Vegan Pasta Carbonara Recipe (2024)

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Vegan Carbonara sauce recipe made with cashews, spices, seitan bacon and black salt or Kala Namak that isn’t even black in color actually, go figure..but it gives the ultimate Carbonara flavor. Toss with spaghetti or your favorite pasta noodles like fettuccine or bucatini. Easy, creamy, dairy free sauce that is insanely delicious!

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Vegan Carbonara

Carbonara is a white Italian pasta sauce from Rome traditionally made with cholesterol loaded raw eggs, cheese, guanciale or pancetta and freshly cracked black pepper. Scary stuff but not anymore you guys because I made us the ultimate meatless and dairy free carbonara!

  • Super creamy
  • Luscious
  • Cruelty free
  • No cholesterol
  • Meatless
  • Fast & easy
  • Incredibly tasty.

The Bacon / Guanciale / Pancetta

I’ve experimented with a few vegan options here, from mushrooms to coconut bacon to smoky tempeh to finally the seitan bacon. They are all delicious but the seitan hits every single checkmark: chewy, smoky and salty, absolute perfection.

I used the store bought Benevolent Bacon from Sweet Earth but of course you can make your own from scratch if you prefer.

The Vegan Carbonara Sauce

  1. It has to be rich and silky and creamy with just a little bit of eggy flavor.
  2. Enter black salt Kala Namak known for its magical property to make dishes taste eggy. I don’t know exactly how but it really works, especially when combined with a little dijon mustard and creamy cashews. Alchemy at its finest and not one drop of oil is required.
  3. This sauce is totally oil free and raw, you don’t even need to heat it up in a skillet, unless you want to of course. It’s made in the blender and tossed with your hot pasta of choice and sprinkled with the vegan bacon.
  4. Turmeric for color is optional. I only used 1/8 of a teaspoon anyways, that’s the tiniest pinch ever and you need to keep it that way or leave it out altogether. Trust me, you don’t want your Carbonara to taste anything like turmeric but you want to take advantage of its natural color to give your sauce a little golden boost.

The Pasta

There’s always whole grain spaghetti in my pantry so I’ll usually reach for a box of those but any long noodles work great here. Egg free fettuccine and bucatini are some of my favorites but i can see this sauce work with smaller shapes like orecchiette or penne if that’s what you have in the kitchen.

how to make it:

Vegan Pasta Carbonara Recipe (7)

5 from 2 votes

Vegan Pasta Carbonara

Vegan Carbonara sauce recipe made with cashews, spices, vegan sietan bacon and black salt or Kala Namak for the ultimate Carbonara flavor.

Print Recipe

Prep Time:5 minutes mins

Soaking Cashews:20 minutes mins

Total Time:25 minutes mins

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Rinse the cashews and add them to a powerful blender together with the hot water, nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic, turmeric, onion powder and black salt. Allow to soak for 20 minutes then process until completely smooth. Set your sauce aside until needed!

  • Cook the vegan bacon according to the package instructions. I like to cook mine in the toaster oven so no extra oil is needed. You can pan sear it then cut it into small pieces.

  • Meanwhile boil the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and add to a large mixing bowl together with the Carbonara sauce, half of the cooked vegan bacon and half of the parsley. Give everything a good toss to coat and adjust seasonings.

  • If you prefer your Carbonara with a little tang this is the time to hit it with a squeeze of lemon. I prefer it without but you are the boss of your kitchen.

  • Divide between bowls and serve sprinkled with the reserved sietan bacon, parsley and freshly cracked black pepper.

Notes

Don't worry if you do not have black salt (Kala Namak) make the recipe anyways using regular sea salt, it will still taste amazing.

Nutrition

Calories: 915kcal | Carbohydrates: 116g | Protein: 47g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Sodium: 410mg | Potassium: 1272mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 842IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 151mg | Iron: 9mg

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: plant based, vegan carbonara, vegan,

Servings: 2 people

Calories: 915kcal

Author: Florentina

Pasta Recipes:

Vegan Pasta Carbonara Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan carbonara made of? ›

The vegan carbonara sauce is made in the blender, and it's a mix of raw cashews, nutritional yeast, turmeric, dijon mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, black salt aka kala namak and non dairy milk. Blend until smooth and you have your 'egg' sauce! Set that aside until you need it later.

Why is my carbonara not creamy enough? ›

If the sauce is too much liquid, the egg will cook and the result will be dry. Once drained the pasta, put in the same hot pot, add the sauce and stir energically until creamy. If happen to be too liquid because of some water left, I use to give a little heat to the pot. In the end I add guanciale and half of its fat.

What is the golden rule of cooking a carbonara? ›

The golden rule to silky carbonara is to whisk your egg whites so that they're completely incorporated with the egg yolks. This will create a smooth, velvety sauce. As like any pasta dish, including carbonara, cook the pasta perfectly al dente so that it's soft but still firm, with some bite.

Which ingredient should never be used in traditional carbonara? ›

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

Why no garlic in carbonara? ›

Why is there no garlic in carbonara? Because it's an Italian dish, not an Italian-American dish, and Italian cooking does not use garlic as heavily as Italian-American cuisine. You can either make a carbonara, or the same dish with added garlic (just don't call *that* carbonara, it's not).

What thickens carbonara? ›

Equally important is that the fat that melts out of the guanciale is required to thicken the carbonara sauce to make it creamy. Basically, what happens is that when the fat from the guanciale and in the egg yolks is mixed with starchy pasta cooking water, it thickens.

Do you put raw egg in carbonara? ›

What distinguishes carbonara from other pasta dishes is its technique of combining eggs, hard cheese, cured pork, and black pepper into a rich, silky sauce. This recipe calls for raw eggs that are gently cooked by the hot sauce. If you prefer, you can use pasteurized eggs instead.

What kind of cheese is good in carbonara? ›

Pecorino Romano: This aged sheep's cheese is always traditionally used in the Roman pastas, and its salty, grassy, earthy flavor is absolutely delicious in carbonara. That said, if Pecorino is unavailable at your local grocery store, you can use Parmesan as a non-traditional substitute.

What is a substitute for heavy cream in carbonara? ›

You can substitute half and half or light cream for the heavy cream to save on fat and cals, and you can also use bacon instead of the proscuitto as it's quite expensive."

Why is carbonara so hard to make? ›

The carbonara sauce in pasta primarily consists of egg yolks. Achieving a smooth and creamy consistency is often the most challenging step. Since the raw egg yolks have to be mixed with the pasta, you have to make sure to add the egg yolks to the pasta OFF the heat so the eggs don't scramble.

How do you stop carbonara scrambling? ›

Using a large mixing bowl and setting it over the boiling pasta water to create a makeshift double boiler helps prevent you from accidentally scrambling the eggs.

Do Italians add cream to carbonara? ›

Cream is not used in most Italian recipes, with some exceptions. However, it is often employed in other countries. Similarly, garlic is found in some recipes, but mostly outside Italy.

What does adding egg to carbonara do? ›

Beyond taste, the eggs play a major role in the formation of the silky sauce. The whites of the egg combine with the starch in the pasta water to add viscosity to the sauce while the yolk adds richness and flavor.

What is a carbonara without meat called? ›

Pasta cacio e uova, or cas' e ova in Neapolitan dialect, is a simple Campanian dish that can be most easily summarized as "meatless carbonara." Like carbonara, cas' e ova features a silky, temperature-sensitive sauce made with eggs and a mixture of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano that coats al dente ...

What does vegan pasta have in it? ›

Gluten-free and vegan varieties tend to replace durum wheat with a different kind of flour that doesn't contain gluten, such as rice or corn flour, and like other dried varieties they don't use eggs so are also gluten-free. Check out Dove Farms pasta, who tick both boxes.

What is a vegan substitute for pancetta? ›

Soy curls do an incredible job of mimicking the pancetta flavours in this vegan carbonara. They are smoky, salty, and SO SO good. Even though this dish is pure comfort food, it's actually nutrient-dense too. Soy curls and tofu add tons of protein to this dish.

What makes vegan pasta vegan? ›

Classic pasta varieties like Linguine and Spaghetti are vegan as-is, made with just durum wheat semolina flour. Make your favorite vegan mac and cheese with the Elbow macaroni pasta.

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