Our daughter, an amazing young woman is about to complete her major in political science and was an elected member of the University’s student council. Through the course of her student career she has hobknobbed with the city mayor, travelled abroad to learn about foreign cultures and has umpteen followers on Instagram. I credit her many early successes to growing up with four large brothers, demanding at an early age to fight for her individualism and independence.

At the age of 13 she became a true vegetarian and by 16 converted to hard-core vegan. With some members of our family considering ketchup as the key daily vegetable this meant cooking two meals at every sitting but as we got older and perhaps wiser we learned to incorporate and mix and match dishes that could be enjoyed by all.  What we know today is that there are a lot of terrible vegan dishes (no stones please), but if you are willing to learn, which is a fundamental health requirement for all vegans, a vegan diet can be a culinary awakening.

Here is a dish we had just the other day and it follows along with our current theme of using the KISS method and a requirement to ease on exact measurements and not spend all day in the kitchen. Total preparation and cooking time is just 20 minutes.

Vegan Mushroom Carbonara – this dish will feed 3 to 4 people

Mushroom Ingredients

3 tbsp of olive oil

3 cups of your favorite sliced mushrooms – we used white mushrooms

½ tsp of both smoked paprika and salt – I always use kosher salt

¼ tsp of freshly ground black pepper

Carbonara Sauce Ingredients

½ cup of non salted cashews

¼ cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of unsweetened non-dairy milk – we used oat milk

3 garlic cloves

1 ½ tbsp nutritional yeast

1 ½ tbsp of lemon juice

¼ tsp of paprika

1 tsp salt & ½ tsp of freshly ground pepper

Vegan Mushroom Carbonara Method

• Toss sliced mushrooms in olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper. Place on a non-stick sprayed foil lined baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes, turning over at halfway point.

• Add sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth

• Cook 12oz of spaghetti in salted boiling water to al dente. Strain and poor into bowl. Mix sauce and stir in mushrooms. Serve onto your favorite plate and garnish with parsley.

This dish rivals traditional carbonara and was also enjoyed by the larger non vegan members of our family.

I continue to learn that you can teach an old dog new tricks!