Behold, the meal that got me through my last year of college! Vegan carbonara. (I should put liberal air quotes around “Carbonara” I suppose.) In the midst of the pandemic, inspiration for food was at an all time low as I was juggling school and work and having to cook every single meal, with next to nothing to break up the monotony. Enter: Banza pasta. I also ate more than my fair of their mac and cheese (amped up with veggies and chicken). But another dish that was just as easy was this vegan carbonara.

Remember at the start of the pandemic when that video of the Italian grandmas went around? And they (in heavy Italian accents) said things like, “Oh we stay inside 14 days? No worries. I make-a da soup-a.” I imagine those Italian grandmas probably wouldn’t want me calling this “Carbonara,” as the real deal involves copious amounts of cheese and a lot of egg yolk.

However, this *is* a version of carbonara that is 1) vegan and 2) much closer to being healthy. Between the Banza pasta, the lack of cheese, the seitan protein, and the peas, I’d say this is very close to healthy. And just the right amount of unhealthy to be good after 10 hours of zoom classes.

Traditional carbonara also doesn’t have peas in it. I think this is just subconcious thing stuck in my mind from when my dad would prepare dinner as a kid, when he would just put every leftover and some eggs in a pan and fry it up, so it would sort of turn into a pasta/egg carbonara-esque dish, that usually also had peas in it. Either way, it was good.

In terms of substitutions, you can replace the seitan bacon with whatever protein you prefer, or mushrooms. You can leave out the peas. You can add real cheese (parmesan or another vegan substitute). You can add more vegetables if you want. You can play around a lot with the proportions. This was a recipe I made a lot in a dorm kitchen that was falling apart when I was losing my mind amidst the zoom calls. It’s easy.