Vegan Creamy Chicken, Lemon & Parsley Pasta

Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

08/06

This creamy pasta dish has a bold lemon flavour, meaty pieces of mock chicken, and is easy and quick to make. There are so many different mock-chicken products available now, so I would recommend using your favourite. The cream for the sauce is tofu based, meaning it doesn't have the same fat content as many plant-based creams. So the resulting dish has a very creamy texture and flavour, but doesn't feel heavy. Using tofu for this also means it's a good source of protein. You could also serve the creamy chicken sauce over mashed/boiled potatoes, or rice if preferred, I've also included alternative amounts if you'd like a more subtle lemon flavour

Yield: Two servings Cook time: 20 minutes

You'll need:

Two meat-free chicken breasts, I used some by The Vegetarian Butcher which I bought from Tesco
One tablespoon of dairy-free butter
Two cloves of garlic, minced
150g firm tofu
125ml plant-based milk
Both the juice and the zest of one lemon. Or for a more subtle lemon flavour, use the juice and zest of half a lemon
One tablespoon of fresh parsley, finely diced
Salt and black pepper to taste
150g (this is the dry, uncooked weight) pasta

Method:

Start by cooking the chicken as per the instructions on the packet. The Vegetarian Butcher chicken breasts only took 7-8 minutes in the air fryer
Once the chicken is cooked, leave it to cool for a couple of minutes or so, then use two forks to shred it. Now you can move on to making the creamy sauce. The sauce will probably take as long to cook as the pastaa. So once you start making the sauce, start to cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet
Next, melt the dairy-free butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add in the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes
Add the shredded chicken, along with half of the lemon juice and zest, and cook for five minutes minutes, stirring occasionally
Then add the tofu, milk, and the remaining lemon juice and zest into a blender. Blend until completely smooth, and then season the sauce with salt and black pepper
Pour the cream into the frying pan and give it a good stir through to lift anything off the bottom of the pan. Allow the sauce to cook for another two or three minutes
Finally, once the pasta is cooked, drain the water away, then add it into the frying pan along with the fresh parsley
Give the pasta a good stir for a couple of minutes, to ensure it's all coated evenly in the sauce, then serve