12ounces(320grams)spaghetti+ salt and water to cook them
Make vegan bacon
Cut the tempeh (or tofu or seitan) in small dice. Warm up the oliveoil in a non-stick pan, then add in the dicedtempeh and fry on low heat for about 5 minutes, till it starts to brown.Tip: In the meantime you can put the pasta water to boil, salt it generously, and start cooking the pasta.
Season the tempeh dice with salt and pepper, then add the soy sauce.Stir and cook for another minute, till the tempeh is fully glazed in the soy sauce. Set aside.
Make the vegan carbonara sauce
To a blender, add all the ingredients for the carbonara sauce: unsweetened soymilk, oliveoil, chickpeaflour, nutritionalyeast, blacksalt (kala namak), and salt. Blend till smooth.
Transfer the sauce into a non-stick pan that is large enough to fit the pasta.When the pasta is almost cooked, warm up the carbonara sauce, while stirring it, until it thickens a little. It should take about 1 minute.Do not overcook the sauce or it will get too thick.
Toss the pasta, al dente, into the pan with the sauce. Add ½ ladle of pastacookingwater, and finish cooking the pasta in the pan for another minute, till the pasta is fully coated in the sauce.Towards the end add the vegan bacon, and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. Stir a final time, then serve immediately.