Baked Vegan Spaghetti Cups

When I was, a long time ago, an endurance athlete (long-distance running), I used to eat a large, rich plate of spaghetti the night before a race.

The reason for this lies in the amount of carbohydrates found in spaghetti, which are necessary for continuous and long aerobic activity.

I won't bore you with too many details, but I'll keep it brief: the starch in pasta is converted in the body into glycogen (a type of polysaccharide stored in the body – mainly in the muscles and a bit in the kidneys) and waits for the moment we need available energy.

During a marathon run, it is quickly released into the muscles and provides the energy required for the run.

In many races, it's customary to organize a mass pasta party the night before, and I can tell you that the pasta at these parties (no matter which race) was always the most delicious pasta in the world. I think the reason for that was a kind of relief after a long and hard period of grueling training, as well as the great excitement leading up to zero hour – the race itself.

I always struggled to accurately measure the amount of pasta I was eating. Somehow, large amounts of pasta, especially spaghetti, would "slide" onto the plate directly from the pot, causing me to break the caloric balance I wanted to maintain for the race.

Therefore, I found a nice and easy method to control the amount of spaghetti that also, along the way, creates a festive and appetizing look – vegan spaghetti cups.

A bit about vegan spaghetti cups

The recipe is cooked spaghetti, baked in a muffin tin after being mixed with a creamy, protein-rich sauce.

I used organic tricolor spaghetti by Harduf (full disclosure: they also participated in preparing this recipe). You can replace it with any other pasta you like: spaghetti, penne, fusilli, and even Israeli couscous. Go wild.

For the sauce, I used silken tofu and seasoned it with nutritional yeast and garlic. You can add cooked or raw beets, carrots, pumpkin, fresh or roasted tomatoes, or any other vegetable you like to the sauce—it will turn out wonderful.

You can replace the sauce I suggest with tomato sauce or a cashew-based cream sauce, or any pasta sauce you love.

Here is an old post of mine with 3 pasta sauces – maybe you'll like them.

Nutritional yeast flakes give a deep cheesy flavor to the sauce—you can replace them with the same amount of white miso.

Nutritional values by clinical dietitian and fitness trainer Noam Bechar:

One vegan pasta cup out of 10, weighing 60g, contains:

• 88 calories
• 5g protein
• 102g carbohydrates
• 3g fat

Vegan Pasta Cups

In a creamy and indulgent sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 10 cups

Ingredients

• 140 g Harduf organic tricolor pasta, uncooked Weight after cooking and draining is about 300g
• 100 g Silken tofu
• 1 tbsp Nutritional yeast flakes 50g
• 1 Garlic clove
• 5 tsp Olive oil 25 ml

Instructions

1. Fill a pot with water, add a tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.

2. Add the Harduf tricolor spaghetti and cook until soft.

   

3. Drain the spaghetti, drizzle with a little olive oil so it doesn't stick, and set aside.

4. Preheat oven to medium heat, 180°C.

Prepare the sauce

1. In a blender, blend the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, garlic, and olive oil until smooth.

2. Taste and add salt if needed.

3. Transfer the sauce to a deep bowl, pour in the spaghetti, and mix well until the sauce is fully incorporated.

   

4. Twirl a fork to gather a bite-sized amount of pasta (patience, don't eat it yet!).

5. Transfer to a muffin tin.

6. Repeat until all pasta is used.

7. Sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top.

8. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden.

9. The pasta cups will come out of the tin easily only after cooling. So, be patient.