VEGAN SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

 

VEGAN SPAGHETTI CARBONARA
Smoky marinated cremini mushrooms and peas are tossed with spaghetti in a silky cashew sauce to create this decadently delicious vegan carbonara.

PREP TIME: 35 mins
COOK TIME: 25 mins
TOTAL TIME:1 hour

Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 6-8

INGREDIENTS
For the Mushroom Bacon

  • ⅓ cup soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp. maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. liquid smoke
  • 1 lb. cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and sliced
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil

For the Spaghetti Carbonara

  • 1 lb. dried spaghetti noodles (I like Ancient Harvest)
  • 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours and drained
  • 1 cup unflavored cashew or almond milk
  • 2-3 tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes, to taste (optional, but adds a really nice flavor)
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
  • ½ cup fresh parsley
  • salt & pepper to taste

For Serving

  • cashew Parmesan (optional)
  • red pepper flakes (optional)
  • kala namak (optional, for eggy flavor)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Stir soy sauce, maple syrup, cider vinegar, and liquid smoke together in a small bowl. Add sliced mushrooms and toss to coat. Allow to marinate for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally to recoat.
  2. While the mushrooms marinate, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook spaghetti according to package directions, until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water, then drain pasta into a colander. Return to pot and toss with a bit of olive oil.
  3. Place cashews, milk and nutritional yeast flakes into the food processor bowl and blend until smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
  4. Coat the bottom of a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place over medium heat. When oil is hot, add mushrooms in as even a layer as possible. Allow to cook until browned on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Flip and allow to cook 5 minutes more on opposite sides. Remove mushrooms from skillet and transfer to a plate.
  5. Add 2 tablespoons more of oil to skillet. When oil is hot, add garlic and cook 2 minutes, until very fragrant. Add spaghetti, cashew mixture, peas, parsley and mushroom bacon to skillet. Toss everything a few times, until noodles are coated and ingredients are well mixed, adding some reserved pasta water to thin the sauce if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Divide onto plates and sprinkle with red pepper flakes, cashew Parmesan and kala namak, if desired. Serve.

Non-Vegan Options: Add Chicken or Seafood

NOTES
This recipe makes a big batch. I don't recommend scaling down the batch size unless you've got a relatively small blending device for the sauce, otherwise, you might not be able to get it to blend fully.