Vegan Hamburger Helper (Vegan Beefless Pasta)
This is my veganized take on boxed Hamburger Helper, but made vegan! Creamy, tender pasta with lots of tender beefy flavour thanks to Beyond Meat beefless ground (but you could easily swap for cooked lentils!)
Servings: 2 -3 servings
Ingredients
- 200 g pasta ~2 cups, or enough to serve 2-4 people, cooked al dente
- Salt for the pasta water
- 1 pack of Beyond Beef 340 g*
- 1 medium onion 90 g, diced
- 2 cloves garlic 8 g, crushed or minced
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour can sub cornstarch
- 1 cup water from cooking pasta
- 1 tbsp vegetable broth paste I used Better than Bouillon, but you could also use a bouillon cube
- 1/2 cup vegan sour cream I used Tofutti, but blended silken tofu or your own homemade cashew sour cream would work as well.
- 1/2 tsp parsley flakes or 2 tbsp fresh parsley
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, and salt well (until it tastes like sea water--I used about 2 tsp salt for about 3 inches of water). Cook noodles until al dente, strain the noodles but reserve at least 1 cup of water from the pasta.
- In a large pot over medium heat, cook the vegan ground substitute until browned, breaking up the pieces to your desired sized chunks. (See YouTube video for what I did). Stir well to get an even browning, this should take about 5 minutes.
- Once browned, add diced onion, and cook until onion is softened, about 3-4 minutes. You might need to splash on some water to deglaze the bottom of the pan and lower the heat if you find that the ground is sticking too much. Add crushed garlic once the onion is cooked, and stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Add 2 tbsp of flour (or cornstarch), and add just enough water to hydrate the flour to create a roux. Once the flour is hydrated, add about 1 cup of the pasta water and the broth paste, and mix to incorporate.
- Add in the cooked pasta and stir to coat. Check that everything is cooked to your liking (pasta and the vegan ground beef), then add in the vegan sour cream and parsley.
- Turn off the heat and serve immediately!
Notes
*Instead of Beyond Beef, you can sub 1 cup of lentils, cooked, like green or black/puy lentils.
If you are wanting to make this in one pot instead of cooking the pasta separately, add about 3 cups (750 mL) of vegetable broth (or just water if you're using broth paste like me) for 200 g of pasta after you create the roux. Cover and let the pasta cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes. If you find that there's too much water, cook with the lid off to cook out the extra water (but I found 3 cups about adequate). Once the pasta is cooked through and the liquid is mostly just sauciness, add in the sour cream and parsley.