Vegan-ising Cooking With Bello’s Lemon Pasta

Today, we’re vegan-ising Cooking With Bello’s Lemon Pasta.  Italian food and pasta are way up there on my list of comfort and go-to foods. So, it was no wonder that when I found Cooking With Bello’s Instagram page, I had to follow his creations. Bello makes recipes and explains simply how they are cooked. His speil? Italian food made sexy, if you will! 

The Vegan Backstory 

My partner, having been vegan for a while at some point in their life, loves to question recipes and always asks “What if we made this vegan?”. I laugh this off, dreading turning food vegan, my previous experience with vegan “Italian” food not necessarily all that good. I’ve had vegan “kale mac and cheese” at a respected vegan restaurant and was so utterly horrified by the end result that any idea of creamy pasta being vegan seemed impossible. 

Still, my partner has yet to disappoint in their cooking. I’ve been introduced to a world of vegetarian/vegan food that I did not know was possible. So, in a leap of faith, I forwent the heavy cream for this recipe and trusted my partner would be able to make something good. 

The Original Lemon Pasta

I will not go through the entire recipe or its instructions, if one wants it, it can easily be found on Bello’s recipe page. 

The original recipe requires linguine, parsley, garlic, lemon zest and juice, heavy cream, extra virgin olive oil and salt. Bello’s recipe is delightful with just the right amount of creaminess. My partner cooked it and I fell in love with it (and therefore will definitely be trying more of Bello’s recipes!). 

We’ve made this recipe more than once with different iterations of ingredients. The last iteration we tried is our vegan attempt. That try was a hit! 

Vegan-ising the recipe

Ingredients

• Pasta of your choice (I’m partial to fusilli pasta)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• One lemon’s zest
• One lemon’s juice
• Belsoy Cuisine Soya cream (250mL)
• EVOO
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A handful of parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

1. Add 1 TBSP of EVOO in a pan with the minced garlic over medium heat. Cook until lightly browned.
2. Add the lemon juice and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the lemon zest, parsley and Belsoy cream and continue to simmer on low heat.
4. Cook your pasta of choice to al-dente. (Don’t forget to save some of that pasta water!)
5.  Once pasta is cooked, strain it and add it to your sauce. Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with the fresh parsley and drizzle a little olive oil to top it all off.
6. If your pasta sauce is too thick, add a little of that pasta water saved earlier.
7. Enjoy!

Other Things To Try With This Recipe

1. I love love love love garlic and with our current global situation, with everyone wearing masks, garlic breath is a problem of the past! The original recipe calls for removing the garlic cloves. I dare blaspheme and suggest mincing the garlic and leaving the pieces in. 
2. Add boiled cauliflower. Trust me on this one. The crunch that comes from the cauliflower chunks, mixed with the creamy sauce brings a beautiful veggie addition to the recipe.
3. Spinach. We add a handful of chopped spinach when adding the pasley into the sauce mix. It’s an excellent healthy addition to the recipe.

I do not claim that any of these meals are authentically Italian. Turning a fun meal vegan was the goal here and I think that was achieved! Enjoy this creamy lemon pasta and let me know how you like it! Any special additions you would have made that I haven’t?