Roasted Leek & Lardon Linguine

Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Sep 30

Linguine stirred through sweet roasted leeks and smokey meat free bacon lardons in a rich dairy free sauce. This recipe is easy to make and comes together in just 30 minutes. I realise that mock meats aren't for everyone, so if you're not a fan, try replacing them with the same amount of diced smoked tofu, or diced white mushrooms. Silken tofu provides a wonderful creamy base for this sauce, it's then flavoured with garlic, onion, dijon mustard, herbs and nutritional yeast to give it a sumptuous savoury flavour. As this calls for silken tofu, you won't need a high speed blender to get a beautifully smooth sauce

Yield; Four servings Cook time; 30 minutes

You'll need;

Two leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced
One teaspoon of oil
One tablespoon of dairy free butter
100g meat free bacon lardons. I used Hungarian style meat free lardons by Plenty Reasons
350g silken tofu
250g plant milk
One teaspoon of each of the following; garlic granules, onion granules and dijon mustard
Half a teaspoon of both dried oregano and dried basil
Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast
35g dairy free hard cheese. I used Gondino Aged Classic Italian vegan parmesan

Method;

Start by trimming, washing and slicing the leeks. Then add them into an oven safe dish, or air fryer basket. Drizzle over the oil, then season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast the leeks for 15 minutes at 200°C/180°C fan assisted, or 10 minutes at 180°C in an air fryer. Once they're soft and beginning to go crispy at the edges, remove them from the oven/air fryer
Next, add the butter into a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once the butter melts, add the meat free bacon lardons and cook for two or three minutes
Then add in the roasted leeks, and stir it through the lardons and butter until everything is well combined.
Now add the silken tofu, plant milk, garlic granules, onion granules and nutritional yeast into a blender. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, then blend until you have a smooth sauce
Add the sauce into the frying pan along with the leeks and lardons, sprinkle over the herbs and grated cheese. Reduce the heat to lowest setting and give the sauce ten minutes or so to heat through, stirring every now and then
Finally while the sauce heats up, cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it thoroughly and then stir through the sauce. Once the pasta is evenly coated in the sauce it's ready to serve

I thought the meat free bacon lardons and the vegan parmesan worked beautifully in this recipe, I bought them both from Iwtopia Vegan Shop & Deli in Aberystwyth

I've also used Gondino cheese in this Rocket & Pistachio Pesto recipe, they make gorgeous plant based cheese so I'd definitely recommend giving it a try if you can. If you can't find any Gondino in your local vegan/vegetarian shops, it's also available to buy online from various different online shops too. It's great for adding to pesto, pasta sauce and for topping salads and pasta dishes with