Carbonara with king oysters is one of those dishes that you would think would be hard to veganise successfully. As always with a bit of creativity, it’s really easy to do. You can make a dish that in many respects tastes better than the dish it’s based on. Even better it’s now cruelty & cancer free! Bacon has been banished, and replaced with “vegan bacon bits” by Vivera, and delicious king oyster mushrooms. The sauce is an incredible mix of cashews, Dijon mustard, Elmlea vegan cream, nutritional yeast and the amazing kala namak. Though I gather Dijon mustard is to some folk a controversial ingredient, to me it’s essential!
You can use tagliatelli for this dish, but I think it works best with wholewheat spaghetti. The sauce is easy once you’ve soaked the cashews for a few hours. It’s just a question of weighing in all the ingredients, and then blitzing it in a Nutribullet or similar high speed blender. A food processor will do at a pinch of course. But you’ll never get that really smooth creamy sauce that you can with a Nutribullet.
Cooking the king oyster mushrooms in thin strips in a wok works well, and the vegan bacon in the Actifry. Then it’s cooking the wholewheat spaghetti so that it’s a little al dente and combinging all the ingredients. I’ve also discovered a new optional ingredient which works very well – petit pois. Not too many, and steamed in advance – they add colour and nutrition the the already superb dish.
Green vegetables like cabbage, tender stem broccoli or green beans work well with this carbonara with king oysters. Also, garlic bread, and hummus are firm favourites with me. I guess you could even have some petit pois with it too.
Vegan Carbonara with King Oysters & Viv-vera bacon bits!
Equipment
- Large pan
- pasta pot
Ingredients
For the ‘Egg’ Sauce:
- 100 g Raw Cashews soaked 1 hr in boiling water
- 15 g Nutritional Yeast can use 20g
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric can use 1 teasp
- 1 teasp Dijon Mustard can add a little more heaped teasp
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder can add a little more 1 teasp
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder can add a little more 1 teasp
- 1/2 tsp Black Salt Kala Namak - can use 1 teasp
- 250 ml Elmlea or Alpro single cream.
- 50 ml Some extra oat milk to thin the sauce the pasta soaks up some liquid
- 25 g vegan plain yogurt. optional - but helps the creaminess
For the Pasta:
- 250 g Spaghetti or tagliatelli
For the Mushrooms & "bacon" bits:
- 1 Tbsp Vegan Butter
- 4 large oyster mushrooms sliced into strips or 5 flat or portobello
- 175 g I.e. one complete pack of Vivera Bacon Bits.
- 4 cloves Crushed Garlic
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 150 g steamed petit pois given them around 5 to 6 minutes from frozen. Use less - 100g if you wish.
Instructions
To make the "egg" sauce.
- Add all the ingredients for the ‘egg’ sauce to the blender (or Nutribullet is even better)
- Then blend until smooth and set aside.
- Put the spaghetti/tagliatelle on to cook according to the package instructions – though note the spelt tagliatelle needs more like 11 to 12 minutes though not 7 as on the packet. Same deal with the spaghetti.
Preparing the oyster mushrooms and bacon bits
- Add the vegan butter to a pan and heat until melted.
- Add the sliced mushrooms, crushed garlic and smoked paprika and fry until the mushrooms are softened.
- Cook the Vivera bacon bits as per the packet – around 6mins on medium heat with a little oil. I used 6 minutes inthe actifry set on 180°C
- add to the same pan and mix vegan "bacon bits" and mushrooms
- steam the peas for 6 minutes so they are tender
- add the steamed peas to the pan
- add the extra spices - black pepper, paprika and stir as you re-heat a little on a very low heat,
- add the cooked drained spaghetti to the pan
- mix all together until unifomly distributed in the spaghetti
- pour in the blended carbonara sauce
- Make sure they are mixed well.
- Serve with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of black pepper and grated vegan parmesan (violife)
Notes
- I find that all packets of pasta overestimate the quantity needed per person - for obvious reasons - and totally underestimate the cooking time. I usually do my wholemeal pasta for 12 minutes not the 8 on the packet or it's way too al dente.
- This can be too sticky if not enough liquid is added, so don't be afraid to add more water or plant milk to get the consistency right - creamy but not too runny or too thick and sticky - the right balance is very important.
2 Responses
It’s amazing to have king oyster mushroom which I absolutely adore in this recipe. Honestly vegan bacon bits do have different texture from that of overly processed bacons.
It’s a personal preference, I’d add some more single cream to it simply because I like it. It’s the idea of putting them together that amazed me.
Absolutely it’s always good to experiment trust your own taste buds amend a just make it suit you that’s what I do is just my personal idea but recipes are always just an outline just something to go by the only time it’s really critical is with something like a cake where it really is pretty critical the ratios most things like stews it’s just personal preference