One of my own personal critiques is that I’m wholly ignorant of how little time people have to cook each day. Given that I cook all day, every day as a job, I seem to easily forget that not everybody can spend all day making an intricate lasagne. I’m here today to begin rectifying this, with a FODMAP friendly pasta that is ready in 20 minutes. It’s gluten free, vegetarian and be customised to any season. Basically: it’s a lazy, easy pasta sauce.
This gluten free, vegetarian dish is fast and delicious. Butter is browned until dark, speckled and fragrant. In go some capers, chilli and perhaps a little asafoetida. Next up: lots of lemon juice and a little pasta water. By the end of the pasta cooking time, you have a zingy, creamy, light yet flavourful pasta sauce. Finished with herbs, a handful of parmesan and the vegetables of your choice? Heaven. Easy, delicious, FODMAP friendly pasta heaven.
Recipe notes
- 100g of butter might seem like a lot, but between 4 people it is only 25g. I haven’t worked on a vegan version yet, but I promise I will.
- For a more subtle lemon hit, use the lesser amount of lemon juice. Personally, I love the full on version with the full amount of lemon.
- I’ve used parsley and basil as the herbs, but you could use your preferred herb (within reason, sorry coriander).
- I really like Ceres and Green Olive Organics brands for spaghetti in Australia. They contain whole grains, not just corn and starches.
- Aleppo chilli is a great smokey chilli flake that isn’t too high in heat. That’s what I like to use in this dish.
- The brown sugar is (kind of) optional but really balances out the tartness of the lemon. You can use maple syrup or panela sugar in it’s place if you prefer.
- Meyer lemons are a sweeter variety of lemon, which is helpful if you don’t like things too tart. They’re not generally available at supermarkets though.
- Use vegetarian parmesan to keep this dish vegetarian. Yes, it does exist. I know, it technically shouldn’t. Yet here we are.
- Although I haven’t tried it, you could probably use chopped olives instead of capers. Anything goes, really.
Tips and tricks for your FODMAP friendly vegetarian pasta
Chop, juice, assemble everything first. This dish goes very quickly once you start, so it really helps to have everything on hand.
Blender parmesan is the way to go here! Once blended, parmesan becomes a fine, beautiful powder that assimilates into the sauce. I chop it into small chunks and blend it in my old Nutribullet. Please never ever buy pre-grated Parmesan unless it’s real parmesan in a tub from the deli. The packaged sort has fillers that prevent it from properly melting and it can aggravate sensitive digestive systems.
I like to use a wok to cook my spaghetti because it means I don’t have to bend the sides to squish it into the pot. It also means I can use less water, which in turn produces brilliantly starchy pasta water. This emulsifies the lemon sauce and brings it all together.
Substitution options
As noted, I have not yet tried a vegan version of this dish. Vegan parmesan would be fine, but I’m not sure if vegan butter would work. It certainly wouldn’t brown, and as yet I’m unsure if it would emulsify or just become greasy. Stay tuned.
You can, however, use 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in place of the butter. Personally I much prefer the brown butter version, but it is an option. You could use garlic infused oil for a bit of pizzazz, too.
You can easily use vegetables you have on hand for this FODMAP friendly pasta. If they’re hardy vegetables like broccoli you will need to cook them prior to adding them into the pasta. Or not, you do you.
You could bulk the pasta out by stirring through some lightly wilted greens. Another option to get extra greenery in there is to gently stir through some zoodles after you’ve turned off the heat.
I added some chopped olives to the brown butter while I was testing this recipe and found that a very pleasant addition.
I see no reason why you couldn’t use any pasta shape you fancy. For me, there’s just something about spaghetti.
FODMAP friendly pasta notes
A few notes on FODMAPs for this pasta dish. These notes are current as of August 2026 and will be periodically reviewed to ensure they remain current with Monash research.
Since this recipe was developed, Monash has lowered the threshold for tomatoes.
Cherry tomatoes are low FODMAP in serves of up to 59g per person. In 60g serves, they contain moderate amounts of fructose. A punnet in Australia is often 200-250g. This means that you can safely divide a 200g punnet between four people or use up to a total of 236g cherry tomatoes.
Ripe common tomatoes and Truss tomatoes are low FODMAP in serves of up to 74g per person. In 75g serves, they contain moderate amounts of fructose. This means you could use up to a maximum of 296g common or Truss tomato.
If you are a fan of spicier food, I would now recommend using fresh red chilli here. It is low FODMAP in serves of up to 32g, with larger serves containing moderate fructans. While you can still use dried chilli flakes, they are a fructose containing ingredient. If you intend to push the quantity of tomatoes to the maximum, adding extra fructose might take this too far.
Choose gluten free corn and rice pasta or quinoa pasta for the lowest FODMAP content. Monash says it is low FODMAP in serves of up to 500g.
Monash has introduced a threshold for butter. They say it contains lactose in serves that exceed 143g per person. FODMAP Friendly still say that butter is FODMAP free.
More pasta recipes
- Low FODMAP creamy mushroom pasta
- Low FODMAP pumpkin pasta
- Low FODMAP pasta sauce
- Gluten free beetroot pasta dough
- Gluten free egg pasta without xanthan gum
FODMAP friendly pasta with brown butter, lemon, chilli and herbs
Ingredients
- 250 g gluten free spaghetti
- 100 g good quality salted butter
- Lots of freshly cracked black pepper to your taste
- 2 tablespoons capers chopped
- 1 medium chopped fresh red chilli (or less, to your tastes)
- 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida powder optional, see notes
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar optional, see notes
- 60-125ml (1/4 – 1/2 cup)* pasta water
- 80-100ml (4-5 tablespoons)* freshly squeezed lemon juice, to your tastes 2-3 large lemons
- freshly grated parmesan, to your tastes to taste
- 2 large handfuls of herbs finely chopped (I used basil and continental parsley)
- 200 g cherry tomatoes, chopped or 250g ripe common or Truss tomatoes, chopped
Instructions
- Get everything chopped, squeezed, blended (Parmesan) and assembled. It will make life so much easier.
- Bring a large wok or saucepan half filled with well salted water to the boil. Use just enough water so you can cook the spaghetti but also condense the starch.
- Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and use tongs to separate it.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter and crack in the pepper. Use a silicon spatula to move the butter around and continue to cook until it is deep, deep brown in colour and smells delightfully nutty. This will take anywhere from 2-5 minutes.
- Once the butter is browned to your liking, add the capers, chilli flakes, asafoetida and light brown sugar. They will sizzle. Stir them in and cook them off for a minute or so. At any time from here if you’re worried the butter is getting too brown, add some pasta water.
- Add the lemon juice and stir to combine. If you haven’t already, add some pasta water to emulsify the ingredients and form a sauce.
- If your spaghetti is done (just slightly al dente is good) use tongs to transfer it to the sauce skillet. You can allow a little bit of pasta water to piggyback in – it will cook off quite quickly.
- Swirl the spaghetti around in the sauce until it is completely coated and no excess liquid remains. Turn off the heat.
- Add the grated parmesan to your taste and stir through. Do the same with the chopped herbs. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper before gently stirring through the tomatoes. Serve immediately.
Notes
- See FODMAP notes in the body of the post.
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