What To Eat Now: A Michelin Star Vegan Carbonara

London’s longest standing Michelin Star restaurant, Pied à Terre, is revealing how to make its vegan carbonara, for National Carbonara Day on 6th April. For over 30 years, the fine dining establishment has been serving up flavourful food, including an extensive vegan offering. In a UK first, the iconic restaurant has added a vegan carbonara to its menu – using award-winning THIS™ isn’t Bacon Lardons.

This is one of the nation’s favourite meals being given a plant-based, Michelin star makeover. This is plant-based food at its lushest and now you can make it at home.”

Andy Shovel, Co-Founder of THIS™

 

The lardons are a hyper-realistic meat alternative, made from pea and soya protein. They’re combined with spices, soya milk and cashew nuts to create a mouth-watering take on this Italian classic. Pied à Terre’s Executive Chef, Asimakis Chaniotis, is now revealing how you can recreate some Michelin star magic at home by sharing his signature recipe.

The restaurant, which has two Michelin stars, has seen a 25% increase in sales of plant-based dishes in the last year. This is reflective of the wider trend for plant-based food, where 46% of Brits are looking to reduce their meat consumption this year.

 

“I’m confident this recipe will help show just how good vegan food can be. The smokiness and bite that you get from the lardons, combined with the creaminess of the cashew nuts and soya milk is just like a traditional carbonara. We’ve always offered a varied menu and our vegan dishes have been some of our most successful. If you can’t make it to visit us then this is a great place to start giving it a try.”

Asimakis Chaniotis, Executive Chef at Pied à Terre

THIS™ was started in 2019 by Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman, with the mission of creating plant-based food for meat lovers. It has a world-class team of food scientists creating its high quality, compromise free plant-based meat. Products, such as its lardons, are available via supermarkets nationwide. The Michelin Star nod of approval is a huge moment for the business, which hopes it’ll inspire more people to give meat alternatives a try.

 

Pied à Terre‘s Executive Chef Asimakis Chaniotis’ Vegan Carbonara Recipe

Serves: 6

Prep time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

 

Ingredients:

  • 120g (2x 60g packs) THIS™ Isn’t Bacon Lardons
  • 1 x packet of spaghettini
  • 200g macademia nuts

For the sauce:

  • 500g Raw Cashews
  • 75g Nutritional Yeast
  • 25g Turmeric
  • 50g Dijon Mustard
  • 25g Garlic Powder
  • 25g Onion Powder
  • 25g Black Salt Kala Namak
  • 1200ml Soya Milk
  • 25ml Liquid smoke

Method:

  1. Soak the cashews in boiling water and leave them off the heat for 30 mins
  2. Then blend all the ingredients in a high-speed blender until you get a smooth thick sauce
  3. On a heavy bottom pan cook the vegan lardons with no oil at all and until they get crispy and caramelise
  4. Then add the sauce into the pan and bring to the boil to infuse
  5. Meanwhile boil the spaghettini and when it’s al dente mix with the hot sauce and serve immediately
  6. On top of every dish finely grate a fair amount of macademia nut

Asimakis’ top tips:

  • Make sure the cashew nuts are still warm when you blend them with the other sauce ingredients – don’t leave them out for longer so they get cold. This helps make the sauce nice and creamy.
  • When you combine the pasta and sauce, make sure you give it a good stir and keep the pasta moving – adding a splash of pasta water to help the sauce flavour and texture.
  • I recommend spaghettini as the thinner strands compliment the sauce and add a fine dining touch but you can use normal spaghetti.
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