RECIPE: Vegan bacon pasta dish with broccoli

VeganMoFo2
“Recreate a meal from your childhood”

When I was a kid, my mom often made this delicious pasta dish with braised onion and baked bacon, I absolutely loved it! I enjoyed it most when there wasn’t too much onion in it, white fusilli pasta, small bits of well-done bacon and lots of cheese.

Of course it’s been ages ago that I ate the original dish. About two years ago I made a vegan version with backon bits from the Vegetarian Butcher and grated cheese from Wilmersburger, but it didn’t hit the right spot. Last week I was suddenly craving this dish, so I made another vegan version, from scratch. I made ‘bacon’ out of seitan and ‘cheese’ based on tapioca starch and nutritional yeast (what else?)… it was exactly what I was looking for. I added some broccoli to get in my veggies. Unlike my days as a pre-teen, I now love this dish with lots of onion, crispy smoked seitan, a little bit of my homemade melty vegan cheese and some broccoli thrown in. Actually my current version is better then the one I remember out of my childhood, cause not only is it delicious, it’s also healthier and, very important, it’s totally cruelty free!
You should definitely try this one!

Vegan bacon pasta dish with broccoli

3 à 4 p

Seitan bacon
250 gr vital wheat gluten
40 gr buckwheat flour
2 tbsp nutritional yeast 
1 1/2 tsp paprika 
1 clove of look, finely chopped
pepper
360 ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp maple syrup 
2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp + 1 tsp liquid smoke
1 1/2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce*
1 tbsp olive oil 

Vegan cheese  (based on  this recipe)
1/3 cup cashews
1 1/4 cup water
2 tbsp tapioca starch
3 à 4 tbsp nutritional yeast 
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt 
5 tbsp coconut oil
if desired, 1 tsp brown miso

500 gr fusilli pasta, cooked
3 large onions, thinly sliced
pinch of salt
1 large broccoli, in small florets

For the seitan: mix the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, mix everything together.
Knead the dough for a few minutes and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Knead the dough again and cut 4 equally sized pieces out of the dough. Wrap each piece of seitan dough into a cheese cloth or in foil and steam for 30 minutes.

For the vegan cheese: place all  the ingredients in a blender and blend ’till it’s all liquid. (If your coconut oil wasn’t melted, it can seem like the cheese ‘sauce’ is curdled, but when you heat it up it will become completely fluid).  Pour all of it into a small cooking pan and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the structure gets more firm and become a little bit stretchy like dairy cheese, your vegan cheese is ready.

Sauté the onion in a little bit of oil and some salt on low heat until it is lightly caramelized. Steam the broccoli.

Meanwhile, take two of the four pieces of seitan and slice them into small cubes. Bake until crispy in a little bit of oil.

Add the seitan bacon, pasta, onion and broccoli in a large oven dish and mix together. Then spread out the vegan cheese over the pasta and put it in an oven of 180 ° C for 15 minutes.

* If you don’t have any vegan Worcestershire sauce, replace 1 tbsp of it with 2 tsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp sugar and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

You will notice that there are two pieces of seitan bacon left. You can slice them up, fry them and serve them with some potatoes and vegetables, but it is also delicious with a tofu scramble or between a sandwich with tomato, lettuce, ketchup or barbecue sauce and fried onion.