Caramelised onions. Pasta. Two lovely things on their own but you’ll cook up a surprisingly lovely pasta dish when you combine the two along with a big splash of stock and a generous sprinkle of vegan parmesan cheese.

Full disclosure: You’ll need the TM6® for the current deliciousmother version as I use a recipe from the Cookidoo® recipe portal which gives you access to the caramelising function.

My sister cooked me this dish a few years ago and I marvelled at how much this unlikely marriage of ingredients was as delicious as it was simple. Turns out it was a Donna Hay recipe from her book, ‘The instant cook’.  Well, of course it was.

An Aussie-based food stylist and author of many cookbooks, Donna Hay is kinda like the Aussie version of the UK’s Nigella Lawson. Her cookbooks contain gorgeous recipe after gorgeous recipe and I can always find some inspiration from her books or her website if I’m stuck in a cooking rut. And let’s not forget to mention that she has a store full of rather pretty cooking utensils. Not good for my minimalist goals.When the onions have been caramelised, add some vegetable stock, water and salt to the jug and cook for another minute before pouring the onion mixture over some freshly cooked pasta. Stir in some vegan parmesan and you end up with four plates of an unexpectedly delicious and light pasta dish.

In order to make this vegetarian/vegan friendly, I’ve swapped the beef stock for vegetable and omitted everything that contains animal products. And yes, I realise that beef stock has a different flavour profile. Truth be told, I actually prefer using the beef stock as it’s richer and deeper in flavour. A lot of standard vegetable stock powders lack depth and richness in flavour, so if you’re a flexitarian like me, do try this using beef or other meat stocks. Just use less regular parmesan.

For plant-based peeps, don’t despair. This recipe is not a sub-standard version of a ‘regular’ recipe thanks to vegan parmesan. The nutritional yeast in the ‘cheese’ creates a glossy sauce and lends the vegetable stock more flavour, boosting its savoury essence to meat stock levels for this dish. I recently made the plant-based version for my husband and he happily chowed it down without noticing a difference. 

Tip: Save some chopping time and tears by using jumbo-sized onions. Two should be enough for this recipe. 

AuthordeliciousmotherCategorySavouryDifficultyBeginner

Yields4 ServingsQuarter (1 Serving)Half (2 Servings)Default (4 Servings)Double (8 Servings)Triple (12 Servings)

Prep Time3 minsCook Time25 minsTotal Time28 mins

Caramelized onions - search for 'Caramelised onion (400-500g)' in the Cookidoo app.

 500 g onions

 water

 salt

 balsamic vinegar or water

Sauce

 250 ml water

 2 tsp vegetable stock powder (or enough to make up a cup of stock)

 1 tsp salt

 2 pinches pepper

 ⅓ cup vegan parmesan

 400 g spaghetti

 1 tbsp capers (optional)

Caramelised Onions

1

Search for 'Caramelised onion (400-500g) in the Cookidoo and start cooking. Try to chop the onion into thing rings (2-3 mm) and break them apart as you put them in the jug. This will help to caramelise the onions evenly.

Pasta and sauce

2

With approximately 10 minutes to go until the onions are done, cook the pasta as per instructions. Drain and put the pasta back in the pot you cooked it in.

3

Add 1 cup of water, 2 tsp of vegetable stock powder, 1 tsp of salt and 2 pinches of pepper to jug. Cook for 1 min / 90 ºC / speed 1.

4

Pour the onion & stock mixture onto the pasta, add 1/3 cup of vegan parmesan cheese + optional capers. Toss to combine. Serve with extra vegan parmesan.