mimi x
Easy Creamy Gochujang Pasta
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp Gochujang paste (£2.50/5)=(£0.50)
- 100 g parmesan (£1.60)
- 150 ml single cream (£1.10/2)=(£0.55)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (£0.39)
- 500 g spaghetti £0.80
Cupboard Essentials
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp chilli flakes, optional
Method
- Add the spaghetti to heavily salted boiling water. Set your timer for 2 minutes minus the suggested cooking time on the packet or box.
- To a large, deep pan, add the olive oil, chilli flakes, and garlic. Gently fry on a (very) low heat for around 2 minutes.
- Next add the Gochujang paste to the pan and fry for another couple of minutes.
- Loosen the thickened sauce with 2 ladles of pasta water and reduce the heat to low. Make sure the sauce does not boil.
- Add the cream and shredded parmesan to the pan. Stir the ingredients together until incorporated well, then stir in another ladle of pasta water.
- Finish cooking the spaghetti by adding it to the pan with the sauce. Stir to combine. Keep adding pasta water as necessary and once the pasta is fully cooked, serve immediately with an extra sprinkle of parmesan.
Serve with tenderstem broccoli and mushrooms sautéed with fry light.
Notes
- Make sure you undercook the pasta slightly when you first boil it so you can finish off the cooking in the sauce and not overcook the pasta.
- Reserve some pasta water to adjust the thickness of the sauce/spaghetti.
- Adjust Gochujang paste depending on your spice preference and consider serving with some additional protein such as chicken or fish.
Nutrition
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