This creamy Vegan Carbonara is a classic Italian pasta dish that everyone will love! A easy dairy free pasta dish that’s ready in under 30 minutes!
Warm and creamy pasta dishes are ultimate comfort foods. They fill our bellies and make us feel wrapped up in memories. Often times though, creamy based pasta dishes are not dairy free, as they usually use heavy cream as their base. However, this vegan carbonara dish is completely dairy free.
It’s perfect for any night, since it comes together in under 30 minutes, start to finish, and can feed a crowd.
What is Carbonara?
Pasta Carbonara is a classic creamy Italian pasta dish made with eggs, cheese, and bacon or pancetta. Nothing in there comes close to be dairy free or vegan; however, we are making our version vegan! Spaghetti is the most common pasta used, but fettuccine, linguine, and bucatini can also be used.
Watch how to make Vegan Carbonara:
What ingredients do you need to make Vegan Carbonara?
You need just 11 ingredients, plus salt and pepper, to bring this creamy dairy free pasta dish together. Here’s what you need:
- Spaghetti (or other pasta)
- Vegan Bacon
- Olive Oil
- Sweet Onion
- Garlic
- Flour
- Unsweetened non dairy milk
- vegan butter
- nutritional yeast
- Pasta cooking water
- Tahini
- Salt and Pepper
- Fresh parsley, optional
How do you make Vegan Carbonara?
You want to start by bringing 4 quarts of water to a boil. Salt your water liberally. Then, chop up your onions very small and mince the garlic. Once water is boiling, add the pasta and cook according to instructions.
When the pasta is in the water, you want to heat a skillet and cook your vegan bacon according to the package. Our package (Lightlife) said to add oil so that’s we add the oil before cooking. If your package does not say add oil, omit this step.
Remove the bacon from the skillet and repeat if you need to cook in batches. Set bacon aside once you are done cooking. In the same skillet add the onion and cook until translucent (about 3 minutes). Add in garlic and cook for one more minute.
Around this time your pasta should be finished. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the pasta water and drain the rest.
In the skillet with the onions, sprinkle the flour across the mixture and stir until well coated. Add in the non-dairy milk, butter, nutritional yeast, pasta water, and tahini. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The sauce should be thick, but if it’s too thick, add a tablespoon more of dairy free milk, up to 4 tablespoons. Do not add more than ¼ cup more milk. Finally, add in the cooked pasta to the sauce and stir to combine. Top with crumbled vegan bacon and stir. Finish by adding some freshly chopped parsley if desired. Serve warmed.
Can you reheat Vegan Carbonara?
Vegan Carbonara is best served immediately after finished cooking; however you can reheat the dish if needed.
What are other vegan pasta dishes I should try?
Even though you are dairy free or egg free, there are plenty of delicious pasta dishes that you should try. Here are a few:
- Dairy Free Alfredo
- Vegan Mushroom Bolognese
- Harissa Pasta with Oranges
- Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pasta
- Pasta e Fagioli
- Pasta Pomodoro
- Fresh Tomato Pasta with Basil Pangrattato
Pin this Vegan Carbonara pasta for later:
Vegan Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 5 oz vegan bacon (We used Lightlife)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ sweet onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoon flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened dairy free milk
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoon reserved pasta cooking water
- 1 ½ tablespoon tahini
- salt and pepper, to taste
- chopped fresh parsley, optional
Instructions
- Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Salt water and cook pasta according to instructions.
- While pasta is cooking, heat a skillet and cook vegan bacon according to package instructions. Set aside. *Our bacon said to use olive oil, so this is where we added the oil, if yours does not, omit oil.
- In the same skillet that bacon was cooked in, add the diced onion and cook for 3 minutes until it become translucent.
- Add in the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Drain the pasta, reserving 2 tablespoon of pasta water for sauce.
- Sprinkle flour across onion mixture and stir until well coated.
- Add in the non-dairy milk, butter, nutritional yeast, pasta water, and tahini and stir. Salt and pepper to taste. Sauce should be thick, but if too thick, add a tablespoon more non-dairy milk at a time, but no more than ¼ cup more.
- Add pasta to sauce and stir to combine.
- Top with crumbled vegan bacon and freshly chopped parsley if desired.
- Serve warmed.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Let’s see your creations!
Share to Instagram and tag us @makeitdairyfree so we can see and share it!
Arielle
Made this 2 nights in a row now. So quick to make and so rich but not too heavy like regular carbonara. It doesn’t have that weird almond milk taste like a lot of vegan creamy recipes we’ve tried. Thank you so much!!
LarishaCampbell
You are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing! Completely made our day!