Carbonara is one of America’s favorite pasta dishes. It’s simple, yet creamy and indulgent, and it’s incredibly comforting, too. Alongside pizza, it is undoubtedly one of Italy’s most beloved culinary exports.
But while carbonara is often made with animal ingredients, it is possible to make this popular pasta dish using only plant-based ingredients—without sacrificing any of its signature taste and texture. Keep reading to find out exactly how.
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What is traditional carbonara made of?
Carbonara is often associated with Rome, but its exact origins are disputed. Some claim the creamy dish is actually more Neopolitan than Roman, and last year, one academic even claimed that carbonara was more American than Italian.
Food historian Luca Cesari told the Financial Times that it was demand from US soldiers in the Second World War that led to its creation, which means its origins are really American. Others maintain that while it was created with American influence, it is still a firmly Italian dish.
Vegan carbonara with a plant-based egg yolk | Crossroads Kitchen
Either way, carbonara is loved around the world. Traditionally, it’s made with thin spaghetti noodles, egg yolk, pecorino romano cheese, cured pork cheek, and black pepper. However, over the years, many chefs and home cooks have added their own spin to the recipe. Some prefer to make it with pancetta or bacon, for example, while others add parmesan cheese. The shape of pasta varies too; some prefer spaghetti, others linguine, while many opt for thicker noodles like tagliatelle.
“One of the great traits of pasta is its extraordinary versatility. You can combine it with pretty much anything. Carbonara is a traditional recipe, but we should remain open to interpretations that allow us to tell a global story of diversity,” said Luca Di Leo of Barilla, the world’s largest pasta producer, to La Cucina Italiana in 2022.
What is vegan carbonara made of?
According to Di Leo, some carbonara recipes don’t include bacon or pork cheek, but rather plant-based ingredients like artichoke hearts. Mushrooms are another popular carbonara ingredient, as is spinach or asparagus, for example.
The sauce can easily be made with plant-based ingredients like soaked cashews or blended vegetables, alongside vegan cheese or nutritional yeast. And for those who love that meaty, bacon-y texture, tofu, tempeh, or vegan meat are great additions, too.
Pura Vita
“You can combine [carbonara] with pretty much anything,” Di Leo continued, before adding: “In a nutshell: carbonara is a truly global recipe which, like all kinds of pasta, can help bring people together.”
5 vegan carbonara recipes
It’s true: if you want to bring your friends and family together, you can’t beat a hearty helping of creamy, indulgent, velvety vegan carbonara. Below, we’ve picked a handful of our favorite variations of this widely loved dish. From vegan pancetta to zucchini cream, there’s something for everyone.
Nora Cooks
1 Vegan Carbonara With Pancetta
According to Nora Cooks, “This is hands down the best vegan carbonara you’ll ever eat.” The silky, creamy sauce comes from soaked cashews, which are mixed with ingredients like garlic, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice to get that signature carbonara flavor. The tofu pancetta is the real star of the show, however. If you love a meaty, creamy pasta dish, this is the recipe for you. “Seriously, the biggest reason my family always requests this dish for dinner is for the little bits of flavor-packed pancetta tofu,” notes the recipe developer. “They’re pretty addictive.”
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Hot For Food
2 Vegan Carbonara With Zucchini Cream Sauce
Soaked, blended cashews are a popular vegan carbonara ingredient, but there are many ways to get that delicious creamy texture in a vegan carbonara sauce. One of the best, according to recipe developer Lauren Toyota, is to blend up cooked zucchini with nutritional yeast, olive oil, vegan milk, black pepper, pickle brine. “It’s so magical and undetectable in a sauce,” she says.
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Allplants
3 Vegan Carbonara With Tempeh Bacon
Similar to tofu, tempeh is another great option for giving your creamy carbonara its iconic meaty, chewy texture. All you need to do is marinate your tempeh with ingredients like tamari, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, and paprika before frying it until crispy. The sauce in this dish comes from silken tofu, which has just the right silky texture for the job. “Combined with milk, olive oil, and Kala namak—a rock salt used in South Asia which has an eggy taste and smell due to its sulfur content—the sauce comes as close to the original as any version I have tasted before,” says recipe developer Valentina Concordia.
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Forkful of Plants
4 Creamy Vegan Tomato Spaghetti Carbonara
Tomatoes aren’t a traditional carbonara ingredient, but as we’ve established, this recipe can really be anything you want it to be. If you love that sweet tangy flavor that tomatoes bring to a pasta dish, you’re going to love this plant-based recipe. It even swaps the bacon for sundried tomatoes. “Their rich flavor really stands out in the finished dish,” notes the recipe blog Forkful of Plants.
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Nourishing Amy
5 Vegan Carbonara With Marinated Mushrooms
Mushrooms are another perfect ingredient to choose if you want to bring a little meaty texture to a plant-based dish. In this recipe, they’re marinated with tamari soy sauce, maple syrup, garlic, and paprika, which helps to give them a delicious smoky flavor that compliments the creamy sauce beautifully. Nourishing Amy recommends finishing the dish with homemade walnut parmesan cheese.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England’s southern coast.
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