Posted on April 10, 2018 by Emily Forbes
I’ve just recently discovered nutritional yeast and I’m now a big fan. You can get it fortified with Vitamin B12 which often is difficult to obtain in a vegan diet. It’s got kind of a nutty, cheesy flavour. Hence it’s use in this vegan carbonara. This may not be the complete substitute for some, but it’s definitely delicious and packs a good veg punch. It’s hard not to just eat the sauce from the blender to be honest!
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 150g cashews
- 200g butternut squash or sweet potato
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 3 tsp tamari
- half tsp cayenne
- juice of one lemon
- 200ml water
- salt and pepper
For the pasta:
- Pasta (I used 50g per portion, 200g total. But can do according to appetite
- 100g frozen peas (recipe calls for 100g. I like peas and did more than this)
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed (or as many as you fancy)
- 200g mushrooms, chopped (a punnet)
- olive oil
- 200g spinach
- optional not vegan poached eggs
Method
- Recipe says soak the cashews in a bowl of water for 3-4 hours. I just do it in boiling water for as long as I’m prepping the sweet potato
- Prepare the sweet potato or squash. Steam or boil until soft. If boiling, keep the water to add 200ml to the mix
- Drain cashews. Add them to a blender with the sweet potato/squash and all other ingredients for the sauce, including the 200ml water.
- Cook the pasta according to instructions.
- Add the peas to the pasta to cook a couple of minutes before the end.
- Sauté the mushrooms with the garlic. Add the spinach towards the end so that it wilts.
- Drain the peas and pasta. Mix with sauce, mushrooms and spinach.
- I serve with a couple of poached eggs on top but this is optional. I also sprinkle a bit more nutritional yeast on top; that stuff is good!
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