Creamy and oh so garlicky.

  Pasta for today's No Meat Monday! Here I've got a version, a meatless one I suppose, of a carbonara-ish sauce. As we all know, carbonara has one ingredient that makes it a real treat: bacon. And while I absolutely love bacon, there are just days when I want to eat carbonara without it, you know? Well, I found a recipe that does a pretty good job of giving me carbonara vibes without the help of bacon. It's still rich, creamy, and filling, and the addition of garlic and dill just tops it all off.

This recipe is more vegetarian than vegan. I used dairy milk instead of nut milk; butter instead of olive oil; and dairy cheese instead of nutritional yeast. You can always sub vegan-friendly ingredients, you just have to do adjustments throughout.

Creamy Garlic & Dill Pasta

(adapted from TheKitchenPaper.com)

Yield: 1-2 servings

Creamy Sauce:

3-4 T butter

4-5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 1/2 T all purpose flour

1/3 c evaporated milk + 1/3 c water *

a handful of fresh dill, torn roughly

salt + pepper, to taste

Other ingredients:

pasta of choice (I used elbow macaroni here)

a splash of pasta water

cheese of choice

1. Cook pasta noodles according to package instructions. Save a bit of the pasta water for the sauce. Set aside.

2. In a pan, melt butter and saute garlic until fragrant.

3. Add in flour and cook for about 1-2 minutes, making sure there's no raw flour left on the pan.

4. Add in milk + water mixture. Sauce will instantly thicken so make sure your heat isn't too high. If the sauce is becoming too thick, add in a splash of the saved pasta water to loosen it up a bit.

5. Turn off heat and add in the fresh dill, salt, and pepper.

6. Either toss in the noodles top it with the prepared sauce.

7. Top with cheese and enjoy!

NOTES:

1. *The original recipe called for whole milk but since all I have is evaporated milk in the ref, I decided to use it instead. 

2. For a bit of heat, add in a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.