Spaghetti Carbonara
pasta of your choice (I like rigatoni--it holds the sauce better))
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk (both Westsoy and Silk have unsweetened varities)
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
4 strips "Fakin' Bacon" (or other ham-substitute)
salt
lots of cracked black pepper
spray of cooking spray or small amount olive oil
optional: vegan margarine
Okay, this is amazing. I came up with it one night after I came back to the states from Rome--angered by my never having eaten carbonara.
(Best part is the delicious vegan version is much lower in calories and fat and higher in protein!)
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. toss in the pasta (again, I suggest rigatoni)
Now heat the olive oil in a small saucepan on med. high heat.
Cut the fake bacon into little pieces (I cut the bacon down the middle lengthwise and then snip off 1/4 inch increments) and fry it up in the olive oil
When it's about done, add the soymilk and nutritional yeast to the hot pan and reduce heat to med. Whisk the soymilk and yeast together. Now season with salt and add a TON of cracked black pepper.
When that sauce is fairly thick it's ready.
Drain the pasta, add it to the sauce and mix the two over the heat until a fairly creamy and thick consistency is reached. (The sauce thickens rapidly when heated)
(If you really wanna feel like a Maverick, fry the "bacon" in lots of margarine and add a heaping tablespoon or two of margarine to the sauce while its beginning to simmer. I don’t do that because it adds a ton more (delicious) calories.)
Sprinkle nutritional yeast on top to garnish/to taste.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
I love this. I've only had this recipe for a little over a week now, and I've already made it three times. This last time, tonight actually, I stole a page from the "Carrot Spaghetti" recipe on this site and used shredded carrots instead of noodles - a little olive oil to get them moving, then a little garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. Mmmmm. Some garlic bread on the side, and that's some good eatin' there.
I think I may have used too much fakin' bacon (8 slices instead of 4) so mine was really really salty. :( I ended up throwing it out. I'm sure this recipe would have been better if I had not done that.
I just triied this tasted like Carbonara, but was deliicious non the less, my ended up a little to spicy since I dropped the pepper in it but still delicious.