Vegan Cheeseburger Pasta Bake

Vegan cheeseburger pasta bake may sound mental, like, did they confuse their words when writing this one out? No. Have they lost their minds? Maybe...you'll have to try this one to decide for yourselves. We think it's an excellent combination and while it may not be the healthiest recipe we've ever created (we did chuck in some red peppers so it looked like we tried), it's definitely a people pleaser.

Anybody tried the new Iceland range of meat-free products (for our non-UK readers, Iceland is a supermarket, we're not talking about the Country!)? We've slowly been working our way through them, after being pretty impressed with their initial release, the infamous "No Bull Burgers".

We ended up trying the sausages and meatballs and found, disappointingly, that they're quite obviously just the burgers in different shapes. Lazy product development at its finest, who wants their spaghetti and meatballs to taste like burger? Or their sausages with a fry-up? Would not recommend.

However, that did get us to thinking, what can we use the mince for, because we don't want a burger bolognese! Hence, cheeseburger pasta bake - we had to take that flavour and make use of it, and this is the end product. This recipe does work great with other brands of vegan mince products too, so don't worry if you want to give it a go with whatever brand you prefer.

Love some carbs? Get some of our garlic bread involved as well!

Vegan Cheeseburger Pasta Bake

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★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Jess Saunders
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 35
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 6 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 3 cups (~800g) chopped tomatoes in juice
• 3 cups (750ml) water
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp unrefined sugar (we use coconut sugar)
• 8 cloves garlic - minced/finely diced
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 2 red peppers - chopped into 1" chunks
• 500g vegan mince
• 1 large onion - chopped
• 3 cups (~350g) macaroni pasta
• 200g vegan cheese
• Splash of oil for frying
• Optional: ⅓ cup pickled cornichons/gherkins - chopped

Optional: some vegan bacon pieces - you can find a recipe for them here as part of our mac & cheese.

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 5/190c.
2. Heat up a frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil. Fry the onions until they start to soften, then add the mince and garlic, and cook for around 5 minutes until you get a light-brown on the mince (if your brand of mince doesn't brown, it's fine, just stop after 5 minutes and carry on to the next step).
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients, except for the cheese, and give it a good stir until it's well mixed.
4. Now, pour the contents of your mixing bowl into a large roasting pan or casserole dish (lightly grease with some oil if it's not non-stick), place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
5. After the 30 minutes is up, take it out of the oven and sprinkle the cheese on top, then return to the oven for another 5 minutes or so, until the cheese has melted.
6. Sorted - one cheeseburger pasta bake - chuck a few sliced gherkins on top for garnish if that's your thing.

• Category: Dinner
• Method: Saute, Oven bake
• Cuisine: Italian, Fusion

Keywords: Vegan cheeseburger pasta bake