Creamy Bean Pasta Bake (Vegan, Wheat & Gluten Free option)

Pasta bake has long been one of my favourite winter comfort foods, providing a warming and easy cooking option at the end of a long, cold day.

The only problem was when I changed to a vegan diet, I had terrible trouble finding vegan friendly pasta bake sauces. All my favourite brands were full of dairy so I went without for some time.

As I tend to cook everything from scratch nowadays and that can be tiring, I went in search of vegan friendly pasta bake sauces again recently. I didn't find any. Thankfully I remember a tip from a friend years ago who told me you could basically use any jar of pasta sauce as a pasta bake if you want to.

With that in mind, I bought a couple of basic, accidentally vegan pasta sauces and had a go at making my favourite dish. They were nice, but not as creamy as I remembered pasta bake being, so I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands!

I've included both my versions of the recipe so you can make this completely from scratch, or using any jar of ready made pasta sauce. You can choose depending on the time and effort you want to put into it. Some days I don't want to do anything that requires effort for dinner, and it's nice to have that option!

You can also make the sauce in advance and pop it in the fridge or freezer until you need it.

If you're making this recipe from scratch, I do recommend using the best quality tinned tomatoes you can get - Napolina are always a solid choice. The sauce is much richer and you will notice the difference in the final result. There are lots of things you can skimp on, but tinned tomatoes isn't one of them when it comes to Italian style food!

You'll also need to make sure you have a nice big oven dish to make this in. A roasting size dish or slightly smaller should be adequate, and preferably made of glass or ceramic. I use a large rectangular Pyrex dish which is a bit on a big side at 25 x 35 x 5cm (you certainly don't want it any bigger than that!) The shape and exact dimensions aren't too important for this recipe, as long as it's big enough to hold all the liquid; that's all that really matters!

When it comes to the cheese, I've provided two options that both work well. Choose the flavour you prefer. If you're used to eating dairy, then I suggest a cheddar style vegan cheese as it tastes stronger and noticeably "cheesier" than mozzarella style. 

Unlike a standard pasta bake, I don't recommend sprinkling vegan cheese as a topping during cooking for this dish. Vegan cheese will dry out quite badly and won't make the kind of nice, sticky topping you'll be expecting if you're used to dairy. Keep the cheese IN the sauce and only add some as a topping when serving.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion

1/4 red pepper (bell pepper)

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp tomato puree (concentrate)

1 tsp oregano

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 vegetable stock cube (wheat/gluten free if required)

100ml hot water

OR

1 x 400g jar of your preferred pasta cooking sauce instead of all the above.

200g dry pasta shapes (wheat/gluten free if required)

1 tin baked beans 

400ml cold water

150g vegan mozzarella or cheddar style cheese, grated°°°

50ml soya single cream (I used Alpro soya single)

Method

Heat the oil over a medium hob in a large saucepan or a non-stick wok. Chop the onion and pepper and add to the oil. Gently fry until soft and the onion takes on a yellow, translucent colour.

Crush or chop the garlic cloves and add to the pan along with the tomato puree. Stir into the onion and peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes to remove any sharpness from the tomato puree.

Dissolve the stock cube in hot water, and add to the pan along with the oregano and the tin of chopped tomatoes.

Gently simmer for 5 minutes then remove from the heat.

Using an electric hand blender, blend the sauce to a smoother consistency.  The sauce will look creamier and slightly thicker once blended.

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Place the dried pasta in the oven dish, next add the baked beans, pasta sauce, cold water, single cream and 100g of the grated cheese.

Slowly stir the ingredients together until mixed and the pasta and beans are distributed evenly. Be careful not to slosh any over the side of the baking dish because it's very watery at this stage.

Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. 

Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to rest for five minutes before serving.

Serve immediately topped with the remaining grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper to taste.