This classic pasta dish gets a plant-based makeover! Our vegan pasta carbonara is complete with peas, vegan tempeh bacon, and mushrooms in a cream sauce for the ultimate, protein-packed comfort dish.
Have you ever heard that you can’t get enough protein on a plant-based diet? Hopefully, that old pesky myth is on its way out the door in 2021 but in case there is any doubt, let me introduce you to this insanely BUFF vegan pasta carbonara.
Protein-packed edamame spaghetti bathed in a creamy cashew sauce, peppered with peas, mushrooms, and topped off with smoky tempeh bacon bits. This three ounce serving of edamame pasta with peas and tempeh is nearly 60g of protein! That doesn’t take into account all of the fiber and other nutrients that are packed into this dish.
The Ingredients
In this recipe here, I am using edamame spaghetti, however there are so many different pasta options these days! First, you can’t go wrong with a classic wheat-based spaghetti. Sometimes, there’s just nothing like the original. Secondly, if you’re gluten-free, there are a ton of options for you. Consider: brown rice pasta, chickpea pasta, edamame pasta, or our fave, lentil pasta! If you’re super into your fitness journey or concerned about protein, I highly recommend getting yourself some of this edamame spaghetti. Just one three ounce serving of edamame pasta is over 45g of protein. Holy smokes!
For the bacon, I use a smoky tempeh bacon that comes prepacked from Lightlife. It’s amazingly delicious, packed with protein, and can be eaten right out of the packaging. However, if tempeh isn’t your thing or you can’t find it, most plant-based bacons will do! Finally, if you want to skip packaged foods all together, simply top off with shiitake mushroom “bacon”! It takes on a totally different flavor when it’s marinated with soy sauce and roasted to a crisp.
My vegan carbonara cream sauce is cashew-based. However, if you’re nut free, try searching for a potato/squash/cauliflower vegan cream sauce (I am working on mine currently!). Nutritional yeast (which is loaded with essential B12 vitamin) is what gives our cream sauce a slight cheesiness. Lastly, the egg-like flavor that is traditional in carbonara comes from the addition of the sulfurous Kala Namak, or black salt. If you don’t have black salt, that’s quite all right.
Regardless of which pasta you choose, I hope you enjoy our plant-based makeover of this carbonara.
Vegan Pasta Carbonara
Ingredients
- 8 oz pasta of your choice
- 1 cup cooked peas
- 6 oz chopped tempeh bacon
- 5 oz shiitake mushrooms
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Carbonara Sauce
- 1.2 cup raw cashews
- 3/4 cup plant milk
- 2 cloves of roasted garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp kala namak (black salt)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
Carbonara Sauce
- Soak the cashews in boiling water for 10 minutes.
- Roast the garlic in a toaster oven or oven while the cashews are soaking.
- Then add all of the sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Pasta
- Boil the pasta and cook al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water.
- Sauté the mushrooms with olive oil in a skillet.
- Add the pasta to the mushrooms with the cashew sauce and pasta water and cooked peas. Gently fold as the sauce thickens for 2-3 mins. Then turn off heat.
- Serve the pasta with chopped tempeh bacon and fresh basil. Tempeh bacon can be heated or straight out of the package.
Did you make this? Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #thewholescoopblog
