This creamy vegan mushroom pasta is an easy, budget-friendly meal packed with around 30+ grams of protein per serving! It’s simple, quick and affordable.
Main ingredients for Vegan Mushroom Pasta:
- TVP
- Pasta
- Mushrooms
- Onion
- Vegan Cream/Heavy Cream
- Parsley
- Mustard
- Soy Sauce
- Lemon Juice/Vinegar
Substitution FAQ for this Vegan Mushroom Pasta
What can I use instead of soy sauce?
Simply skip it and add a little extra salt to taste. Since soy sauce contributes both salt and umami, the dish may be slightly less savoury without it, but it will still be delicious. If you happen to have vegan fish sauce or miso at home, you can also add a small teaspoon for an extra hit of umami. But don’t worry if you don’t have any of these, the mushrooms definitely bring plenty of natural umami to this creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta.
What if I don’t have mustard?
No problem, you can leave it out. The mustard adds acidity and a little extra depth, so you can compensate with a little extra lemon juice or vinegar. Start with a small amount and taste as you go.
What if I don’t have lemons?
Use vinegar instead. Apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar work particularly well. Start with about 1 tablespoon, then add more if needed. You can also use pickle juice, which is a fantastic zero-waste option if you already have pickles in the fridge.
What can I use instead of TVP?
Beans are an easy budget-friendly substitute. Creamy butter beans, cannellini beans, white beans, kidney beans would all work. You can also use smoked tofu, which is especially good if you want a version that’s reminiscent of a classic ham flavour. Keep in mind that beans and tofu have different protein contents from TVP, so the final protein amount will change.
What if I don’t have vegan cream?
For the closest result, use another neutral, unsweetened plant-based cooking cream. If you don’t have that, you can use unsweetened soy milk or another neutral plant milk, but the sauce will be thinner and obviously a little less flavor-dense because of the lower fat content. Soy milk is particularly useful because it contains more protein than most plant milks. For a thicker sauce, up the flour in the recipe and/or let the sauce simmer a little longer.
How to Make This Vegan Mushroom Pasta Even Cheaper
This creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta is already designed to be inexpensive, but there are lots of ways to push the cost down further.
Buy TVP in bulk. Small bags can sometimes be surprisingly expensive per 100 g, depending on the store or brand, while larger bags are often much cheaper, especially when bought online. If a bulk bag is more than you can reasonably use yourself, ask friends or family if they want to split an order with you. You can also split delivery costs this way.
Skip fresh herbs unless you grow them yourself. Frozen parsley is cheaper, lasts much longer and works perfectly well in a cooked sauce. If you grow herbs at home, even better!
Use frozen veggies instead of fresh mushrooms. Frozen vegetables are often cheaper, have a long shelf life and mean you don’t have to worry about fresh produce going bad. Peas would be especially good here, they add colour, sweetness, fibre and extra protein. Frozen spinach, mixed vegetables or green beans could also work.
Use pickle juice instead of buying extra ingredients. If you already have pickles, the leftover brine can replace some or all of the lemon juice and can provide some of the acidity and flavour that mustard adds. It’s essentially a free ingredient.
Buy store brands and compare price per kilogram. The cheapest-looking package isn’t always the cheapest option, so checking the price per weight makes it much easier to find the genuinely cheapest choice.
Is This Vegan Mushroom Pasta a High-Protein Meal?
The whole recipe uses 100 g of dry TVP, which can provide around 50 g of protein on its own. According to my research, the average TVP has about 50 g of protein per 100 g. The 300 g of pasta, mushrooms and other ingredients add considerably more, bringing the whole pot to roughly 100 g of protein, depending on the exact brands you use.
That makes this recipe suitable for 3 generous servings, with 30+ g of protein per serving, or 2 very large servings for very hungry people, which would then bring around 50 grams of protein per person!
TVP is particularly useful for budget plant-based cooking because it gives you a lot of protein for a relatively small amount of food, stores well, is shelf-stable and is easy to buy in bulk. And because the recipe makes around three protein-rich servings from inexpensive ingredients, the cost per serving stays really low too!
Vegan Mushroom Pasta – High Protein, Easy and Delicious
Ingredients
- 100 grams/ 3.5oz Dry TVP
- 250 grams/ 10oz Button Mushrooms
- 1 Medium Onion
- 170ml/ ¾ cup Vegan Cream
- 15 grams/ ¼ cup Frozen Parsley or handful if fresh
- 1 tsp Mustard
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice/Vinegar
- 300 grams/ 10oz Pasta
Instructions
- Chop the onion and mushrooms. If using fresh parsley, chop it as well.
- If using dried TVP chunks, soak them in hot salted water until softened. Drain and squeeze out as much excess water as possible. Heat a little oil in a pan over medium heat and fry the chunks until golden brown and crispy. Season with salt and pepper, then remove them from the pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, sauté the chopped onion and mushrooms until softened and browned. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir well.
- Cook for about a minute, then deglaze the pan with ½ cup of water, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Stir in the vegan cream, soy sauce and season generously with salt and black pepper. Let the sauce simmer gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.
- Stir the crispy TVP chunks back into the sauce along with the chopped parsley, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice to taste. Serve with your favourite pasta and finish with freshly cracked black pepper.
Storage and Meal-Prep
This recipe is great for meal prep. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheat with a splash of water or plant milk if the sauce has thickened.
The mushroom and sauce are freezer-friendly, but I’d make the TVP fresh if possible. It only takes a few minutes to rehydrate and cook and it will give you a nicer texture. For the best results, freeze the sauce separately and cook fresh pasta and TVP when you’re ready to eat.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you, I’m super curious! You can leave a comment below, I really appreciate you taking the time and helping others feel more confident in trying this recipe or help me improve this recipe or instructions, if there are any uncertainties! Tag @lordsoftheplants on Instagram and hashtag it #lordsoftheplants for me to see your creation, which is always super fun to me!
If you enjoyed cooking with TVP, you might also like this super comforting Vegan Potato Goulash!