Lemony Brussels Sprouts Pasta with White Beans and Garlic Panko Breadcrumbs
Brussels sprouts pasta with browned shaved sprouts, creamy white beans and a bright lemon-garlic sauce, finished with crisp garlic panko. Ready in 35 minutes.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4
Lemony Brussels Sprouts Pasta with White Beans and Garlic Panko Breadcrumbs is a vegan dinner recipe made with olive oil, panko breadcrumbs, garlic. It takes 35 minutes of hands-on time, serves 4, and each serving has 627 calories, 24 g of protein and 13 g of fiber.
Thinly sliced sprouts are seared in a hot skillet without much stirring, so they brown and turn sweet instead of steaming. Starchy pasta water, olive oil, nutritional yeast and a few lightly crushed cannellini beans emulsify into a glossy sauce with no cream needed. Lemon juice goes in off the heat to keep it bright, and the garlic panko is added at the table so it stays crunchy.
Ingredients
Garlic panko
- 1 tbsp14 golive oil
- ½ cup25 gpanko breadcrumbs
- 1 clove3 ggarlic, finely grated or minced
- 1 pinch0.4 gfine salt
Pasta
- 12 oz340 gdried short pasta such as orecchiette, casarecce or fusilli (check the label is egg-free)
- 1½ tbsp27 gfine salt, for the pasta water, most of this is drained away
- 3 tbsp41 golive oil
- 1 lb454 gBrussels sprouts, trimmed and thinly sliced (about 1/8 inch)
- ½ tsp3 gfine salt, plus more to taste
- 1 large60 gshallot, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves12 ggarlic, thinly sliced
- ½ tsp0.9 gred pepper flakes
- 1 can240 gcannellini beans, drained and rinsed, one 15 oz can
- 3 tbsp15 gnutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp6 glemon zest, finely grated (from 1 large lemon)
- 3 tbsp46 gfresh lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)
- ½ tsp1.2 gfreshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp7.6 gflat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve (optional)
Kit: large pot, 12-inch deep skillet or sauté pan, colander, microplane or fine grater
Tips
- Zest the lemon before juicing it; it is much easier that way.
- A food processor's slicing disc shreds a pound of sprouts in under a minute. Bagged shaved sprouts also work; they are usually cut finer, so start checking for browning after 4 minutes.
- If your skillet is smaller than 12 inches, brown the sprouts in two batches. A crowded pan steams them and you lose the sweet, toasty edges.
- The sauce thickens quickly as it sits, so leave it slightly looser in the pan than you want it in the bowl.
Swap ideas
- Use whole-wheat pasta instead of regular
- Nuttier flavor that suits the browned sprouts and adds fiber; it absorbs more liquid, so expect to use a little extra pasta water.
- Swap cannellini beans for chickpeas
- Firmer, nuttier bite. They won't crush into the sauce as easily, so it will be a bit thinner.
- Replace the panko with chopped toasted walnuts
- Richer, more savory crunch and naturally gluten-free topping; toast for 3 to 4 minutes and add the garlic the same way.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon capers with the beans
- Adds briny, salty pops that sharpen the lemon; reduce the added salt slightly.
The numbers
Nutrition per serving
627kcal per serving
Everything else · 4 servings per recipe
- Saturated fat
- 2.3 g 12%
- Sugars
- 7 g
- Sodium
- 3042 mg 132%
- Potassium
- 1147 mg 24%
- Calcium
- 152 mg 12%
- Iron
- 7.8 mg 43%
- Vitamin C
- 105 mg 117%
- Vitamin B12
- 14.07 µg 586%
% Daily Value on a 2,000 calorie diet. Calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for each ingredient; optional ingredients are excluded. Estimates vary with brands and portions.
Sources: Oil, olive, salad or cooking, Bread, crumbs, dry, grated, plain (SR Legacy; used as proxy for panko, which is a lighter, airier crumb so the cup/tbsp weights are set lower than USDA's ~108 g/cup), Garlic, raw, Salt, table, Pasta, dry, enriched, Brussels sprouts, raw, Shallots, raw, Spices, pepper, red or cayenne, Beans, white, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt, Nutritional Yeast Seasoning by BRAGG (fortified; legacy USDA Branded Foods entry as reproduced by NutritionValue.org), Lemon peel, raw, Lemon juice, raw, Spices, pepper, black
Method
Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta and stir in the 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt. While it heats, trim and thinly slice the Brussels sprouts, separating the shreds with your fingers, and prep the shallot, garlic and lemon.
Make the garlic panko: warm 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, deep skillet (12 inch) over medium heat. Add the panko and a pinch of salt and stir constantly until evenly deep golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the grated garlic and cook 30 seconds more, until fragrant. Tip into a small bowl and wipe out the skillet.
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until just shy of al dente, about 1 minute less than the package time. Scoop out 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water, then drain.
While the pasta cooks, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the sprouts and 1/2 teaspoon salt, spread them out and leave undisturbed for 2 minutes so they brown. Stir and keep cooking, stirring only every minute or so, until tender with plenty of deep golden edges, 5 to 6 minutes total.
Reduce the heat to medium. Push the sprouts aside, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the gap, then the shallot, sliced garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until the shallot softens and the garlic is pale gold, 1 to 2 minutes; don't let the garlic darken.
Stir in the beans and 3/4 cup of the reserved pasta water. Simmer for 2 minutes, crushing roughly a quarter of the beans against the pan with the back of a spoon to thicken the liquid.
Add the drained pasta and the nutritional yeast. Toss vigorously over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, adding more pasta water a splash at a time, until the pasta is al dente and coated in a glossy sauce that lightly pools in the pan.
Take the skillet off the heat and stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and black pepper. Taste and adjust with more salt, lemon or a splash of pasta water if it has tightened up.
Divide among bowls and top generously with the garlic panko and the parsley, if using. Serve right away.
Storage: Refrigerate the pasta in an airtight container for up to 3 days; keep the panko separately in a sealed jar at room temperature so it stays crisp. Reheat in a skillet over medium heat with a splash of water until steaming hot, then finish with a fresh squeeze of lemon. Not recommended for freezing.
Questions
- How much protein is in lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs?
- Each of the 4 servings has 24 g of protein, 13 g of fiber and 627 calories, calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for every ingredient.
- Is lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs vegan?
- Yes. It contains no dairy, eggs, honey or other animal products.
- How long does lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs take to make?
- 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking, so 35 minutes of hands-on time.
- Can you make lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs ahead?
- Refrigerate the pasta in an airtight container for up to 3 days; keep the panko separately in a sealed jar at room temperature so it stays crisp. Reheat in a skillet over medium heat with a splash of water until steaming hot, then finish with a fresh squeeze of lemon. Not recommended for freezing.
- What can I substitute in lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs?
- Use whole-wheat pasta instead of regular — nuttier flavor that suits the browned sprouts and adds fiber; it absorbs more liquid, so expect to use a little extra pasta water.. Swap cannellini beans for chickpeas — firmer, nuttier bite. they won't crush into the sauce as easily, so it will be a bit thinner.. Replace the panko with chopped toasted walnuts — richer, more savory crunch and naturally gluten-free topping; toast for 3 to 4 minutes and add the garlic the same way.. Stir in 1 tablespoon capers with the beans — adds briny, salty pops that sharpen the lemon; reduce the added salt slightly..
- Does lemony brussels sprouts pasta with white beans and garlic panko breadcrumbs contain gluten?
- Yes — the ingredient list includes gluten. Check the labels on the products you buy if you're cooking for an allergy.
Nutrition is calculated from USDA data for every ingredient — how we work it out.
Published October 24, 2026 ·Italian