Recipe for vegan Greek pastitsio. A real surprise with black beans mince, béchamel with almond milk and olive oil, and crispy topping.
Course Main Dishes, Main Dish
Cuisine Greek / Vegan, Greek modern, Greek traditional, Ελληνική / Βίγκαν (vegan), Ελληνική Modern / Vegan
Keyword B12, almond milk, nutritional yeast, black beans, béchamel, lenten, whole wheat, pastitsio, plant based milk
Prep Time 50 minutesminutes
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Servings 12Pieces
Calories 325kcal
Author Thodoris Tibilis
Ingredients
Pasta
500 gwhole wheat pasta for pastitsioor penne or rigatoni
For vegan mince with black beans in tomato sauce
1cupraw black beanscanned
½kgtomatoesor 450 g canned
1onion
2clovesgarlic
½cupcelery(sliced)
½Florina pepper
¼cupolive oil
1Tbsptomato paste
1Tbspcacao powder
1tspunprocessed sugaror coconut sugar
½tspcinnamon
½tspsweet paprika
½tspturmeric powder(optional)
¼tspdried ground cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
For the vegan béchamel
1literalmond milkor soy or oat
1¼cupwhole wheat flouror all-purpose flour
½cupolive oil
½tspground nutmeg
3Tbspnutritional yeast (preferably with B12)(optional)
salt
For vegan topping (optional)
1largewhole wheat ruskor 3 small or 3 toasts
3Tbspnutritional yeast preferably with B12(optional)
¼tspground nutmeg
salt
Instructions
Preparation
Soak the raw black beans for 8 hours (or 2 in boiling water) and then boil them for 35 minutes or until soft, but not dissolved. If you use canned black beans, skip this step.
Bring pasta to a boil and in the meantime finely chop the onion, peppers and garlic, cut the celery into slices and grate or blend the tomatoes.
Mash half the beans with a potato press or a fork. Keep the rest of the beans whole.
Vegan soya mince
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium to high heat and sauté the onion, pepper and celery for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, mix well, add the tomato paste and sauté for another minute.
Add the tomato juice, cacao, sugar and spices. Stir well and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the beans (both mashed and whole ones), simmer for another 5 minutes and remove the pan from the heat.
Vegan béchamel
Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pot, over medium to high heat.
Slowly add all the flour, stirring constantly.
Once the flour is lightly cooked (it gets a slightly darker color and starts to smell, in about 5 minutes), add the almond milk, nutmeg and salt and mix for another 7 minutes or until it thickens a bit and becomes like a liquid cream. Once it's ready, add the nutritional yeast and stir.
Vegan pastitsio
Grease a medium baking pan (approximately 37x30x5 cm) and put in layers, the pasta on the bottom (sprinkled with a little olive oil and nutmeg), next the mince, then the béchamel and finally, optionally, sprinkle with the topping.
Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C/392°F for 40 minutes or until the béchamel gets a nice golden brown color.
Vegan topping
Crush all the ingredients for the topping in the mortar (or lightly in the blender). Don't crush it too much, as we need some larger pieces of rusk or toast to make it crispy.
Notes
To save time:
At the same time warm water in two pots. One for the beans and one for the pasta. With a kettle you can accelerate the process even more.
While the beans are boiling, prepare the vegetables for the mince and the topping.
Heat the olive oil in the pan, two minutes before you finish preparing the vegetables.
While the minced meat is boiling, prepare the béchamel.
Preheat the oven when starting the béchamel. That wayi t will be hot when the béchamel is ready and you will cook your vegan pastitsio immediately.
Instead of almond milk you can use soy milk. That way you will have a fluffier béchamel.About the pasta :
You can boil them in vegetable broth for extra flavor and nutrients.
You can boil them in water adding ½ tsp turmeric and 2 bay leaves. Thus, the pasta will have a light aroma and at the same time you take advantage of the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant action of turmeric.
When you add put them in the baking pan, you can mix with 4 Tbsp from your mince, olive oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg and nutritional yeast for extra flavor.
The vegan topping is optional. We recommend it as it creates a wonderful and crunchy crust with rich flavor, but also offers us the opportunity to enrich our vegan pastitsio with B12. Alternatively, you can use:
Crushed nuts.
Vegan topping from cashews. Blend ½ cup of cashews, 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and from ¼ Tbsp onion powder, garlic powder and sweet paprika.