Vegan Simple Seafood Pasta Questa ricetta è disponibile anche in italiano.



This delicious pasta dish will make you forget you’re on a vegan diet!

That’s right! This recipe I’m about to share actually resembles the taste (and the aesthetic) of an actual seafood pasta dish. The proof is in the pudding! Or.. should I say: in the pasta?!

I’m positive you won’t believe your tastebuds after trying this!

What are the secrets of this dish?

There are a few secrets and tips that you need to know in order to replicate this vegan seafood pasta dish:



Seaweed

Well, seafood obviously comes from the sea, and the vegan ingredients available for us to use in order to replicate the sea flavour are indeed found within seaweed.

Seaweeds not only are the ideal ingredient for fishy dishes but they also come with a bunch of properties:

– they are high in iodine, an essential mineral especially for those with thyroid issues. Iodine, in fact, helps the thyroid to produce hormones, that our body needs in order to control metabolism and make both our brain and bones work efficiently.

An adult it is recommended that we get around 150mcg of iodine each day and kelp seaweed (dried kombu) is definetly the main vegan source of iodine (followed by prunes and cranberries).

– they are a great source of Vitamins, such as A, C, E, K and even B12! That’s right. According to this 2014 study nori (the seaweed used in sushi) happens to be the greatest vegetarian source of vitamin B12. Using nori to enrich your dishes it’s one of the best thing you can in order to get some of the most discussed vitamins for vegans and vegetarian.

– they are a good source of other minerals too, such as iron, copper, manganese, calcium, folate, zinc and magnesium.

King Oyster Mushrooms

Our dear, old, delicious mushrooms! Amongst all, king oyster are the best variety of fungi to replicate the look and the texture of scallops.

All you need to do is to cut round slices, lightly score one side if you’d like to achieve a more realistic look (completely optional), and marinate in a rich and lemony broth.

It is as simple as that.



Marinate

First of all we need to make a simplified dashi broth. This can be done with as little as two ingredients: kelp and water.

All we need to do is bring them to a boil, turn off the heat and let the water cool to room temperature.

Next step is to add soy sauce, lemon wedges and nori sheet.





I advise you to ground the nori into a powder so that we can easily add it to the marinate and simply sprinkle over our finished dish.

Ideally we want to marinate the mushrooms overnight, but if you’re in rush even as little as 30 minutes to 1 hour will do.

Last step simply consists to pan fry the mushrooms scallops in some vegetable oil until slighly brown and crispy on both sides.

The Sauce

I decided to keep this dish simple. The same way you’d be served should you order it in a seafront restaurant in Italy.

The sauce we are going to use to coat our pasta with is a light tomato sauce, made out of fresh cherry tomatoes, garlic, a hint of chili pepper and… a pinch of capers!

Capers are another beautiful ally to replicate sea flavour thanks to their saltiness.

All we need to do is to finely chop the capers and gently fry in a touch of extra virgin olive oil along with garlic and chili pepper.

The Pasta

I recommend the use of linguine or spaghetti for this dish.

An important step for this recipe is to cook the pasta half way through: so if the cooking time indicated on the pack is 8 minutes we need to boil the pasta for 4 minutes only!

We will finish cooking the pasta in the sauce, with which we are going to add as much kelp broth as the pasta requires in order to complete the cooking process to perfection.

Final Touches

When all of our components are ready all that is left to do is to arrange the pasta in a bowl, add the mushroom seared scallops and sprinkle some nori powder and freshly chopped parsley on top of the dish!



It’s now time to enjoy it! A glass of good and chilled white wine to accompany this special meal won’t hurt 🙂





Useful Links

In case you struggle finding the ingredients needed in order to replicate this recipe you can buy nori sheets here and kombu seaweed here.



If you like this recipe you will also love this vegan version of this typical dish from Bari: Potato, Rice and “Mussels” Bake.



At the end of the recipe you will find and easy to follow video. Click here to watch it now!

If you decide make this recipe and to share it on Instagram or Facebook, don’t forget to tag me for a shoutout

-> @avegtastefromatoz or #aVegTasteFromAtoZ and because I’d love to see your personal takes on my recipes🙂

Vegan Seafood Pasta Recipe:

Ingredients:

200 g Pasta (Linguine)

200 g King Oyster Mushrooms

150 g Cherry Tomatoes

1/2 cup Fresh Parsley

1 Kelp Sheet

1/2 Nori Sheet

2-3 tbsp Chopped Tomatoes (optional)

2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Capers

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Lemon

1 Garlic Clove

Chili Pepper

Salt

White Pepper



Method:

1. Prepare the kelp broth. In a saucepan bring to a boil some water (500-700ml will do), salt and kombu. As soon as the water starts boiling turn the heat off and let it cool completely.

2. In a food processor blend the nori sheet into a powder.

3. Cut the stalks of the oyster mushrooms into 1 cm thick slices. Score each slice only on one side with 2 to 4 parallel cuts each way. Place the “scallops” a dish with sides deep enough to host the marinate, then and add: soy sauce, 1/2 cup of kelp broth, lemon wedges, sea salt and ground nori, and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes (ideally overnight).

4. In a large pan heat the olive oil then add the garlic (grated), finely chopped chili pepper and roughly chopped capers, and cook for 1-2 minutes.

5. Add chopped tomatoes and fresh cherry tomatoes (cut in halves). Season with salt and white pepper.

6. Boil the pasta in salted water for half of the cooking time indicated on the pack.

7. Drain the pasta half cooked and combine it to the sauce pan, this will complete the cooking process for the last half. Using the same cooking technique as you would for a risotto, add the kelp broth a bit at a time, and wait until all the liquid has absorbed before adding some more.

8. Remove the mushrooms and the lemon wedges from the marinade, squeeze the lemon juice into the marinade liquid and add it to the pasta pan.

9. Pan fry the mushrooms in a bit of vegetable oil starting with the scored side.

10. Serve the pasta topped with fresh parsley, nori powder and vegan pan fried scallops.