Recipe: roasted chickpea 'tuno' pasta

This recipe by PBA member, Anita Bora, was published in The Outlook, dated May 2022. You can also find it it on page 14 of this document. 

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 cans of chickpea drained
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp hummus
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional; this gives the tuna texture/taste when combined with chickpea when mashed - avoid if you don’t want it)
• 1/2  cup of vegan butter (Miyoko’s or Kite Hill is great!)
• 2/3 cup of plain flour (substitution is GF flour)
• 1 cup of unsweetened, unflavored plant milk (I used almond)
• 1 white potato
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ cup of cashews (soaked for 2-3 hours)
• 2 garlic cloves
• Miso/pepper to taste (or use salt)
• 400 gms of elbow (I used Ancient Harvest gluten free; but any pasta of your choice)
• Oregano, dill, parsley, smoke paprika, sun-dried tomatoes (oil-free)  and breadcrumbs
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  Preparation
• Start by melting the vegan butter and whisking in the flour slowly; continue and then add the plant milk, lemon juice, miso/salt till it becomes a sauce-like consistency.
• In your blender, drop in the potatoes, soaked and rinsed cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic cloves, miso  and aquafaba (the liquid from the soaked chickpeas) and mix  till it becomes a smooth sauce. Then pour in the first sauce and combine both. You can also use plant milk instead of the aquafaba.   
• In a large bowl, put in the chickpeas, add the chia seeds (optional), hummus,  miso/salt, pepper, herbs of your choice and smash it down roughly.
• In a baking dish, add the cooked pasta and the chickpea mix and stir so it’s evenly distributed. Then pour in the sauce; make sure it’s a bit thick. You can thicken sauce by adding a bit more flour.
• Sprinkle herbs of your choice, chop a few sun-dried tomatoes.
• Bake in the oven at 375°F for around 20 minutes. Then add a layer of breadcrumbs and bake for another 5-10 minutes till the top becomes brownish. You can also  broil the top for a minute or two but make sure not to burn the dish!
• Let it cool down a bit. It thickens up so you should be able to cut it as a solid block. It tastes even better the next day!
• Serve with your favorite sauce, garnish with breadcrumbs, sundried tomatoes  and a serve with aside of greens. Delicious!
  
  Tips
• You can add more vegan butter/mayo to make this dish richer, but I find it delicious even without.
  
• Adjust herbs and salt/miso to taste.
  
• The chickpeas in the recipe is intended to mimic the taste and texture of tuna.  Remove the chia seeds if you don’t want the ‘tuna’ish taste. It tastes great even without!