Description
Make the best carbonara recipe ever with this Vegan Carbonara with Pumpkin, which is filled with the flavors of tempeh bacon, pumpkin, mushrooms, and pasta. This vegan carbonara is a healthy, easy one-dish meal you can get on the table in 20 minutes!
Ingredients
- Water, as needed
- 1 pound long, thin pasta (i.e., linguini, spaghetti, or bucatini)
- 1 1/2 cups reserved pasta cooking water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil - 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 6 ounces tempeh bacon (or make it yourself below*), sliced into small pieces, about ½-inches
- 2 teaspoons fresh or dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
- 1 (15-ounce can) pumpkin (or homemade pumpkin puree)
- ½ cup Vegan parmesan cheese (or make it yourself here)
Instructions
- Add water to a large pot until it’s about half full. Cover, place on burner, and bring to a boil on high heat.
- Add pasta, reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until al dente, following manufacturer’s instructions for pasta (i.e., about 7 minutes for many types of pasta). Remove cooked pasta from the water, drain, and set aside, reserving 1 ½ cups pasta water for later.
- While pasta is cooking, heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add olive oil.
- Add onions and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add mushrooms, tempeh bacon, thyme, black pepper, red chili pepper flakes, and ½ cup reserved pasta water, and sauté for 4 minutes.
- Add pumpkin and stir well. Add enough additional pasta water (about ½ cup) to create a creamy texture.
- Add cooked, drained pasta and stir gently until well coated. If desired, add more reserved pasta water as needed to create a moist, creamy pasta dish.
- Top with vegan parmesan cheese and serve immediately.
- Make 8 servings (about 1 ½ cups pasta per serving)
Notes
*Learn how to make your own smoky tempeh bacon here—follow the recipe, except for omit the step of pan-frying or baking it. Just marinate the sliced tempeh bacon, drain it, and use the tempeh in step 5.
To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta and tempeh.
- Prep Time: 12 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: American, Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 337
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 455 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 57 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 12 g