Butternut Squash Carbonara

5 from 20 votes

Butternut Squash Carbonara

This Vegan Butternut Squash Carbonara is a dairy-free spin on the traditional Italian Carbonara recipe with a creamy cashew cheese butternut squash carbonara sauce! Serve with crispy roasted smoky bacon-ish tofu. Options for Nutfree Glutenfree Soyfree

Prep Time10

Cook Time1 5

Total Time1 15

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: butternut squash carbonara, vegan carbonara recipe

Servings:

Author: Vegan Richa

Ingredients

For the pasta sauce:

2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp pepper flakes
1 tbsp fresh sage
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup cashews
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/4 cup veggie broth or water
2 cups butternut squash cubed
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp miso paste optional
8 oz fettuccine

For the Tofu:

7 oz firm or extra firm tofu pressed for at least 15 minutes, and then drained and cubed into 1/4th inch cubes
2 tsp oil
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sugar or maple syrup

Instructions

Add oil to a skillet over medium heat, add in the onion and garlic and cook until transluent.
Add in the sage and pepper flakes and mix in. Add in the butternut squash and cook until the butternut squash starts to get golden on some edges. This may not happen if you're using frozen butternut squash.
Add in the rest of the ingredients under sauce, and cover and mix well. Then cover and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the butternut squash is tender to preference.
Take off heat and let the mixture cool a bit before adding to a blender and blending until smooth.
Meanwhile make your fettuccine according to instructions on the package and cook until al dente, then combine the sauce to the fettuccine in a bowl, or you can also add it to a skillet to reheat, and cook it a little bit more. This helps thicken the sauce and also melds the flavors together
Meanwhile, make the smoky tofu by combining the cubed tofu with the oil, soy sauce, smoked paprika, garlic, and maple syrup in a bowl to coat really well.
Spread out the tofu on a parchent-ined baking sheet. Spread it out so that most of the cubes are not touching each other. Preheat the oven to 425 F (218 c ) then add the baking sheet to the oven when it's heated up. Bake for 10 minutes, then move it around, and then bake for another few minutes, and then keep an eye on the tofu. Take it out once the pieces start to get dry-ish and crunchy. The tofu can burn easily, so keep an eye after 14-15 minute mark. Serve the tofu on top of the butternut squash fettuccine.
To store, keep the topping separate from the pasta and refrigerate for upto 3 days.,

Video

Notes

Nutfree: To make this without cashews, omit the cashews and use a 1/3 cup of pumpkin seeds, or while blending the sauce, add in a 1/3 cup of silken tofu. This tofu based sauce will have to be reheated to thicken again
Glutenfree : use Glutenfree pasta of choice
Soyfree: use chickpea flour tofu to make the topping with coconut aminos instead of soy sauce or use coconut bacon
You can actually use canned butternut squash puree, which cuts the prep time down by an hour at least! Use 3/4 cup butternut or pumpkin purée
fresh sage sub: use a mix of dried and rubbed and not more than 1 tsp. Is using just dried then use 1/4 tsp

Nutrition