I've been having a MAJOR hankering for some delicious vegan pasta with a creamy sauce this week.
I had my heart set on veganising the classic carbonara, and was really excited as this is a dish I haven't had in yeaars!
I was extremely happy with how this dish turned out so I thought why not submit it as my entry for 
Now, this recipe does contain quite a few of what some may call 'cheat' ingredients- meat and cheese substitutes that I have not made myself! But the aim of these kinds of post is not really to show you anything that extraordinary, just to highlight just how ridiculously easy it is to enjoy all the dishes you would have as a meat eater once going vegan. There really is no excuse these days, and cries of 'what about bacon??' really aren't going to cut it anymore 😂
Here's what you'll need to make a creamy and luxurious vegan carbonara (Serves 2):
- 2oog tagliatelle
- 25oml carton of Oatly cream
- 50g vegan parmesan (I used Violife)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp vegan cream cheese
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tsp plain flour
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 5 slices bacon substitute (I used Quorn ham slices)
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- Salt and black pepper
Method:
- Slice your 'bacon' into small squares.
- Heat some oil in a pan on a medium heat and fry the pieces until crispy sprinkling with a little garlic salt.
- Add the cream to a small saucepan on a medium heat.
- Add the pasta to a saucepan of boiling water and leave to simmer for approximately 7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, grate about 50g of cheese in to the saucepan, stirring well.
- Gradually add the nutritional yeast, butter, cream cheese, the crushed clove of garlic salt and pepper, stirring well all the while.
- The consistency was a little runny so I added a little flour to thicken it.
- I then used a hand blender to create a smoother sauce as the vegan cheese had not melted fully and the sauce was a little lumpy.
- Add the 'bacon' bits to the sauce and stir.
- Drain the pasta and put onto a plate, top with the sauce.
- Finish with some grated cheese and black pepper.
Bellissimo!
I can't tell you how happy I was when I tasted this sauce, it was just so creamy and cheesy and divine.
Sorry about the sloppy presentation and photos, after having a sneak taste of the sauce I was in SUCH a hurry to eat this the styling of the food was the last thing on my mind!
I feel so lucky that dishes like this are so doable now as we have soo many options available to us.
Never again do I have to reminisce about eating cheesy, decadent pasta, it's so easy to make 😀
