Eat Spaghetti to Forgeti your Regretti

One of the most difficult vegan substitutes for me to find was so far a vegan substitute for bacon. Because there are som bacon dishes I really loved as a kid and that I’ve been wanting to recreate vegan versions instead, and one of them was - of course - spaghetti carbonara. I used to remember how my mom used to make this, the authentic way with eggs and not cooking creme and always grate lots of cheese on top. I loved it so much, so today when I found a new kind of vegan substitute for bacon (or a “facon” as we call it) I had to try making a vegan carbonara. So here you' all, here is my delicious, creamy and wonderful Spaghetti Carbonara!

If you don’t have a vegan substitute for bacon…

…I got you you covered too! Because I know how hard it is to find a good vegan “facon” (pronounced bacon with “f” but like it being “fake”) and I obviously want you all to be able to eat this vegan carbonara too. So if you don’t have a vegan substitute for bacon where you’re living, let me show you how you can make this carbonara but with mushrooms instead:

• Pick approx 150 g of button mushrooms for the recipe and slice them thinly after cleaning them. Heat up a frying pan with vegan butter (or cooking oil works too but it gets a nicer taste with butter) and fry the mushrooms soft. Ripple over some Chinese soy, black pepper and a little bit of maple syrup. We do this to create a the salty “caramelization”. The mushrooms don’t get the crispness ad the facon, but it’s pretty good anyway. Then you can continue the recipe pretty much like the remaining, ordinary recipe.

• PS. Since facon can vary a lot in taste you might need to do the following thing (with Chinese soy and maple syrup) with your fake bacon too so that it gets the salty caramelization and the crispy crust ordinary bacon has, too. It really depends on the product, so test your fake bacon and see what your facon needs.

THIS RECIPE IS:

• Vegan

• Nut Free

• Simple to make

• Creamy

• Based on a traditional Italian Recipe

• Great food for both kids and adults

• Great for fancy date nights as it is for everyday food

Vegan Spaghetti Carbonara

2 servings

INGREDIENTS:

2 servings of spaghetti

80 g plantbased bacon

+ possibly 1/2 tbsp soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp maple syrup

50/50 vegan butter and cooking oil for frying

1 big garlic clove

250 ml plantbased cooking cream

2 tsp nutritional yeast

Sea Salt & Black Pepper

3 tbsp of fresh finely chopped basil or parsley

HOW TO MAKE:

• Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.

• Cut the bacon into smaller pieces, approx 1 cm. Heat a frying pan with half vegan butter and half cooking oil.

• Add the “bacon”/”facon” to the pan and fry. As mentioned in the middle of this post, if necessary add soy sauce and maple syrup too to give it the salty flavor bacon is known for, but also give it the crispy crust.

• When golden, add the pressed garlic and combine.

• Pour over the plantbased cooking cream, nutritional yeast, sea salt and black pepper and combine all together. Let it simmer on low heat for approx 5-10’.

• Add the basil or parsley and le tit all get well combined.

• When the spaghetti is done, either add the spaghetti to the frying pan where the carbonara is and combine it like that, or serve the carbonara over the spaghetti when serving in a plate. Enjoy!