Vegan Pastitsio 🔥 Greek / Cypriot pasta bake
Vegan pastitsio — a traditional Greek / Cypriot pasta bake.
Vegan Pastitsio 🔥 Greek / Cypriot pasta bake
Pastitsio is a dish that comes out at every Greek or Cypriot celebration. A real crowd-pleaser, served hot or cold. As a kid I remember going back for seconds and thirds of this rich, indulgent pasta bake. And so, to taste it again as a vegan, I’ve adapted the recipe to have all of the flavour and none of the animal products.
For a visual overview of this recipe, check out this Instagram reel.
Minimal refined ingredients
This also uses a minimum of refined products: the meat is made from kidney beans, mushrooms and walnuts, and the cheesy sauce is flavoured with miso and nutritional yeast flakes, rather than a highly processed vegan cheese. You could even sub the vegan butter I use for the same weight of olive oil.
The layers
Pastitsio begins with a layer of tubular pasta (bucatini) drenched in cheesy bechamel sauce, then a meaty layer, then another layer of the pasta topped with the remaining sauce.
In this recipe we get the cheesiness from shiro miso (light-coloured miso) and nutritional yeast (aka nooch, not to be confused with regular baker’s yeast!). And while in the original recipe eggs add flavour and binding, here that flavour comes from eggy salt (aka ‘kala namak’) and the binding comes from wheat flour, chickpea flour and cornstarch. The meaty layer is composed of oyster mushrooms, walnuts and beans with tomatoes and various other flavourings.
Tubular, dude
Some of you may have never cooked with the tubular bucatini before, but your local supermarket probably stocks it. Even if you’ve never noticed it on the shelves. But if you really can’t find it, you can always use penne or some other tubular pasta.
Celebratory food
As with many Greek dishes, this recipe may intimidate some people due to its many steps. But its many processes are all really easy, so don’t fret. Just make sure you have enough time (about two hours, tops), and you will really enjoy how this comes together. Promise.
You could even cook it the day before and serve it cold or reheated.
Recipe: Vegan Pastitsio 🔥 Greek / Cypriot pasta bake
All measurements are level, using standardised measuring spoons and cups. Serves 6 very large portions or 12 smaller portions.
Requirements
Whisk
Large oven dish (mine is rated for a volume of 4 litres)
Food processor
Full sized oven
Ingredients
Meaty sauce
1 bunch of parsley (1 cup when chopped)
1 can of black beans or kidney beans (400g, drained weight 240g)
1 cup walnut halves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 (red) onion
½ tsp cumin seeds
3 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
200g oyster mushrooms
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 can of chopped tomatoes (400g)
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp smoked paprika (or regular)
Bechamel + pasta
500g bucatini pasta
1 litre unsweetened plant-based milk (room temp)
I like to use Alpro’s ‘Not Milk’ for this.1 tsp eggy salt aka kala namak
2 tbsp cornstarch
8 tbsp chickpea flour
100g (wheat) flour
100g vegan butter
1 tbsp shiro miso
¼ cup nutritional yeast (that’s 4 tbsp)
Instructions
Preparation. Chop the parsley very finely and set aside. Drain and rinse the beans, then pulse in a food processor once or twice to break them up a bit — we don’t want a paste — then set aside. Pulse the walnuts in the food processor until you have a fine crumble, set aside. Pulse the mushrooms into pieces a bit chunkier than a traditional minced meat (they will shrink when cooked), set aside. Dice the onion.
Meaty layer. Sauté the diced onion in a large saucepan with 2 tbsp olive oil on a low heat. Dice the garlic, but keep stirring the saucepan occasionally. Once the onions are translucent, add the cumin seeds, garlic and bay leaf. Raise to medium heat. Add mushrooms, stirring occasionally. Once they have started to get some colour, add the soy sauce, black pepper, oregano, cinnamon, smoked paprika, walnuts, beans, chopped tomatoes and parsley. Add half a cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and cover with a lid.
Bechamel and pasta. Preheat oven to 180C (355 F). In a measuring jug or bowl, add the cornstarch, chickpea flour and eggy salt / kala namak. Slowly whisk in 300 ml (room temp) water. Set aside.
For the pasta, fill a large pot with water, salt it very generously (we’re talking seawater), and bring to the boil.
As you wait for the water to boil, set a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the vegan butter (Violife) or equivalent weight of olive oil. Then whisk in the wheat flour. Keep the paste moving for a minute or two, then whisk in the plant-based milk – very gradually to avoid lumps. Now whisk in the chickpea-flour-cornstarch mixture and let it cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk in the miso and the nutritional yeast flakes very thoroughly. Taste and add additional salt if you feel it’s necessary. If it tastes funny, cook for longer — the chickpea flour is bitter until thoroughly cooked through.
Your pasta pot should be boiling by now: add the bucatini and cook until al dente (see packet instructions), drain and set aside.
Assembly. Place half the pasta in the bottom of your oven dish and mix in two ladles of the cheesy sauce. Then stir a ladle of the cheesy sauce into the meaty mixture and dump all of the meaty mixture into the oven dish and level it out. Add the remaining pasta on top and cover it with the remaining cheesy sauce. Bake in the middle of your oven for 20-25 minutes. To get clean slices, you will want to wait for the dish to cool down for 30 minutes or so.
Tips 💡
Enjoy hot or cold, served with a simple salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and red onion, dressed in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Tag me on Instagram
Tag me on social media (@tichostable) — I would love to see your recreations! I also have a reel on my Instagram that shows the whole process, which may be helpful.