Lo-carb pasta carbonara recipe

Nutritionist Faye James has turned carb-heavy carbonara pasta into a grain-free and dairy-free recipe so you can enjoy all the richness of this dish but without the bloat.

Ingredients to make lo carb pasta carbonara recipe

1/2 cup raw cashew nuts, soaked

1 medium brown onion, finely diced

6 rashers/streaks of pancetta (use bacon or ham if you can't find pancetta)

3  medium cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 cup of chopped mushrooms

1 teaspoon Himalayan pink sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup almond milk

tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

Handful of spinach

Grated parmesan (optional) and fresh basil to serve

Pulse spaghetti or spiralized celeriac, cooked.

Method to make lo carb pasta carbonara recipe

Pan fry the pancetta (or ham or bacon) on a medium heat until crispy. Add the onion, garlic, mushrooms, butter and seasoning. Strain the cashews and blend in a food processor with the eggs, milk and nutritional yeast until smooth. Add to the bacon mixture and spinach and stir through. Add either your cooked lo carb pulse spaghetti or spiralized celeriac to the sauce and top with basil and if you want, some parmesan if you're not going for a completely dairy free dish. Parmesan is low in lactose so I find a little sprinkled on the dish is fine. Enjoy!

Citro food tip:

If you don't like pulse spaghetti, you can also try konjac spaghetti noodles, which you can find in some supermarkets and health food stores. These look like rice vermicelli noodles but are made from the konjac yam, also dubbed the elephant yam, a staple in Japanese and Chinese diets for centuries. The other common name for the konjac noodle is shirataki noodle. It means "white waterfall" in Japanese, a moniker given because the noodles look translucent and almost like cascading water when poured into a bowl. These almost clear noodles don't have much taste or kilojoule content, but are delicious in a rich sauce like this one.

Faye James is a member of the Nutrition Council Australia and associate member of the Australian Menopause Society. She is the author of The Menopause Diet.