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Vegan carbonara

Ideal for a speedy and delicious vegan dinner during the week this is an incredibly simple plant-based twist on the traditional carbonara.

Preparation time
less than 30 mins

Cooking time
30 mins to 1 hour

Serves
Serves 4

Dietary
Vegetarian

By Ben Rebuck
From Saturday Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 1 garlic bulb
  • 1 tbsp truffle oil
  • 1 tsp smoked salt
  • 200g/7oz silken tofu
  • 15g/½oz nutritional yeast
  • 50g/1¾oz cashew nuts, soaked and water reserved
  • ½ tsp black salt
  • 1 tsp miso paste
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 200g/7oz vegan bacon, chopped, or vegan bacon lardons, plus extra to serve
  • 500g/1lb 2oz pasta, such as mafalda or spaghetti
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 75g/2½oz vegan hard cheese, grated, to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.

  2. Cut the top off the garlic bulb, cover with the truffle oil and smoked salt and wrap in kitchen foil. Place in a small roasting tin and roast for around 30–40 minutes. Leave to cool slightly.

  3. To make the sauce, squeeze the roasted garlic into a blender or food processor with the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, cashew nuts, black salt and miso paste. Add some of the water from the soaked cashews just to loosen and blitz to a sauce. Add more water if needed.

  4. Fry the vegan bacon in the oil in a frying pan until crispy. Remove from the pan and set aside.

  5. Cook the pasta in a saucepan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions. Drain, reserving the pasta cooking water.

  6. Return the pasta to the pan and add the sauce and half of the vegan bacon. Add at least 1 ladle of the pasta water to loosen, adding more pasta water if needed.

  7. Serve with black pepper, vegan hard cheese and the remaining vegan bacon. Enjoy!

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