15+ Healthy Pasta Recipes and Noodles

If you love pasta but you’re trying to eat healthy, this page is your go-to source for the BEST healthy pasta recipes!

The pasta side dishes and dinners here use wholesome and simple ingredients, and are quick and easy to make for a deliciously healthy meal.

Are all pasta recipes bad for you?

Pasta has a bad reputation of being unhealthy. In truth, the noodles as-is are fine, when eaten in moderation. The reason some pasta recipes are unhealthy is because they’re served with heavy, cream-based pasta sauces, fatty proteins, or too many calorie-heavy toppings like cheese.

Here, you will find plenty of healthy pasta dishes that are delicious options for a quick lunch, side dish, or dinner tonight!

Chicken Pasta Recipes

Chicken and pasta are the perfect combo – a lean protein paired with a healthy sauce and perfectly cooked noodles!

Popular chicken pasta recipes here include a one-pot pasta chicken caprese and a healthy summer weeknight dinner of lemon pasta salad with grilled chicken.

Healthy Pasta with Vegetables

Pack your plate with a reasonable serving size of pasta; 1 ounce of uncooked noodles expands during cooking to a cooked serving size of 2 ounces.

Pile plenty of veggies onto the plate too, for delicious healthy pasta dinners like summer vegetable pasta primavera, or delicious spicy chipotle hummus pasta!

Or try your hand at making veggie pasta using healthy vegetables like zucchini, eggplant or carrots.

Look below for other healthy pasta recipes!

Turkey and Spinach Lasagna from Healthy. Delicious.

Turkey, Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna

Lasagna is sacred in our house. We make it every year for Christmas Eve, using Shawn’s “secret recipe.” It’s expensive and fattening and totally the kind of thing that you only make once a year. Until last week, it was also the only lasagna Shawn will touch – you should have seen the look on his face when I tried to use slices of eggplant instead of noodles for some of the layers a few years ago. I was scared that there might be mutiny.

But I finally did it! After years of trying, I made a healthier lasagna that not only met his approval, but also had us fighting over the leftovers.

Oven Toasted Ravioli

Have you ever had toasted/fried ravioli before? I don’t see it on menus very often, but it’s sometimes offered as an appetizer at Italian restaurants or pizzerias. And it’s amazing. (Then again, it’s deep fried pasta filled with cheese. Of course it’s awesome!) When I came home to find a shipment of Monterey Gourmet Foods™ ravioli and pesto to play with, it took me about 2 seconds to decide what I wanted to do with it. This oven-toasted ravioli does away with the guilt that goes along with fried food, and it swaps out the lighter flavors of roast chicken and pesto for the more traditional garlic and marinara.

Stovetop Mac & Cheese with Stewed Tomato

Last month, The Laughing Cow asked me if I would be interested in trying a lower-calorie version of a comfort food, featuring their cheese. I’ve kept Laughing Cow in my refrigerator ever since being introduced to it by my high school French teacher (back when it was called “la vache qui rit”) but I’ve never tried cooking with it so, intrigued, I agreed. They sent me the recipe and ingredients to make their creamy stovetop macaroni and cheese, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for macaroni and cheese, especially when it has a gourmet twist.

Jalapeno Popper Mac and Cheese

This jalapeno popper macaroni and cheese is probably the best thing that’s ever come out of my kitchen.

There’s not much more to say about it than that. I mean, I could go on about how how rich and creamy and cheesy it is. How the thick sauce that clings to each piece of pasta tastes like someone just squeezed the guts out of your favorite bar poppers and called it “sauce.” How I kept running back to the kitchen as I waited for the pasta to finish cooking because I couldn’t stop sneaking tastes.

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