This super easy vegan carbonara is rich and creamy and ready in less than 30 minutes! It’s the perfect weeknight meal.
This vegan carbonara is on the money!
I asked Jaye to take the lead on this recipe and he created something really fantastic.
A classic carbonara recipe usually has bacon or pancetta in it, and an egg sauce that is poured over the top.
So we decided to use mushrooms to replace the bacon and to use the ‘eggy’ sauce from our vegan tofu scramble along with some cashews (for thickening) to create the egg effect for the sauce.
And it worked so well. This is seriously delicious and has heaps of flavor as well as being really easy and quick to make.
How to make Vegan Carbonara
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.
Get some spaghetti on the boil and cook it up according to the package instructions.
Then melt some vegan butter in a pan. Add sliced mushrooms, crushed garlic and smoked paprika and fry until the mushrooms are softened.
Add in the cooked spaghetti and toss that in with the mushrooms.
Pour in the blended sauce and then add in some sea salt and black pepper and toss together until everything is coated and heated together.
Serve with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of black pepper.
Pro tips for Vegan Carbonara Pasta
- Black salt, also called Kala Namak (and not actually black in color at all) creates the ‘egg’ flavor in the sauce. It is a salt that tastes just like eggs. It’s pretty crazy! You don’t need to use a lot to get a lot of flavor. We used half a teaspoon and got heaps of flavor. If you don’t have it you can use regular salt instead, but it is definitely recommended.
- Turmeric is used just for color, so if you don’t like it for any reason, you can easily omit it.
- You can use any non-dairy milk you like, we used soy milk, but any milk will work great.
- The mushrooms we used are the large flat brown mushrooms. But button mushrooms or sliced portobellini (also called cremini or baby bella) would also work great here.
- If you want to make this gluten-free, just use gluten-free spaghetti and there you have it!
You will love this vegan carbonara recipe! It is:
- Super easy
- Ready in 30 minutes or less!
- Creamy
- Rich
- A perfect weeknight meal
Keep leftovers stored in the fridge and enjoy within a few days.
More vegan pasta recipes!
- Vegan Mushroom Pasta
- Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff
- Vegan Pasta Bake
- Vegan Alfredo
- Classic Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Pesto Pasta
- The Best Vegan Lasagna Recipe
- Vegan Stuffed Shells
So let us know what you think of this vegan carbonara in the comments and please rate the recipe too, thanks!
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Vegan Carbonara
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4
Description
This super easy vegan carbonara is rich and creamy and ready in less than 30 minutes! It’s the perfect weeknight meal.
Ingredients
For the ‘Egg’ Sauce:
- 2/3 cup (100g) Raw Cashews
- 1/4 cup (15g) Nutritional Yeast
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Black Salt (Kala Namak)*
- 1 cup (240ml) Non Dairy Milk*
For the Pasta:
- 1/2 Pack (~9oz/250g) Spaghetti (Dry Weight)*
For the Mushrooms:
- 1 Tbsp Vegan Butter
- 9oz (250g) Mushrooms (Sliced)*
- 2 tsp Crushed Garlic
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
For Serving:
- Fresh Chopped Parsley
Instructions
- Add the ingredients for the ‘egg’ sauce to the blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.
- Put the spaghetti on to cook and cook it according to the package instructions.
- 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.
- Add the cooked spaghetti into the pan with the mushrooms and toss them together.
- Pour the blended sauce over the top of the spaghetti and mushrooms and toss together. Add the sea salt and black pepper and toss together until everything is coated and heated together in the pan.
- Serve with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of black pepper.
Notes
*If you can’t get hold of black salt (kala namak) then you can just use regular salt. But black salt is highly recommended.
*We used soy milk but you can use any non-dairy milk.
*We used large flat brown mushrooms, but you can switch this for brown button mushrooms (also called portobellini mushrooms, cremini, baby bella).
- Category: Entree, Savory
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Vegan, Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serve (of 4)
- Calories: 459
- Sugar: 4.6g
- Sodium: 560mg
- Fat: 16.3g
- Saturated Fat: 3.2g
- Carbohydrates: 60.9g
- Fiber: 4.6g
- Protein: 18.3g
Keywords: vegan carbonara
Loads of flavor!! Love that you don’t need to soak the cashews like so many other recipes, truly takes 20 minutes. I boiled pasta while cooking mushrooms and making sauce.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much Jennifer!
Thank you for the awesome recipe. I liked it even better than traditional pasta carbonara! This vegan variant is so flavourfull!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Daan!
One of my go to meals! So easy and quick to prepare! Absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Yay! Thanks for the great review!
Is the butter SUPER necessary? I always try to stay oil free.
You can certainly leave it out if you prefer and use a little veg stock or water instead to fry the mushrooms.
I made this on a whim and it was so quick and delicious. Flavor was great (even though I used salt instead of black salt). Yum!
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
My husband and I are obsessed with this recipe it is sooo delicious and so easy to make. We use fresh coconut and water to make our milk in the blender and we used Seeded mustard as didn’t have any Dijon in and it was delish!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Elz!
I used lava salt with chilli .. 1/2 the amount of Dijon and added spinach to the mushrooms absolutely delicious even my meat eating partner loved it.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Zena!
I LOVE bacon, but I love this recipe as much as I love traditional carbonara, and have shared it with so many friends who are looking to make adjustments to eating healthier. This is a great segway recipe into vegan-cooking, as it honestly is delicious! I love how smooth, creamy, and flavourful this recipe is. Thank you for sharing it!! Maybe one day I WILL be vegan!
★★★★★
So happy to hear that Aditi! Thanks for the wonderful review!
Delicious!! Highly recommend
★★★★★
Thanks Tye!