Authentic (Vegan) Carbonara

Ingredients

• 280 gr. Spaghetti
• 5-6 slices Hooray Food vegan Bacon
• 5-6 big king oyster mushrooms if you are not using or can't find the bacon, double the quantity of mushrooms
• 1/2 block organic silken tofu
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or to taste
• 1 dash smoked paprika use a bit more if only using mushrooms
• 1 pinch nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp white miso
• 1 tbsp white wine
• Extra-virgin olive oil to sauté mushrooms, to taste
• 1-2 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Start by preparing the sauce: in a blender, blend tofu, oil, miso, nutritional yeast, lemon, salt, pepper and smoked paprika until smooth, silky and creamy. Taste it, and add more lemon juice to taste until the lemon does to the cream what salt does to cookie dough. 1 tbsp was perfect for my sauce, but trust your taste.
2. Dice mushrooms and bacon like pancetta, then sauté mushrooms for 5 minutes before adding the bacon, in a skillet, in olive oil (1 1/2 tbsp approximately). After 10 minutes (or when nicely caramelized) deglaze with white wine. Set aside.
3. Cook the spaghetti very al dente in salted, boiling water.
4. After 5 minutes of the pasta cooking, add the tofu cream to your bacon and mushrooms; stir, and add a generous ladle of pasta water. This water, rich in gluten, will transform the tofu into a beautiful cream.
5. Move the al dente pasta to the skillet with the cream, and add 1/2 cup of cooking water. Keep cooking the pasta in the skillet for a minute or two.
6. When the pasta is perfectly al dente, add 1-2 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese, stir and serve immediately with a lot of back pepper on top.